John Robert Brandon was the founder of the Fulton Sun with the first edition published on March 26, 1888. Having been trained as a compositor on the Fulton Telegraph, he started his new endeavor from a room at the rear of Moore's Drug Store.
Wallace Williams had become the editor of the Fulton Telegraph after his father's death in 1882. Williams and Brandon were brothers-in-laws as Williams was married to Brandon's younger sister, Laura. But Williams was unhappy with his paper's support. He wished Brandon well and sold the Telegraph to John P. Bell that same month in 1888.
Brandon faced significant competition with another newspaper, the Callaway Gazette. It had been published for 11 years by Nick D. Thurmond and John J. Rice with James Irvin Nichols as editor.
Anna Patricia Williams Jaech, great-granddaughter of Wallace and Laura Williams, shared some of John Brandon's history for our records.
John Robert Brandon was born in 1852 near Guthrie to Francis Brandon and Anne Catherine Bennett Brandon.
At the age of 16, John went to work helping his father operate a livery stable. By 1872, he worked on the Chicago & Alton railroad. His next job, in 1876, was with the St. Louis Republican newspaper followed by a short stint in New York with the Herald newspaper. He returned to Callaway County, then back to the St. Louis paper. After a short time, he returned to the railroad work.
In 1886, he went to the Dakota Territory and then returned to Fulton in 1888 to start his own newspaper. He tried North Dakota again in 1908 but stayed only a month. Anna states perhaps his restlessness was due in part to a lost love, as he never married. John Robert Brandon died April 12, 1920, and is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery.
The Fulton Sun is a conglomeration of various newspapers that have served Callaway County communities since 1875. It combines and continues the traditions of the Kingdom Daily Sun-Gazette, the Kingdom Daily News, Fulton Daily Sun-Gazette, Mokane Missourian, Callaway County Gazette, the Missouri Telegraph and the Banner of Liberty. The current editor is Jenny Gray and the paper is part of Central Missouri Newspapers, which also includes the News Tribune in Jefferson City and the weekly California Democrat.