Mount Pleasant Area Newspaper Collection

About the Collection

The Northern Standard newspaper in Clarksville covered Mount Pleasant news in the mid-1800s. After the turn of the century, local newspapers appeared including The Mount Pleasant Times and, finally, today’s newspaper, The Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune. Digitization of the local papers was begun with a generous grant from the Ladd and Katherine Hancher Foundation.

History

Northeast Texas was originally inhabited by Caddo Indian tribes. By the 1830s pioneers began to arrive and settle in what is now Mount Pleasant. The name is attributed to the Caddo Indian burial mounds and their reference to the area as “Pleasant Mound.” By 1850 the settlement was given the name Mount Pleasant and was considered the seat of area government.

Mount Pleasant began to grow because of the road to the Port of Jefferson. Local farmers and merchants could get their goods to and from Jefferson. In 1850 the population was 277. The next big jump in population arrived with the first railroads. By 1890 the population had grown to 963. The railroad continued to bring goods and people to Mount Pleasant.