Beaumont Enterprise

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Near this site, on November 6, 1880, something rolled off a press that would outlast nearly everything around it. The first edition of the Beaumont Enterprise.

John W. Leonard founded it, and from that day forward, southeast Texas had a paper of record. Now, a lot of things get started and quietly disappear.

This one didn't. The Enterprise kept rolling, kept printing, kept outlasting. And along the way, it attracted some remarkable people.

William P. Hobby came to The Enterprise in 1907. If that name sounds familiar, it should.

Hobby would later become governor of Texas. But before all that, he was right here, putting ink on paper in Beaumont. Then came James L.

Mapes, who arrived at the newspaper in 1908. Mapes is the man who, the marker says, brought the Beaumont Enterprise to national stature. In 1931, he acquired the business outright.

He served two years as president of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. That is not a small thing. That is a man who had the ear of the entire southern press.

When Mapes died in 1936, his widow, Kathryn Smythe Mapes, stepped in and served as president herself. And when Kathryn Smythe Mapes died in 1948, she left the majority stock in trust to her grandnephew. The paper stayed in the family's hands, protected by her own final decision.

Now, The Enterprise wasn't the only paper in town. The Beaumont Journal, founded in August 1889 by Robert Emmett Kelley, had been running alongside it. From 1921 all the way to 1983, the two papers shared ownership.

Then, in 1983, The Journal was merged into The Enterprise. Over a century of Beaumont journalism, folded into one masthead. Today, the Beaumont Enterprise serves a community that stretches from the Trinity River on the west all the way to the Calcasieu River on the east, from the Redlands in the north down to the Gulf of Mexico.

That is a lot of country for one newspaper to speak to. But then again, it's had since 1880 to figure out how.

What the marker says

Near this site on November 6, 1880, the first "Beaumont Enterprise" came off the press. The newspaper, founded by John W. Leonard, is one of southeast Texas' oldest continuing business institutions. Over the years, "The Enterprise" has had a number of outstanding editors and publishers, including William P. Hobby, who came to "The Enterprise" in 1907 and later became governor of Texas. The "Beaumont Enterprise" attained national stature under James L. Mapes, who came to the newspaper in 1908 and in 1931 acquired the business. Mapes served two years as president of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. When he died in 1936, his widow, Kathryn Smythe Mapes, served as president. Upon her death in 1948, she left the majority stock in trust to her grandnephew. The "Beaumont Journal," founded in August 1889 by Robert Emmett Kelley, was published under the same ownership as "The Enterprise" from 1921 to 1983, when "The Journal" was merged into "The Enterprise." The "Beaumont Enterprise" serves a Texas-Louisiana community extending from the Trinity River on the west to the Calcasieu River on the east, and from the Redlands on the north to the Gulf of Mexico.