Pine Bluff Daily Graphic

In 1887, Read Fletcher and T. H. Bass started the Pine Bluff Weekly Graphic newspaper in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County). Bass acted as business manager and brought his printing press from Redfield (Jefferson County) to Pine Bluff. Fletcher worked as editor, devoting the Graphic to the interests of Pine Bluff, Jefferson County, and the state of Arkansas, as well as the principles of the Democratic Party. The next year, Fletcher ran the paper on his own, publishing once a week on Saturdays. A few years later, he moved on to civil service, embarking on a political career that included election to the Arkansas House of Representatives.

In 1888, James White Adams bought the paper and expanded it to several editions published throughout the week. The various editions were reflected in the title, with the Graphic printing under the names Semi-Weekly, Weekly, and Daily. The daily edition moved from an evening to a morning paper over the years and appeared every day except for Mondays, with a special Sunday edition. The semi-weekly edition was printed on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The daily and semi-weekly issues were four pages, while the Sunday edition was eight pages.

Like the Graphic’s founder, Read Fletcher, James Adams was a politician and served two terms in the Arkansas Senate. He continued as editor and publisher until his sudden death in 1908.

In 1898, Adams hired Meyer Solmson to report the society news in Pine Bluff. Solmson was eighteen when he joined the Graphic but already had several years of newspaper experience. In 1894, he was the local agent for the evening edition of the Arkansas Democrat in Little Rock (Pulaski County). From 1896 to 1897, Solmson worked as the Arkansas reporter for the Commercial Appeal of Memphis, Tennessee. The Graphic noted that Solmson was always working hard. In 1895, he owned and operated a store selling “notions” (miscellaneous items), renting a place on Second Avenue in Pine Bluff. On June 10, 1895, the Graphic praised his efforts, writing that Solmson was “a bright clever boy, and one of these days he will be a merchant prince of this city.” As a member of the Anshe Emeth congregation, Solmson was involved in many of the Jewish community events and classes. In 1897, the year before Solmson joined the Graphic, Pine Bluff’s Anshe Emeth group became Arkansas’s first chartered Jewish congregation. The Graphic had long reported the local Jewish community’s society news and events, like the annual Purim balls.

In one of Solmson’s reports for the Graphic in 1901, he related that Carl Stubblefield Sr. had left town due to his large number of debts. Stubblefield later returned to Pine Bluff to find Solmson (who had resigned his position at the Graphic just a few months before to work as a salesman) and threaten him for writing the article. During their final confrontation, Stubblefield went to draw something from his hip pocket, but Solmson drew his gun first, shooting and killing Stubblefield. Solmson immediately went to the courthouse to surrender himself to the sheriff. Adams reported the incident in the Graphic and, in his editorial, correctly predicted that Solmson’s actions would be ruled self-defense.

After James Adams’s death, his brother, George Adams, took over the Adams Printing Company and continued on with the Graphic. By 1920, George Adams had five machines, including a new model No. 14 linotype. The Graphic grew with the town and was successful for years, but finally folded in 1942.

Over the years, the Adams brothers had supported the causes they thought were in the best civic interests of Pine Bluff. The Graphic focused on local and state news, with some reports about major international news, such as the Armistice of November 11, 1918. In 1904, an extra edition updated readers quickly after news came in about election results and fraud accusations in the votes for Arkansas governor (“Wood Concedes Davis a Majority on Face of Return”).

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 Pine Bluff Daily Graphic.

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.

“Pine Bluff Daily Graphic.” Chronicling America, Library of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89051168/ https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89051213/(accessed August 20, 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.