Monroe County Appeal, Paris Mercury & Madison Times
Paris and Monroe County's oldest continuous commercial business!
Colloquially known as "The Appeal," the Monroe County Appeal, Paris Mercury & Madison Times is in its third century of operation. The newspaper and printing company has a long tradition of excellence and journalistic integrity in chronicling history of Monroe County.
The Monroe Appeal was first published in Monroe City October 8, 1865. Benjamin Franklin "Pappy" Blanton and E.M. Anderson purchased the Monroe Appeal in August 1873, changed its name to the Monroe County Appeal and moved the business to a second-floor rented office on Main Street in Paris.
Blanton bought full ownership in 1881. Pappy's son, Jack, was known both as "The Horse Editor" and "The Country Editor." In 1947 Jack and the Appeal received national recognition when the Saturday Evening Post magazine featured a two-page painting by Norman Rockwell of him, his staff and facilities along with several other pages of drawings and narrative. The painting hangs in the National Press Club in Washington D.C.**
Jack had one child, Edgar, who became the Appeal's business manager in 1919. After his father's death, he served as the paper's publisher.
Carter V. Blanton, Edgar's son, took control of the Appeal in 1979. He would end four generations and 119 years of ownership by the Blanton family, when he sold the Appeal to Dick Fredrick in 1992. Fredrick, a lawyer originally from St. Louis, moved to Paris from Jefferson City in 1986.
The Appeal is located at 230 N. Main Street, the former Paris Savings Bank building. The paper moved to the two-story site in January 1975 from a now-demolished structure that sat between the Monroe County Legion Hall and the Paris First Baptist Church.
--The Paris Mercury
Pioneer publisher Lucien J. Eastin founded Monroe County's first newspaper, the Missouri Sentinel, at Paris in 1837. The first issue was printed in a log cabin. In 1843 James M. Bean and John Adams purchased tthe paper and renamed it the Paris Mercury.
On Jan. 20, 1942 Alexander ceased publication of the Mercury and sold the 105-year old newspaper – the oldest paper west of the Mississippi under a continuous name – to the Monroe County Appeal.
--Madison Times
Madison’s first paper, the Watchman, started publication in 1885 by Charles Reed, but closed two years later. The Madison Times started in 1888 when J.E. Krebs published The Advance. Guy O. Leftwich changed the name in 1894 to the now-familiar Madison Times.
Appeal publisher Jack Blanton purchased half interest in the Madison Times in 1943 and acquired the late William M. Nolen’s other half interest in 1954. The Times was printed for 84 years until it ceased publication in 1972, and merged into the Appeal.