DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's got the story, and here's how I tell it — so settle in, because this one's got jail time, fire, and a hundred years of ink before we're done. New Year's Day, 1866. Two Confederate veterans — Dan McGary and John C.
Rankin — sit down and decide what Brenham needs is a newspaper. They call it the Southern Banner, and they launch it as a weekly. Bold move for a bold moment in Texas history.
Now, McGary was the editor, and editors who play it safe don't make much history. McGary didn't play it safe. His independent policies got him jailed that same year — 1866, the very first year of publication.
And if that wasn't enough, the shop and nearby businesses burned. You'd think that'd be the end of it. A man in jail, a shop in ashes, a brand-new paper barely off the ground.
But the Banner survived. It not only survived — it grew. By 1876, it had become a daily.
That's a thing worth letting sit for a moment. From a jailed editor and a burned shop to a daily newspaper in ten years. Then comes 1912.
George Neu merges the Banner with the Press, and just like that, the Brenham Banner-Press has its name. On staff that same year of the merger is a woman named Ruby Robertson. She was there in 1912, watching it all come together.
And then in 1917, Mrs. Ruby Robertson became the first woman in Texas to edit a daily newspaper. The first.
In the whole state. The decades keep rolling. Jim Byrd, production superintendent, has been on the force since 1921 — still there when this marker was placed in 1966, which means he watched more history get made than most folks can count.
And Ben F. Blanton, a newspaperman since 1939, became editor and publisher on February 1st, 1962. By 1966, that little weekly born in the ashes of Reconstruction had been telling Brenham's stories for a hundred years.
Started with two veterans, a printing shop, and enough stubbornness to survive a jail cell and a fire — and it just kept going.
What the marker says
(1866-1966) Founded Jan. 1, 1866, as weekly "Southern Banner", by Dan McGary and John C. Rankin, Confederate veterans. For his independent policies, editor McGary was jailed that year; shop and nearby businesses burned. But paper survived; became a daily in 1876. "Banner" was merged with "Press" in 1912 by George Neu. Mrs. Ruby Robertson, on staff in 1912, in 1917 became first woman in Texas to edit a daily. Jim Byrd, production superintendent, has been on force since 1921. Ben F. Blanton, a newspaperman since 1939, became editor and publisher on Feb. 1, 1962. (1966)