Rusk Co. Newspapers

Submitted by: Gloria B. Mayfield, Rusk County CC

Coordinator: Dolores I. Bishop    

Much of Rusk County’s history is recorded in the columns of its early newspapers. These early journals were not always the hard, factual or concise publications that they are today. In scanning through the microfilmed copies of the Henderson Daily News, The Henderson Times, The Overton Sharpshooter, or the assortment of other short-lived papers, the reader takes notice of the trite sayings and the local color stories that were often submitted by the early editors. These earliest public records of our county serve as a storehouse of information on family and local history.

  The earliest newspaper to be mentioned in Rusk County records was The Times and Redlander Times, whose publisher was C.W. Canfield. This paper was not however a Rusk County publication. The Times and Redlander were printed in San Augustine County. C.W. Canfield being one of the earliest newspapermen in that area. This paper is mentioned twice in the Rusk County Commissioners’ Court Minutes of 1845. First, when Canfield received payment from the Town Commissioners for the printing of county documents. Second, when the commissioners placed an advertisement in The Times and Redlander for the sale of the town lots in Henderson.

The first Rusk County newspaper, for which we have record, was The Texas Statesman. The only existent copy is the first issue dated March 10, 1849. Richard C. Wheeler was the editor. The “news” in these early days was not necessarily comprised of the very latest happenings. Wheeler states in one of his editorials that it took him thirty days to receive his mail and newspapers from New York and three weeks from New Orleans.

  Business cards and public notices were a common inclusion in most every paper.Several such advertisements from this paper are cited below:

John McClarty attorney-at-law. Special attention paid to collecting claims against the United States arising from the late Mexican War.

McClarty was most qualified to represent the interest of Rusk County veterans of this war, as he had served as a captain of a company of volunteer troops organized in the county.

  It seems that the collection of personal debts has been an age-old problem in Rusk County. This paper is full of pleadings by creditors asking to be paid for their services:

  Take notice – To all whom these presents come. That I have been compelled to hire a good surveyor, to keep my office and he must have his fees. I am going to do my duty and I hope the people will do theirs, by paying the office fees as the law directs, for searching files, etc. No man can work for nothing and do his duty to his family, his county and himself, for he that does not provide well for his household is worse than an infidel. Ben A. Vansickle, District Surveyor for Rusk County.

  James Webster Flanagan founded The Star Spangled Banner in the late 1850’s. This newspaper was destroyed in the Henderson fire of August 5,1860. Flanagan never resurrected his paper from the ashes. Only two scant clippings exist to attest to the paper’s existence. An article from one of these clippings is included here, dated March 17 1857:

To All Whom It May Concern: I have for the last four or five years exposed myself to the pestilence that walketh the darkness and desolation that walketh at noonday, in relieving distress and curing diseases incident to suffering humanity in the counties of Rusk and Panola. For these services I have, thank the Lord, been paid by a few. A great many have not paid and now, reader, is the time to do so, if ever. Should you be one of the latter unfortunate ones, I entreat you by all the ties of nature; gratitude and grace – by all that is hoped and feared; by all that is sacred and profane; by things present and to come, to avail yourself of the first opportunity to come forward and pay me. If you will do so, I will pay all my little debts. James E. Smith M.D.

The East Texas News Era, was published by S.G. and Leon Swan, was begun in 1857, and “went out of business” on August 5,1860, with the Henderson fire. The editors espoused the American Know-Nothing Party.  No copies of this paper are known to have survived.

The East Texas Times began publication in 1853. S.B. Johnson was its founder and J.B. Dodson served as the editor. As the population of the county grew, news was centered more and more around the events that were happening in the county seat. In the early 1860’s, the name of the paper was changed to The Henderson Times. This paper was successively operated by Tom C. Arnold, James G. Garrison, George Gould – with George Washington Diamond as editor, and Colonel R.T. Milner. Milner served in the Texas Legislature and was Speaker of the State House in 1890.He later served as President of Texas A.& M. University. S.L. Ramsey then acquired the paper he later became County Judge. Garland R. Farmer Sr. took over The Henderson Times in 1927. It remained his life long interest until his death in 1956. The late Laborn P. Conway was the paper’s last owner. The Henderson Times ceased publication with the Bi-Centennial edition in 1976. At the time of his demise, The Times was the oldest weekly newspaper still in circulation in the State of Texas, although it was then being printed on the presses of The Henderson Daily News.

