SMITH COUNTY TENNESSEE
CARTHAGE GAZETTE AND FRIEND OF THE
PEOPLE
This is the earliest extant
newspaper for Smith
County, Tennessee. The original
publisher was Mr. William Moore of Carthage, and commences with the 13 August 1808 issue. There
is a lot of interesting information contained in these pages, and they reflect
the issues and concerns of the time. In
these pages you will find information not only on Smith County, but on the surrounding areas through such entries as
estray notices that come from finders outside of
Smith. Due to the limited number of
newspapers in print, it was not unusual for persons from one county to take out
notices in papers in other counties because they had no local newspaper options.
At some point I hope to
provide an index of names and locations to be found – but in the meantime, here
are the papers in their original form.
The
Carthage Gazette original records