Goldthwaite Eagle

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Goldthwaite Eagle. Now settle in, because this is the story of a little newspaper that just would not quit. It starts in 1885, when a man named William H.

Thompson decided Mills County needed a voice. He called it The Mountaineer, and he put it out every week. But the paper closed.

A lot of folks might have left it at that. William H. Thompson was not a lot of folks.

He got it back on its feet in 1894, and it was running again. Then in 1896, he sold it to his nephew, R. M.

Thompson. Now, the nephew had ideas of his own. He renamed the paper The Goldthwaite Eagle.

And here's a detail the marker wants you to sit with for just a moment: at that time, eagles still lived in the hills of Mills County. Real ones. So that name carried some weight.

In 1920, the paper changed hands again, bought by a Dr. E. M.

Wilson. And then for the better part of three decades, the Eagle passed back and forth between the Wilson family and the Thompson family, like some kind of beloved and occasionally contested heirloom. That arrangement lasted until 1950, when Charlie T.

Wilson sold it to H. R. Ekins.

Under Ekins, the Eagle merged with The Mullin Enterprise, and just like that, it became the only newspaper in Mills County. One paper, one county, carrying every story worth telling. Then in 1971, Frank Bridges purchased The Eagle from Victor E.

Koleber. New hands, same paper. One weekly newspaper, started in 1885, still standing.

William H. Thompson might have smiled at that.

What the marker says

In 1885 William H. Thompson (1842-1896) started a weekly newspaper, "The Mountaineer", which closed but was reestablished in 1894. He sold it in 1896 to R. M. Thompson, his nephew, who renamed it "The Goldthwaite Eagle". At that time eagles still lived in the hills of Mills County. The paper was bought in 1920 by Dr. E. M. Wilson. It changed hands between the Wilson and Thompson Families until 1950, when Charlie T. Wilson sold it to H. R. Ekins. A merger with "The Mullin Enterprise" made it the county's only newspaper. In 1971 Frank Bridges purchased "The Eagle" from Victor E. Koleber.