Newspaper Office - The Democrat

St. Francisville has always had at least one newspaper ever since James M. Bradford established The Time Piece in March 1811. In this paper Bradford reported the first steamboat on western waters as it passed Bayou Sara in 1812, and when he sent back dispatches from the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, he became this country's first war correspondent. A lawyer as well as a printer, Bradford was prominent in parish affairs and a favorite speaker at Fourth of July orations.

Thirteen newspapers were published in St. Francisville and Bayou Sara from 1811 to 1893 when The True Democrat began as an anti-lottery voice. Its widowed first editor married Elrie Robinson, who became nationally known as The Horse and Buggy Printer and whose collection of antique type faces is now in the New York Public Library. His second wife was Margaret Wood Robinson, indefatigably public-spirited. Together they published and disseminated much valuable local history. In 1976 The Democrat was now published by David and Marilyn Goff and edited by Gary Couvillion.

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