“Tolerant in all things, neutral in nothing”, was the slogan for The Henderson Times paper as early as 1879. While newspapers carried the news from all over the county, they were also inclined to lean quite heavily on local color stories, and gossipy articles were often found in abundance. The paper made no effort to conceal the rowdy nature of some of the town’s citizens, as is evidenced from the following excerpt from a February 1860 issue of the paper:

Henderson has been this week the theatre of fun and frolic, storm and stampedes, logic and  liquors, speeches and spectacles, auctions and ambrotypes, lawing and lounging, shooting and shouting, etc. All of which passed off without anyone being injured and to the delight of all lovers of the ludicrous. The most interesting happenings were: Four blacksmiths shops exploded, a (Black) fell down and broke his nose and several white men got tight. It being a court week, spirit you all is-‘em was preached and practiced and Bacchus was worshipped with a feeling of devotion.

The Henderson Times was a hearty paper, surviving for more than one hundred years, and enduring hardships imposed by the Civil War. During the war, paper became a precious commodity. In 1864, The Times went to print on old ledger sheets. The East Texas Times, just two years earlier, printed this notice on March 1,1862:

This number will complete the second volume of The East Texas Times. We have on hand a sufficiency of paper to publish the present “war size’ till the 15^th of August next… Those desiring The Times for this period can be accommodated by the payment of six bits in advance and on no other terms.

The Henderson Times was also called upon by the Commissioners Court to provide additional printing services during the war. The county authorized The Times to print “county script”, for the relief and benefit of the widows and orphans of Rusk County soldiers, who were left destitute by the absence or death of their husbands and fathers. The script was used for money, backed by the county and payable in “Confederate currency”. style="mso-spacerun: yes">  

Immediately following the war J.M. Dodson of The Times was authorized by the Commissioners Court, on January 1,1866, to print notices for the election of delegates to the state convention for the purpose of drafting the State’s Reconstruction Constitution. Dodson Was also authorized by the commissioners to print a proclamation issued by the Reconstruction Governor of Texas pertaining to the State’s “Freedmen” or former slaves.

Among other early Henderson papers was The Henderson Democrat, for which records of publication exist from February 1855 to June of 1857. Matthew Duncan Ector was the publisher. Ector became a noted Civil War General and later served as a District Judge in Rusk County. James Estell and W.T. Sparks were also associated with this paper.

The Flag Of The Union with William Messenger and a Mr. Armstrong, as publisher and editor, was begun in 1854. The Southern Beacon, with John McClarty as editor, was published between 1858 and 1859. In 1868, The Texas Farmer was begun by J.M. Dodson and W.K. Marshall.

There was also the East Texas Beacon, for which no date of printing is available. This paper was the forerunner of The Rusk County News, which began publication on November 25,1880. O.W. Dodson and Edwin W. Harris were publisher and editor. Printing was done on an old George Washington hand press, one copy page at a time. During the 1890’s the offices of the paper were located on the northwest corner of the square in Henderson, on the style="mso-spacerun: yes">    second floor of the Mims’ Building, now occupied by Evelyn’s Fashions. The paper later moved across the street to the vicinity of the old Citizen’s National Bank Building. This lot is now occupied by The Henderson Insurance Agency. The Rusk County News was purchased in 1892, by Dick Randolph Harris Eventually it was absorbed into the Henderson Daily News. The Daily also printed The Henderson Morning Herald. The latter appeared only for a brief time, approximately three months, and only on Sundays.

Dick Randolph Harris was the younger brother of Edwin. He began his newspaper career as a “printer’s devil” with his brother’s paper, The Rusk County News, at the age of thirteen. Dick Harris remained at the helm for more than forty years. Today, in 1989 The Henderson Daily News remains as the only local newspaper serving Henderson. It began as a daily on March 30,1931.

Other towns in Rusk County have had their own newspapers. In 1912, the Reverend Thomas Marshall Kinsey began publishing The Tatum Progress. It was to last six years. Kinsey, a Baptist preacher who had come to Tatum the year before on another business trip, had struck up a conversation at that time with one of the town’s leading citizens, Willis Knox Menefee on the need for a newspaper to serve the Tatum area. Five hundred dollars was subscribed from the local merchants with which to finance the paper. An old Washington hand press was purchased by Kinsey from The Garland News. John Nash worked for the paper as a “printer’s devil”. The first issue made its appearance on the streets of Tatum on January 17,1912. The paper came out as a weekly and had eight pages with five columns per page. The subscription rate was one dollar a year. Among some of the first advertisers were: Mullins Bros. Drug, Swinney Bros. Livery Stable and the First State Bank of Tatum.

