11Titles
Explore publications and collections from the past.
Community History Archive Partner
Johnson County Public Library
Inez, Kentucky
Explore this community history collection to discover the people, places, organizations, and events of Inez.
1864 to 2025Dates represented
See individual titles for available dates.
144,388Archive pages
Historical pages reported for this collection.
Explore local history
Discover the people, places, and stories of Inez, Kentucky.
Get to know Inez, Kentucky in earlier years through the newspapers shared in the Johnson County Public Library's digital archive. Its eleven titles include material from 1864 to 2025.
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Selected titles
Explore titles such as “Big Sandy News” and “Van Lear Herald”, shared by Johnson County Public Library.
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Free and open access
No subscription or payment required.
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A closer look
A familiar name or event takes on another dimension in the newspaper coverage of its time, alongside the stories that mattered to the readers of that issue.
Historical newspapers can connect a family name with the events and everyday concerns of an earlier time, offering more than a date or a name on its own. Bring a family connection, a question about a familiar place or an interest in local history, and see where the sources lead. Explore the archive online for free, without a subscription.
Explore the collection
Titles in this collection
Browse eleven titles and 144,388 digitized pages, with material from 1864 to 2025. A partnership between Johnson County Public Library and Advantage Archives makes this collection available. Some years or items may be missing between the dates shown.
Bring a person, place or date you recognize, and browse the titles below for a first clue in the story you want to follow.
Big Sandy News
9,084 pages from 1885 to 2004
Free South
4 pages in 1864
Louisville Times
16 pages in 1895
Martin County Herald
194 pages from 1932 to 1933
Oneida Mountaineer
4 pages in 1918
Paintsville Herald
59,961 pages from 1901 to 2016
Paintsville Herald News
689 pages from 1936 to 1937
Salyersville Herald
8 pages in 1915
The Paintsville Herald
74,350 pages from 1981 to 2025
The Paintsville Herald-Mountain Chronicle
48 pages in 1986
Van Lear Herald
30 pages in 1932
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About the Library
About Johnson County Public Library
The Johnson County Public Library, located at 444 Main Street, Paintsville, Kentucky, has been serving the local community for over a century. The Library offers a wide range of services and programs, including historical research, genealogy support, and community engagement initiatives. Since its humble beginnings as a pack horse library in the early 1900s, the Library has expanded into a vital institution for learning, community gatherings, and public service. Through continual renovations and updates, it remains a hub of innovation and education for all ages.
Library History
The History Of Johnson County Public Library
Library services in Johnson County began with the pack horse library initiative, first funded by John C.C. Mayo in 1913. May Florence Stafford was the first pack horse librarian, serving from 1913-1914 and later overseeing 12-15 pack horse librarians from 1938-1943 under the WPA program. The Library opened in a WPA building at the corner of Second and College Streets and eventually moved to its current location at 444 Main Street in 1970. Multiple renovations, including a major one in 2019, have transformed the library into a modern facility, equipped to meet the community’s evolving needs.
About the Community
About Johnson County, Kentucky
Located in Eastern Kentucky, Johnson County was founded in 1843 and has a rich history tied to coal mining, timber, and agriculture. Paintsville, the county seat, was established in the late 18th century and became a hub for industry and transportation with the arrival of steamboats and railroads. Today, the county is home to a thriving community with strong ties to its history and culture, supported by institutions like the Johnson County Public Library.
Local History
Did You Know?
Did you know that the Johnson County Public Library’s current location once housed the town’s first moving picture house in the early 1900s, complete with a pianist on site? Today, the Library stands as a modern facility but honors its past with features like a replica of the original bookmobile in the children’s area.
More ways to explore and share local history
Research Guidance
Follow a report into its setting
Start with something you would like to understand about the past of Inez. It might be a person, a neighborhood or an event remembered in your family. Use the digital archive shared by the Johnson County Public Library to follow that question into the historical record. When using historical newspapers, try alternate spellings and nearby dates, then read the surrounding page to place a local story in its time. Compare later reporting or another available title to explore different perspectives rather than treating one account as the whole story. Read the headline and neighboring articles as well as the matching lines. The surrounding page can show whether a report is local news, an editorial, or another kind of account; compare its details with later coverage where available.
Take a place or institution mentioned in a report as a new search lead. Check the issue date and read nearby articles to see how the setting is described. Preserve historical names and boundaries as written, and compare another dated reference before connecting the place to a present-day location.
Record which title, date, page, or item supports a useful lead. Mark unanswered questions before connecting it to a family or community story. A similar name can point you toward another source, but it is not proof of identity.
Community Partnership
Keeping local history a community resource
This community archive is made possible by the collaboration of the Johnson County Public Library, its community, and Advantage Archives. Together, these partnerships preserve local sources and give people a way to explore, learn from, and share the history around them.
Advantage Archives covers ongoing archive hosting, storage, development, and maintenance. The institution and its community do not pay a subscription, seat license, annual support contract, or other recurring archive-service charge. Local history remains a community resource, not a subscription to maintain.
Would you like to see more of your community's history preserved and accessible? Start a conversation with your library, newspaper publisher, historical or genealogical society, museum, or school about the materials they would like to share and a possible partnership with Advantage Archives.
Learn about partnerships
Stories, research tips, and archive news
Read All About It connects archive research with the people and institutions preserving local history. Explore partner and community stories, project updates, research ideas, and perspectives on digitization, education, and working with primary sources. Use the articles as a starting point for your next question or a new way to share a discovery.
May 7, 2025
Why Microfilm is still important in 2023
Preserving documents on microfilm has been a popular method of storage for many years, and it still holds many benefits today. Here…
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May 7, 2025
Don’t Search For An Obituary By Only Searching For An “Obituary”
In the quest to trace our roots and understand our heritage, obituaries often serve as a crucial starting point. Obituaries are undoubtedly…
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April 9, 2025
Unveiling the Hidden Mysteries: Exploring Cold Cases and Unconventional Clues
Even the most esteemed police forces in the county encounter perplexing cold case files. These unsolved mysteries often leave investigators and genealogists…
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April 1, 2025
This Week in History: March 31st through April 6th
Discover History in The Community History Archives. This week in history, there is absolutely nothing to talk about… April Fools! April…
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March 24, 2025
This Week in History: March 24th through March 30th
Discover History in The Community History Archives. It has officially been a year since I started writing This Week in History,…
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March 18, 2025
It’s Your Community’s History, So Why Rent Something You Own?
We believe that history belongs to the communities where it was made - not locked behind paywalls or inaccessible due to budget restrictions. Subscription-based services and large content aggregators are generally more concerned with "content" and less concerned with the history that content contains. Their models typically involve a reoccurring charge for a plan that renews annually or licensing agreements with the library based on population served or circulation numbers. You are essentially Renting Access To YOUR History.
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