The Hunterdon County Democrat

The Hunterdon County Democrat is a weekly newspaper that serves Hunterdon County, New Jersey. Currently owned by Penn Jersey Advance, Inc., its offices are in Raritan Township. It is one of the largest paid weekly newspapers in New Jersey, with an estimated total circulation of more than 21,000. It is published every Thursday.

The first newspaper to serve Hunterdon County was the Hunterdon Gazette and Farmers' Weekly Advertiser, established at Flemington on March 24, 1825, by Charles George, who shortened the paper's title to the Hunterdon Gazette in 1829. He discontinued the Gazette on May 2, 1832, but retained his shop in Flemington and periodically published issues of the paper. George sold the Gazette to John S. Brown, who returned the paper to weekly publication beginning with his first issue, published on July 18, 1838.

On the Gazette's editorial page, Brown state that he was "'an old-fashioned Democrat,' which was in reality an admission that he was a Whig and opposed to the Jacksonian administration." While the Gazette retained a strong readership among Whigs and independents, Hunterdon County had become Democratic with the election of Andrew Jackson as president in 1828.

In 1838, the same year that Brown bought the Gazette, a rival newspaper appeared under the name Hunterdon Democrat. The Democrat's editor, George C. Seymour, ensured that his newspaper held to the principles of the Democratic Party. Within months, the rival editors began making personal attacks on each other in addition to their sniping on political topics. However, it "took more than politics to support a newspaper. The fight between Brown and Seymour was essentially one of trying to win readers and advertisers."

In 1843, Brown sold the Gazette to John R. Swallow. The new owner hired Henry C. Buffington as editor. Earlier in his career, Huffington had worked at Philadelphia area newspapers with Seymour, the Democrat's owner and editor. "Seymour did not welcome his old colleague to Flemington" and within months he initiated a new personal feud. Early in 1944, Swallow sold the Gazette to Buffington, then moved to Lambertville where he started a newspaper. This venture lasted only three or four years before Swallow sold out and headed west.

"In the meantime, Seymour of the Hunterdon Democrat and Buffington of the Hunterdon Gazettepursued their respective ways without much change or improvement. ... Actually, both editors were probably skating on thin financial ice at all times."

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