''The Messenger-Inquirer'' is a local newspaper in

Owensboro, Kentucky Owensboro is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Daviess County, Kentucky, United States. It is the fourth-largest city in the state by population. Owensboro is located on U.S. Route 60 and Interstate 165 about southwest of Lou ...

. ''The Messenger-Inquirer'' serves 15,087 daily and 20,383 Sunday readers in five counties in western

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

History

The newspaper's roots trace back to 1875, when Lee Lumpkin founded The Examiner. The newspaper's name was later changed to the Messenger. The Messenger was purchased by the Hager family, owners of the competing Owensboro Inquirer, in 1929. By 1864, when

Thomas S. Pettit Thomas Stevenson Pettit (December 21, 1843November 29, 1931) was a newspaper publisher and politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. Orphaned at age ten, he found work in a printing house in his hometown of Frankfort. In 1864, he moved to Ow ...

purchased the paper, it had changed its name to ''The Monitor''.Connelley and Coulter, p. 158 Immediately after taking control of the paper, Pettit published a series of items vigorously criticizing the Republican Party and its policies during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

.''Biographical Cyclopedia'', p. 141 On November 17, 1864, Pettit was arrested on orders from General Stephen G. Burbridge on charges of being "notoriously disloyal" to the Union. He was taken to

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

, and transferred into

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

territory. In May 1865, he returned to Owensboro and found his print shop and printing press had been destroyed by federal authorities. He traveled to

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

to purchase replacement equipment and, on hearing the story of his arrest and subsequent travels, the equipment dealer extended him a generous line of credit, allowing him to purchase more sophisticated equipment than had ever before been used in Owensboro. With this new equipment, Pettit revived the ''Monitor'' and published his stories of wartime banishment, bringing him significant acclaim in Kentucky. Moreover, he also published editorials by future

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

Thomas C. McCreery, giving the ''Monitor'' further credibility and increasing its readership. The newspaper was purchased by A.H. Belo Corp. (then-owner of the

Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''Galvesto ...

) in 1997 for an undisclosed sum. Belo sold the newspaper to Paxton Media Group in 2000.Belo sells Kentucky daily
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References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Messenger-Inquirer, The Newspapers published in Kentucky Owensboro, Kentucky Publications established in 1875