Richmond Registers history begins in 1809

The Richmond Registers history goes back more than 200 years to when Richmond was incorporated as a city.

Richmonds earliest newspaper was The Globe Register, first published Nov. 2, 1809, by Dr. Thomas White Ruble, a Virginian who came to Richmond in 1805. Ruble owned the paper for a year before selling to John A. Grimes, who changed its name to The Luminary.

The paper was sold to Joe Turner in 1816, who in 1822 changed the name to The Farmers Chronicle. Competition came in 1822 when The Richmond Republican began publication. Third newspaper, The People's Press, started in 1827. The Chronicle was sold again in 1829. Col. William Neale bought it from Turner for $1,000. In 1845, editor Thomas I. Goddin changed the name from The Farmers Chronicle to The Whig Chronicle, which found competition from 1847 to 1859 from The Kentucky Plowboy.

J.M. Shackleford and S.V. Rowland were proprietors in 1852 and again the papers name was changed, this time to The Weekly Messenger.

In 1851, Col. R.H. Johnson, who had successfully published The Western Whig in central Illinois, came to Richmond and bought Rowlands interest in The Messenger. He later bought Shacklefords interest and made The Messenger the largest circulated paper in Kentucky outside Louisville.

The paper was sold again in 1858 to a joint stock company but ceased to be published in 1862, apparently on account of the Civil War. In September of 1862, another paper, The Kentucky Rebel, was published in Richmond, but only one issue was published during the Confederate occupation of Richmond.

Other papers that appeared in Richmond during the war years included The Mountain Boomer by Barney Young and The Mountain Democrat.

The year 1866 saw The Kentucky Register appear in Richmond. It was followed by The Herald in 1879, which was replaced by The Climax. The 1890s saw three papers being printed in Richmond: The Kentucky Register, The Climax and The Semiweekly Pantograph.

Other papers started in Richmond in the early 1900s include The Madisonian published by Judge Grant E. Lilly and The One Timer by Preston Smith.

In 1917, S.M. Saufley purchased The Climax and The Kentucky Register and created The Richmond Daily Register.

Saufley would sell half interest of the paper to Keen Johnson, who became editor and president of the paper. Saufley died in 1942 and his son, Shelton M. Saufley Jr., became co-publisher with Johnson and T.B. Challinor as partners.

Johnson was the editor of The Richmond Daily Register until he was elected governor of Kentucky in 1939. Challinor was general manager of the paper until his death in 1965. His son-in-law Ben Tureman then succeeded him.

In 1970, the paper changed hands again. Frank Helderman Sr. of Alabama bought the paper and named Randall Shew publisher.

Helderman sold the paper to the Thompson Corporation in 1985. Thompson owned the paper for 10 years before selling to American Publishing, a subsidiary of Hollinger International, in 1995.

Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI) bought the Register in 1999. The Richmond Register has won numerous awards from the Kentucky Press Association, including the General Excellence Award for newspapers under 10,000 circulation in 2006 and 2010. It won second place in 2012 and 2013.