The Tatum paper was never a profitable business. The Reverend Kinsey, in addition to filling the pulpits of several Baptist churches in the area, also worked part time as surveyor and sold insurance for his livelihood.

The subscription list for The Tatum Progress never exceeded four hundred. Merchants were also slow to advertise. Kinsey ran an advertisement in the paper himself to help boost circulation and business:

“The codfish lays a million eggs,

  While the helpful hen lays one  

  But the codfish doesn’t cackle,

  To inform us what she has done.

  And so we scorn the codfish coy

  While the helpful hen we prize

  Which indicates to thoughtful minds, 

  It pays to advertise.”

Despite Kinsey’s efforts the paper could not economically survive. It ceased publication in 1917. Tatum is currently served by the Trammell Trace Tribune, a weekly paper published and edited by Cecil Williams.

The Mount Enterprise Progress began publishing on May 1,1919, replacing the Mount Enterprise Herald which ceased circulation in 1917. Mr. W.H. Compton was the first publisher and editor of The Progress. This paper continued to serve the community under the management of his heirs for more than sixty-five years. Mr. Joe Compton edited the paper through the 1970’s. Following his death his widow, Nellie, took over his duties and operated the paper until it ceased publication in 1987.

The town of Overton grew up around the International and Great Northern Railroad Line in 1872. By 1876, The Overton Herald had made its appearance. R.A. and L. Motley were the publisher and editor. Next came The Enterprise, begun circa 1880 by W.R. Handley. Then there briefly followed The Overton Opinion and The Overton Observer. All of these papers were apparently short-lived.

In the early days of the newspapers, advertisers often paid for their advertisements “in kind” or by “scripts and trade-offs”. This involved an exchange of goods, services or favors such as: hotel accommodations, railroad passes, theatre tickets, etc., in lieu of payment for printing charges. Profits for the papers therefore remained small. Perhaps this is why so many papers failed and why those that survived changed hands often.

From 1886 to 1888, Sharp R. Whitley published The Overton Sharp Shooter. Whitley used many local color stories in his paper. An example is given below, taken from the March 6,1886 issue:

Will H. and Will T. after negotiating with the liveryman for one horse and a buggy and borrowing another horse after much trouble, they grandly rode out to their girls’ house by themselves – their papas remained home – and found them not expecting them. Will T. says he tried to prevent the catastrophe by placing one of his pedals on the brake while in deep sand and placing his yardstick wielders on the line with a firm grip, hallooed “W-h-o-a”. It was all over within a few minutes and a defunct seat was the result. The two Bills (the boys) were rejoiced to know that they got their girls home safe and after counting their money several times to find out that they had enough to pay for the buggy and damages by standing off their washerwoman. They are low-spirited, and vow most vehemently that the girls from this on will have to honor them with buggy rides – they have the buggies- if they indulge. There is nothing like a little sauce for lovesick swains. 

The Sharp Shooter was bought out by L.C. Demarre in 1888. He renamed it The Overton Record in 1889. No copies of the Record are known to exist. Apparently the Overton area was without newspaper coverage for many years. The Overton Telegram, which ceased publication in 1922, was begun by R.B. Weatherall. This paper was succeeded by the current Overton Press, established about 1930, by a Mr. Roberts from Wichita Falls, Texas. Successive publishers and owners of the paper were: Mr. Henry Foster, Mr. Henry Edwards of Tyler, G.W. Manning and Bill Ellman. The paper is currently owned and operated by Douglas and Florence Reeh.

Each of the three surviving newspapers in Rusk County has a rich heritage in the past and an equally important obligation to the future to preserve each and every issue that has or will go to print for the benefit of all citizens of the county. Jim Robertson, former publisher and editor of The Henderson Daily News has undertaken the responsibility to have all available back issues of this paper, and its predecessor, The Rusk County News, microfilmed and made available to the public through the Rusk County Memorial Library at Henderson. The Rusk County Genealogical Society has searched out and obtained all existent-microfilmed copies of The Henderson Times and early Rusk County Newspapers as well for placement in the library.  By John R. Dulin