Judsonia Advance

Edgar Curtis Kinney founded the Judsonia Advance in 1878. It began as an eight-page newspaper issued every Wednesday in Judsonia (White County). Originally listed as politically neutral, the Advance changed its political affiliation multiple times during its run. The Advance advertised as a newspaper devoted to religious, educational, literary, and local matters, and its motto was “Overcome prejudice. Let free thought and free speech be encouraged.” Through multiple mergers and changes of ownership, the Advance eventually morphed into the White County Record, which stopped publishing in 2015, when small-town newspapers across the state and country were vanishing.

In 1886, Kinney sold the paper to Berton W. Briggs. Berton Briggs and his brother Flavel G. Briggs ran the Advance as a politically independent newspaper under their publishing group, the Briggs Brothers. They published the paper until 1889, at which time they sold it back to Kinney. Kinney ran the paper variously as Republican and independent.

Edgar Kinney was raised in New York and worked for the circus, traveling around the United States before settling in Arkansas. After moving to Arkansas, Kinney was heavily involved in the Arkansas State Horticultural Society and fruit farming, a popular activity in Judsonia. He was an active Republican and president of the first Republican convention held in White County. He also served as mayor of Judsonia. In the late 1800s, he was the president of the Arkansas Press Association. One of his sons, Gilbert Earle Kinney, learned the newspaper trade from him and took over the Judsonia Advance in 1902. Around this time, the Advance’s title changed to the Judsonia Weekly Advance.

Gilbert Kinney ran the Weekly Advance as a Republican paper until 1908. In 1909, O. R. Rich bought the paper and continued running it with a Republican perspective until 1914. Ralph C. Mann Sr. owned the paper in 1915 and ran it as a Democratic paper until 1920. After purchasing the paper, Mann installed new printing machinery, including a cylinder press and linotype machine, and was able to increase his subscribers by the hundreds. In 1921, Mann changed the Weekly Advance to an independent affiliation and, in 1922, began publishing on Thursdays instead of Wednesdays. Mann’s final change was a major one: He combined the Advance with the Bald Knob Eagle (1921–1922) to form the White County Record, published by the Mann Printing Company. The White County Record continued to circulate into the twenty-first century, ceasing publication in 2015.

Beginning in 2017, the Arkansas Digital Newspaper Project (ADNP) team at the Arkansas State Archives partnered with the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), to digitize historic Arkansas newspapers, including the Judsonia Weekly Advance.

For additional information:
Allsopp, Frederick W. History of the Arkansas Press for a Hundred Years and More. Little Rock: Parke-Harper Publishing Co., 1922.

Goodspeed Publishing Co. Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas. Chicago, St. Louis: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1890.

“Judsonia Advance.” Chronicling America, Library of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89051126/ (accessed June 25, 2024).

“Judsonia Weekly Advance.” Chronicling America, Library of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91050157/ (accessed June 25, 2024).

Staff of the Arkansas Digital Newspaper Project
Arkansas State Archives

A version of this entry was initially published on both the website of the Arkansas State Archives and the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America project and is used here with permission.