Nearly three decades before The Wilson (North Carolina) Times’ first edition rolled off the press in February 1896, Primitive Baptist elder Pleasant Daniel Gold started a denominational newspaper called Zion’s Landmark. The thriving family print shop built around that publication enabled his son, John Daniel Gold, to launch The Wilson Times.
“I believe this newspaper has been blessed and guided by God. In fact, I don’t believe — I know,” says Morgan Dickerman III, the fifth-generation family owner of the paper. “I’ve become a lot stronger in my faith in the last six months, and I’m not ashamed of it.”
The Thought for Today, a devotional consisting of a Bible verse and prayer, has long been a fixture on the Times’ opinion page, sharing space with the masthead that lists the newspaper’s ownership and management.
Founded as The Wilson Times, the newspaper published weekly, then grew to twice weekly. In 1902, it began publishing every day except Sunday and became The Wilson Daily Times. Dickerman restored the original name in 2008, reasoning that “daily” could seem dated in the digital age when news is reported continuously on WilsonTimes.com.
One of John D. Gold’s daughters, Elizabeth Gold, married Fred Swindell, a prominent Wilson lawyer whose father was a Methodist minister. Her career at the Times began with a tragic twist of fate.
“Fred died at a very early time in their marriage,” Dickerman said. “She was young and she had to go back to work, so she went to work for her dad at the newspaper.”
Elizabeth Gold Swindell would become the Times’ matriarch, working from 1933 until her death in 1983.
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