Have you ever wondered why Lawrence County’s oldest newspaper is called the ‘Democrat-Union?’ And what connection does James D. Vaughan, the father of Southern Gospel music, have to the name of the paper?

The answer is that it was once two separate and distinct newspapers. In late 1925, the owner of the Lawrence ‘Democrat’ purchased the “plant and business” of the Lawrence ‘Union,’ both of which had served Lawrence County since the 1880s. The reason? James D. Vaughan, the father of Southern Gospel music, was publishing a rival newspaper at the time known as the Lawrence ‘News.’

In their farewell editorial on December 23, 1925, Charles T. Crawford and Joe Schade, the respective owners of the ‘Democrat’ and the ‘Union,’ explained that they had arranged the merger because they felt that the businesses and people of Lawrence County had been unnecessarily financially burdened by the existence of three newspapers, and that by merging the papers, they believed they could strengthen the community.

Although, according to Schade and Crawford, they both lost money in their quest to help the community. In their own words, “….the facts are that Mr. Schade sold the plant and business for less than it was worth, and Mr. Crawford bought something that he did not need, and at a price consequently that he could not well afford to pay, simply in order to lessen the burden of three papers.”

And so, eighty-nine years ago this month, on January 13, 1926, the first issue of the paper was published under its new name of ‘Democrat-Union.’ This image shows the first time the new name was used on the paper’s masthead.

The first issue of the newly-named ‘Democrat-Union.’