A
key business in any business community is the newspaper that helps
other businesses advertise so they can stay in business. Covington has
had many newspapers over the past 150 years, but none have stayed the
course like the St. Tammany Farmer.
The
St. Tammany Farmer weekly newspaper began back in 1874. Here is a history of the Covington area publication.
For the "early history" of the newspaper, click on the 1905 article below.
The following is the narrative history of the St. Tammany Farmer newspaper, re-printed from the St. Tammany Farmer webpage.
St. Tammany Farmer Newspaper History
Compiled in 2014
More
than 142 years of continuous publication – from the last days of Civil
War reconstruction to the 21st century – is an achievement few
newspapers can claim, but The Farmer has
been St. Tammany’s hometown newspaper since 1874, when it was founded
by George Ingram, a Scotsman who came to New Orleans in 1855 and to
Covington in 1866.
The front page of the issue dated February 13, 1875, describes The Farmer as
“a weekly journal devoted to Agriculture, Railroads, Commerce,
Manufactures, and Education.” Subscriptions were $2 per year and paid
“invariably in advance.” It is assumed that Ingram’s desire to promote
St. Tammany’s agricultural interests was the inspiration for The
Farmer’s agrarian-themed name.
Ingram
died in 1875, and by October 1878 ownership of the paper had passed to
W. C. Morgan, a prominent resident of Covington and a descendant of
David B. Morgan, a general in the War of 1812 and an influential early
settler of St. Tammany Parish. Morgan’s tenure was short, since one
month later the masthead listed J. E. Smith (founder of a well-known
local hardware business) as proprietor and W. G. Kentzel as editor.
Kentzel eventually became the paper’s owner and served as editor until his death in 1907. A book by the late Carol Jahncke, titled Mr. Kentzel’s Covington, recalls Kentzel’s years as editor of The Farmer, and includes photographs and facsimiles of advertisements and articles that appeared in his many editions.
After
Kentzel died, the family continued to operate the paper for several
years, with D. H. Mason serving as editor. Mason was the son of a
Chicago newspaperman, and though he studied law, his ties to the
newspaper industry were strong. He became a reporter and worked at
several newspapers before coming to The Farmer.
Mason became the owner of The Farmer in 1916 and moved it to its current location, at 321 N. New Hampshire St. in downtown Covington, in 1924. He used the paper to promote the idea of a bridge across Lake Pontchartrain as a way to encourage economic development and he avidly encouraged his readers to spend their money in St. Tammany, rather than at south shore businesses.
In
1911, Mason hired a young Linotype operator, Howard Keener “Nat”
Goodwyn, who hailed from Colfax and was the son of the publisher of that
town’s newspaper. Goodwyn soon married Anna Thomasine Frederick,
daughter of Emile “Boss” Frederick, a prominent local businessman and
saloon keeper, who served two years as Covington’s mayor.
Linotype machines in operation
Mason died in 1928, and Goodwyn bought The Farmer
from his heirs. It remained in the Goodwyn family for many years, with
Nat at the helm until his health began to fail in the mid 1940s. At that
time his son Howard Keener Goodwyn joined the business and became The Farmer’s editor and assistant publisher.
Howard married Vera Fay Booth of Folsom in 1947 and their daughter Karen Booth Goodwyn was born in February 1949.
On December 1, 1949, while standing outside The Farmer office chatting with an acquaintance, Howard suffered a heart attack and died at age 29. Nat died two years later in 1951.
1970's
1970's
The younger Goodwyn died in December, 1949, after which Mrs. Goodwyn assumed the publishership of the newspaper.
The Goodwyns were active members of the Louisiana Press Association with Nat'" Goodwyn being elected president of the LPA in 1939. In that year Mrs Goodwyn helped organize the LPA convention, which was held in Covington.
In 1934 the Goodwyns built their Jahncke Avenue home, which was Mrs. Goodwyn's residence until her death in 1984. Mrs Goodwyn was one of the many members of the original Parent Teacher Assocation, and served as hostess for participants in the early annual parish basket-ball tournaments before there was adequate lodging available for the boys.
When Anna Goodwyn became publisher, she was not involved in the day to day operation of the newspaper. That responsibility fell to Vera Goodwyn, Howard's wife, who took over management of the business. She was joined in 1957 by Anna Natalie Goodwyn Hebert, Howard’s younger sister. Vera later married John Hardman.
Natalie Hebert and Vera Hardman in 1976
Mandeville Mayor Paul Cordes, at right, stops in to wish the
St. Tammany Farmer a happy 110th birthday in 1984, some 34 years ago.
While Vera and Natalie worked side-by-side to handle the business end of the paper, a long line of editors continued The Farmer’s
long-standing tradition of providing in-depth coverage of the lives and
events of St. Tammany Parish. Some of those editors over the years were
Jack Long Tannehill, Bob Landry, Ron Barthet, Les Landon, Butch Badon, Polly Greene, John H. Walker, and Andrew Canulette.
Natalie Hebert at left, Vera Hardman at right, with Mr. and Mrs. Paul Cordes
Natalie
retired in 1997, and that same year Nat’s granddaughter and Howard’s
daughter, now Karen Goodwyn Courtney and the wife of William V.
