Biography:

The Kentucke Gazette (later changed to Kentucky Gazette) was established in Lexington by John Bradford in 1787. It was the first newspaper printed in the Kentucky colony. In its early days, Bradford labored on the publication virtually alone, writing the content, setting the type, and printing it by hand, only later hiring an editorial and printing staff including his son, Daniel Bradford, in 1802. The paper’s early issues were often commented on the colony’s bid for independent statehood from Virginia, which it achieved in 1792; Bradford was then appointed the first public printer of the new state. Throughout his tenure on the paper, Bradford published “personal journalism,” commenting on his own experiences on the paper and in Lexington, and printed columns written by local personalities. Ownership of the The Kentucke Gazette was passed down through the Bradford family until it went defunct in 1848.