DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it — and that marker's been standing in Taylor County since 1981 — this is the story of the oldest existing business institution in Abilene, Texas. Pull up a chair, because this one's got fire, a duel, and a delivery boy who ended up running the whole show. The town of Abilene was barely three months old when C.
E. Gilbert decided it needed a newspaper. Three months.
The ink on the town itself was still wet. On June 17, 1881, he printed the first edition, and just like that, Abilene had a voice. Then the fire came.
A blaze tore through several buildings in town — Gilbert's office among them. Now, a lesser man might've called that the end of the story. Gilbert called it a deadline.
He climbed on a train, rode twenty-one miles east to Baird, borrowed somebody else's presses, and published an extra edition about the very fire that had just burned him out. You cannot make that up. Well, you could.
But you don't have to. The 1880s brought competition. A part-time preacher by the name of W.
L. Gibbs started the Magnetic Quill in 1882. Then, three years later, Gilbert's own printer — a man named James L.
Lowry — started the Taylor County News. When your printer leaves to start a rival paper, things are bound to get interesting. And they did.
One of Lowry's early editions covered a duel between Gilbert and Gibbs. A duel. Between the newspaper man and the preacher.
Both of them survived, which is good, because the story needs witnesses. The Reporter passed through several hands after Gilbert — Dr. Alf H.
H. Toler, John Hoeny Jr., George S. Anderson, and then a man named Marshall Bernard Hanks.
Now here's where the story gets its turn. Hanks had once been a delivery boy for this very paper. He came up through the route and became publisher, holding that position from 1906 to 1948.
Forty-two years? No — I won't do that arithmetic on you. The years speak for themselves.
In 1911, the Reporter bought the News — Lowry's old rival paper — and the two merged into the name you know today: the Reporter-News. Hanks and Houston Harte of San Angelo eventually joined forces to form the Harte-Hanks organization, now a national communications firm — and the Reporter-News is part of it to this day. The paper's motto comes from Byron, and it goes like this: Without or with offense to friends or foes, we sketch your world exactly as it goes.
Started the same summer the town was born, burned out, rebuilt on borrowed presses, outlasted a duel, and grew into something national. That's not a newspaper. That's Abilene.
What the marker says
The oldest existing business institution in Abilene is the Reporter Publishing Company, started by C. E. Gilbert. The first newspaper was printed on June 17, 1881, three months after the town was founded. Soon after Gilbert began publication, a fire destroyed several buildings in town, including his office. He rode the train to Baird (21 miles east) and, using borrowed presses, published an "extra" edition about the blaze. Two other Abilene papers were started in the 1880s. Part-time preacher W. L. Gibbs began the "Magnetic Quill" in 1882. Three years later Gilbert's printer, James L. Lowry, began the "Taylor County News." One of Lowry's early editions covered a duel between Gilbert and Gibbs, both of whom survived. Later "Reporter" owners were Dr. Alf H. H. Toler, John Hoeny, Jr., George S. Anderson, and Marshall Bernard Hanks, a former delivery boy for the paper who was publisher from 1906 to 1948. In 1911 the "Reporter" bought the "News," resulting in the present name. Hanks and Houston Harte of San Angelo formed the Harte-Hanks organization, now a national communications firm, which includes the "Reporter-News," whose motto is: "Without or with offense to friends or foes we sketch your world exactly as it goes." -Byron.