The Commercial Appeal: A history

Memphis newspaper survives Civil War, yellow fever epidemic, economic change, now has largest circulation in the Mid-South

In 1841, Memphis was a rowdy, muddy Mississippi River town, barely 20 years old.

Col. Henry Van Pelt

That same year, a journeyman printer named Col. Henry Van Pelt published the first edition of The Appeal. Van Pelt printed the newspaper weekly on single sheets of paper in the wooden shack where he lived on the Wolf River.

Thus began the story of what today is the only newspaper published daily in Memphis, The Commercial Appeal. Owned by the Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Co., The Commercial Appeal serves Memphis and 71 counties in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi from a modern office building at 495 Union Ave. It is the largest-circulation newspaper in the Mid-South.

The Commercial Appeal is a Mid-South institution that for more than 150 years has survived the tragedy of civil war, the panic of an epidemic and the changes brought by an economy based on agriculture shifting to one oriented toward distribution of goods and services.

The Civil War presented the newspaper with its first major challenge. Choosing to voice its pro-Confederacy opinions in exile rather than endure silence during the Union occupation of Memphis, editor Benjamin Dill, his wife, America, and pressman John R. McClanahan packed up and moved the newspaper to safety in Grenada, Miss., 100 miles south of Memphis.

For three years, The Appeal's press clanked away all over the invaded and embattled South -- publishing from Jackson and Vicksburg in Mississippi, Montgomery, Ala., Atlanta, and finally in Macon, Ga.

When Union soldiers attacked the small Georgia town, they took the time to smash the newspaper's stands, type cases and proof press, destroying the voice of The Appeal.

But within six months, the war was over. The wandering newspaper staff returned to Memphis and The Appeal was reborn.

It took courage for Dill to leave Memphis so that the people, wherever they might be, could be kept abreast of the news.

In 1878, a new battle was raging in Memphis against a yellow fever epidemic. By then, The Appeal, a weekly, had become The Memphis Daily Appeal.

When the first case of yellow fever was diagnosed, fear spread as quickly as the illness. Even though the disease reduced the entire newspaper staff to only editor John McLeod Keating and one pressman, The Memphis Daily Appeal continued to publish, earning the nickname "Old Reliable" from its grateful public.

In 1890, The Memphis Daily Appeal purchased a rival and became The Appeal-Avalanche. On July 1, 1894, after another merger with The Memphis Commercial, the newspaper displayed the name it carries today -- The Commercial Appeal.

As Memphis headed into the 20th Century, The Commercial Appeal was becoming one of the most prestigious newspapers in the country. Its own correspondents covered international events. With its Sunday magazine well established, it was the first newspaper in the South to publish a Sunday comic section.

In 1923, The Commercial Appeal was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for "meritorious public service" because of its coverage of and editorial opposition to a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan. The newspaper also began a radio station the same year -- WMC -- which still exists today, although it is no longer affiliated with the newspaper.

With these and other achievements, The Commercial Appeal became the newspaper of record for the Tennessee-Mississippi-Arkansas region. It also attracted the attention of the Scripps Howard newspaper organization, which bought The Commercial Appeal in 1936.

The Commercial Appeal newsroom in February 1946.  (File photograph)

Editorially, The Commercial Appeal led effective battles for the establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority to control flooding and for the improvement of the Mississippi River Port of Memphis to provide industry and agriculture with a quicker and cheaper transportation and distribution system. The Plant to Prosper program brought farmers out of the one-crop system and into crop diversification.

The newspaper also campaigned for tax incentives and renovations toward downtown redevelopment and pushed for higher teacher pay in an attempt to upgrade area schools.

With the 1960s came the civil rights movement, and The Commercial Appeal was cast in the role of community unifier by editor Gordon Hanna. He tried to accomplish that goal by hiring black editorial staffers, objectively reporting the news and setting an editorial policy that established priorities for change.

Angus McEachran, editor and president

Today, Angus McEachran is editor of The Commercial Appeal, following a distinguished lineage of respected recent editors that includes Hanna, Frank Ahlgren, Michael Grehl and Lionel Linder.McEachran was born and raised in Memphis and started his journalism career at The Commercial Appeal in 1960, working his way up from copy clerk to assistant managing editor by 1977. In 1978 he became editor of the Birmingham Post-Herald. In 1983 he was named editor of The Pittsburgh Press, also owned by Scripps Howard. The Press won two Pulitzer Prizes during his nearly 10 years as editor.

The Commercial Appeal won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for editorial cartooning by Michael Ramirez. Also in 1994, The E.W. Scripps Co. named McEachran president of Memphis Publishing Co., in addition to his role as editor of The Commercial Appeal. On April 1, 2000, John P. Wilcox was named executive vice president and general manager of The Commercial Appeal. Wilcox had been publisher of The Ventura County (Calif.) Star.

McEachran's position as president is similar to the role of publisher at other newspapers. Known for his blunt manner and aggressive approach to news coverage, McEachran has not been active on community boards or in civic functions while serving as editor.

"Our quest for objectivity doesn't mean this company hasn't been supportive of community endeavors with money and in-kind contributions," McEachran said. "The company is part of the community, and a good citizen tries to return some portion of its rewards back to the community.

"Our primary reason for being," McEachran says, "is to tell people not only what happened, but why and how it happened and what may happen as a result.

"Straight, undiluted and in-depth reporting. . . presented so that you can make up your own mind on the issues, which is one of the beautiful things about a free and open society."