Stories of the South - Macon Beacon

The Macon Beacon newspaper was established in 1849 and although it wasn't the first newspaper in the county, it has set itself apart by continuing operations through current day.

I found an interesting article online from the United State Congressional record from June 14, 1999 about the 150th anniversary of The Beacon shared by Trent Lott to Congress.  You can read the statement HERE.

To sum up the article The Beacon was founded July 1849 by E.W. and Henry C. Ferris when the county was only 16 years old.  It continued to be owned and edited by the Ferris family for the next 123 years.

I also found a book through Google books (Mississippi Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons Arranged in Cyclopedic Form Edited by Dunbar Roland Director, Mississippi Department of Archives and History 1976 printing from the original 1907 edition) that says the original name of The Beacon was the Noxubee Rifle and was founded by Edward Ferris.  When his brother H.C. Ferris bought the paper he changed the name to the Macon Beacon.

We subscribe, but I would have loved to have seen it in it's heyday.  Now it's only a few pages with the majority being advertisements and sports.  Scott Boyd who is the current editor does a great job with a small town paper and takes great photographs.

Growing up my grandparents took the Times Post which was the paper for Houston, MS.  It was bought out several years ago by a larger newspaper and is now the Chickasaw Journal and covers Houston and several other small towns in the area but it's not the same.

So long live local newspapers!  Subscribe to yours if you can.  It's a dying business, but hopefully it can hold on for a few more years because let's face it, there's nothing like seeing your name or your picture in the paper.