The Cash-Book Journal

The Cash-Book Journal is a newspaper from Jackson, Missouri. The newspaper was created in 1977 by a merger of the Jackson Journal and the Cape County Post and Cash-Book. Along with Missouri state representative Marvin E. Proffer (1931-2019), the newspaper was largely created by Gerald Wayne Jones (1940-2025) who served as Cape Girardeau County presiding commissioner from 1995 until 2011. His daughter Gina Raffety has been the newspaper's publisher. Gerald Jones also worked with Jerry Reppert to create Cape Central Publishing Company in order to print the newspaper.^[1] Jerry Reppert has owned as many as 18 newspapers near southern Illinois.^[2]

One of its previous versions The Jackson Journal existed between 1964 and 1976 while the other version The Cape County Post existed between 1918 and 1962 and previously existed as Deutscher Volksfreund between 1886 and 1918.^[3] The Deutscher Volksfreund, meaning a friend of the folks, was established on March 11, 1886, by Reverend John Frederick Kies, the first permanent pastor for Jackson Evangelical Church which was organized in 1867. Deutscher Volksfreund was a German-language newspaper. Kies began by purchasing the defunct printing outfit and set up in the second story of a building on High Street in Jackson, the former location of a blacksmith and wagon shop. The paper's motto was, "The Welfare of the Whole Contains Within Itself the Welfare of the Individual." In 1888, Reverend Kies temporarily moved to Kansas, and his son Fred Kies took over publishing duties with the assistance of William Schwartz who later became the owner of the Mississippi Valley Printing Company. In 1890, Reverend Kies was elected Cape Girardeau County Treasurer for two terms. In 1896, the newspaper moved to 107 East Adams Street in Jackson. In 1892, Reverend Kies sold his interest in the newspaper to his sons, Fred E. and J. G. Kies. Due to World War I anti-German sentiment, on July 14, 1918, the name of the newspaper was changed to The Cape County Post. On Friday, August 29, 1919, a mob gathered outside the Post with the intention of destroying all the German type; Kies decided to agree to relinquishing the German segment of the newspaper to prevent destruction and bloodshed.^[4][5]