Malvern Daily Record

In 1916, Julian Heard Beerstecher and his wife, Kate Brice Beerstecher, moved to Malvern (Hot Spring County) and founded the Malvern Daily Record. It began as a four-page paper and eventually grew to an average of seven pages. The Beerstechers published the paper every day except Sundays. The Record was politically Democratic and focused on local community news, but it also reported some national and international events.

Before moving to Malvern, Julian Beerstecher worked at the Arkansas Gazette and then as printing clerk in the state auditor’s office. Beerstecher was an active Democrat and prominent in Malvern civic life. While publishing the Record, he also worked as the Malvern city clerk and later served as president of the Arkansas Press Association. In December 1916, Beerstecher leased the Malvern Times-Journal (1913–1923), and he briefly ran both the Times-Journal and Daily Record. In 1947, the Beerstechers remodeled an office building and purchased a new typesetting machine for their printing business. Julian Beerstecher worked on the Record until his death in 1948.

After Beerstecher’s death, his wife and daughters owned and operated the Record, with Kate Beerstecher acting as publisher, Frances A. Beerstecher as editor, and Alix Beerstecher Butler as business manager. Kate Beerstecher was a charter member of the Arkansas Newspaper Women’s Association (now the Arkansas Press Women), which was established in 1949. The Record won third place in a national competition for the editorials written by Frances Beerstecher. When Kate Beerstecher died in 1967, her daughters continued running the paper. The next year, the sisters retired and sold the paper to William Robert (Bill) Whitehead Sr. and Ray Kimball. In 1969, the Record changed to Tuesday through Saturday publication. The paper was later purchased by Horizon Publications, Inc.

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 Malvern Daily Record.

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

Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Central Arkansas. Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1890.

“Malvern Daily Record.” Chronicling America, Library of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85032972/ (accessed May 8, 2024).

Meriweather, Robert W. A Chronicle of Arkansas Newspapers Published since 1922 and of the Arkansas Press Association. Little Rock: Arkansas Press Association, 1974.

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.