Courtney, became publisher of The Farmer. She had practically
grown up in The Farmer’s New Hampshire Street office and began working
there in the early 1990s when her young sons began school.
Setting headline type by hand
Since
its founding in 1874, the newspaper has focused on the events that are
the fabric of the history of St. Tammany Parish – the brickyards – the
schooners that plied Lake Pontchartrain bringing goods and people to our
communities – the shipbuilding – the timber industry that came from
the felling of the virgin pines that once covered the parish – the
coming of the railroad and electricity and telephones – the hospitality
offered to visitors who came to escape the heat of the city and to enjoy
the benefits of the ozone air – the boys who went to war – the
construction of the Causeway and the boom that followed – the opening
of schools, hospitals, and businesses and the expansion of government
services to meet the needs of a growing population – the devastation of
storms like Betsy and Camille and Katrina and the recovery that
followed.
The above history is re-printed for informational purposes from a webpage that is no longer accessible.
The above history is re-printed for informational purposes from a webpage that is no longer accessible.
Here are some photos of staff members of the St. Tammany Farmer newspaper through the years. Click on the images to make them larger.
1990's
1980's
1970's
Jean Taylor of advertising sales and Clarence Byers.
Bob
Taylor, left, served as linotype operator, composition room director,
and crime scene photographer. Sue Biggers, right, worked in the
composition room.
Murrell DeVeer and Brenda Willis
In 2012, a gathering of Farmer staff members from across the years.
Karen Courtney and Vera Hardman in 1996
This
is the old letterpress that was located in the back of the Farmer
office in 1976. It had been used for many years, along with a couple of
linotype machines (below), to publish the newspaper.
Linotype machines
Above is a photograph of the Farmer office at 321 N. New Hampshire Street before the exterior renovations done in the 1960's.
A set of drawers for headline type cases
Using
articles from the St. Tammany Farmer newspaper over the years, Carol
Jahncke wrote a book featuring the history of Covington. It was called
"Mr. Kentzel's Covington" and is available at the following link:
In 2012, Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge provided the following version of the history of the St. Tammany Farmer to the Library of Congress "Chronicling America" project.
St. Tammany Farmer
The town of Covington, Louisiana, is located on the north shore of
Lake Pontchartrain approximately 40 miles from New Orleans. It was
founded in 1813 and is the seat of St. Tammany Parish. Sparsely settled
during the French colonial period, the area was part of the British
colony of West Florida (1763-1783) and Spanish Florida (1783-1810).
At the time of the Civil War, most of Covington’s 500 residents were
engaged in the lumber and brick trade. The products were shipped to New
Orleans via the neighboring town of Madisonville, a regional center for
the construction of wooden barges, tugs, and sailboats. By the 1870s,
the once-rich timber resources of St. Tammany Parish were nearing
depletion.
The construction of the East Louisiana Railroad in the 1880s
facilitated the transportation of timber from outlying areas to
Covington for milling and aided in the town’s recovery, as did a 22-mile
rail line built across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, which,
along with a lively steamboat traffic, helped turn the North Shore into a
popular vacation and weekend destination for New Orleanians seeking
respite from the summer heat. Several resorts and sanitariums sprang up
in Covington, and by 1909, electric streetcars were running to nearby
Abita Springs, believed by some to be the site of Ponce de Leon’s
fountain of youth. Sailing excursions could be taken from the lakeshore
towns of Madisonville and Mandeville.
The St. Tammany Farmer was founded in 1874 by Scottish immigrant
George Ingram (ca. 1829-1875). John Edis Smith (1809-1893), an English
immigrant, acquired it in 1878. His daughter Susan V. Kentzel
(1855-1953) and her husband William G. Kentzel (1847-1907), a native of
Philadelphia, owned and edited the paper for many years. David H. Mason,
Jr. (1856-1928), son of a Chicago journalist and writer on economic
policy, succeeded William Kentzel as editor and eventually became
proprietor.
Democratic in its political leanings, the St. Tammany Farmer took
its motto from President Andrew Jackson: “The Blessings of Government,
Like the Dews from Heaven, Should Descend Alike upon the Rich and the
Poor.” The paper described itself as “a weekly journal devoted to
agriculture, railroads, commerce, manufactures, and education.”
From the 1880s onwards, it contained advertisements for hotels,
boarding houses, pleasure excursions, and other businesses associated
with the local tourism industry. By the turn of the 20th century, the
Farmer had expanded to eight pages and included an extensive fiction
section (later removed). As early as 1906, it was bringing deforestation
issues to light and calling for regulation.
During World War I, it reported on local Red Cross activities, war
lectures, and the influenza epidemic. Its first page also carried a
regular column titled “Items of Interest at Jahncke Shipyards in
Madisonville,” which reported on the construction of several large
vessels for the U.S. Navy. Also of interest are accounts of regattas and
yacht clubs, as well as brief sketches of “Prominent People and
Progressive Enterprises of St. Tammany Parish.”
A 1948 Editorial