In February 1888, Edgar Waters leased the building, presses, and stock of the former Lebanon Herald.
[1] It was purchased a few months later by reporter E. E. Adams, and launched the following year as the Lebanon Democrat, a more partisan publication, featuring President Cleveland and his wife on the masthead.
[4] In 1964 it was sold to a new corporation founded by Carl A. Jones, publisher of the Johnson City Press-Chronicle.
The Democrat was the primary newspaper of record in Wilson County, Tennessee with local, national and international news coverage.
It was published five days a week — Tuesday through Saturday until June 1, 2018, when it became a three-day-a-week publication.