Did you know that Forsyth once had as its local newspaper, the Educational Journal?

Despite its name, it was a regular paper with news, advertisements, and commentary. It was published between 1855 and December 1865, when a fire in Forsyth destroyed its second-story office. Apparently, it never resumed publication.

William C. Wilkes, president of Monroe Female College, founded the paper and the Connecticut-born Isaac W. Ensign was editing it when the fire occurred.

Only one issue of the Educational Journal is known to exist today. It’s in the Boston Athenaeum, a thousand miles away from the place where it was published in August 1863.