The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 384
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Southwestern Historical Quarterly and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Texas State Historical Association.
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Some Sarly (exas Yewspapers
WALTER McCAUSLAND
NTIMATE glimpses of pioneer life in Houston and elsewhere
in early Texas are revealed by some newspaper pages found
among the papers of a soldier of the Republic of Texas. These
rare and interesting mementoes include a complete copy of the
Morning Star of Houston for Saturday, November 23, 1839
(Vol. 1, No. 185), and the first two pages of the same paper
for Thursday, November 7, 1839 (Vol. 1, No. 172). According
to A. C. Gray,1 the Morning Star was the first daily newspaper
in Texas.
The Weekly Telegraph of Houston, influential newspaper of
the Republic and of early statehood, is represented by the first
two pages for Wednesday, May 9, 1855 (Vol. XXI, No. 9).
There are also title pages of the Weekly Confederate of Gal-
veston for September 29, 1855, the Tri-Weekly State Times
of Austin for November 16, 1853, and the Texian Advocate of
Victoria, for February 25, 1847. Gray says that the Texian
Advocate was the first newspaper to be published west of the
Colorado.
The Morning Star, dating back to within three years of the
first settlement of Houston in 1839, was "published daily, Sun-
days excepted, at the office of the Telegraph, at $12 per annum,
semi-annually in advance," by Jacob W. Cruger, who had bought
the Telegraph from Gail Borden in June, 1837. The editor at
the time of this issue in 1839 was John W. Eldredge.
The historic press on which the Star was printed had been
used by Borden when he first established the Telegraph at San
Felipe de Austin. A. C. Gray, who revived the Telegraph in
1874, says that, when Santa Anna's invading army approached
San Felipe, the printing office and equipment were moved to
Harrisburg, only to be overtaken there by the enemy. The
press was thrown into Buffalo Bayou but was later recovered,
cleaned, and set up in Houston, where it had many more years
of useful life.2
The Weekly Telegraph, founded by Borden in 1835, had a
1"History of the Texas Press," in Dudley G. Wooten (ed.), A Compre-
hensive History of Texas, II, 374.
2Ibid., 370.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946, periodical, 1946; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146056/m1/439/?rotate=0: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.