DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Hood County News. Now, some newspapers just print the news. Others — well, they become the news.
Pull up a chair. This one's got layers. It starts back in 1872, when a Captain W.L.
Bond founded the Granbury Vidette — the very first newspaper this town ever had. That's your foundation stone. But the story really picks up in 1882, when a young man named A.W.
Crockett joined the staff. And here's where you slow down and let that name settle in — Crockett. A.W.
Crockett, born 1857, died 1953, was a grandson of the Alamo hero. That man carried some weight in his bloodline, and apparently in his work ethic too, because he didn't just stay on staff — he eventually owned the paper. Meanwhile, across town in 1884, a fellow named J.D.
Ballard started up a rival sheet called the Granbury News, which later passed into the hands of a man the marker describes as highly regarded — Frank Gaston. Two papers, one town. Then comes 1937.
State Senator A.B. Crawford and his wife bought from Crockett the last paper he owned. Now think on that — the last paper A.W.
Crockett ever owned, changing hands. Nine years later, in 1946, the Crawfords merged it with the Granbury News, and just like that, two rival legacies folded into one. Senator Crawford didn't live to see everything that followed, but Mrs.
Crawford did. In 1964, widowed, she moved the paper into an 1891 building — this very building — and she did something a newspaper doesn't always do: she started advocating for historic preservation. That became policy.
And she kept at it until she retired in 1970, after which later owners carried that same torch forward. A paper born from the Vidette, carrying a Crockett, surviving a merger, and ending up the keeper of history. Some legacies just know how to stick around.
What the marker says
Successor to "Granbury Vidette" town's first newspaper, founded 1872 by Capt. W.L. Bond and later owned by an 1882 staff recruit, A. W. Crockett (1857-1953), a grandson of the Alamo hero. J.D. Ballard in 1884 started the "Granbury News", later owned by highly regarded Frank Gaston. State Senator A.B. Crawford and wife in 1937 bought from Crockett the last paper he owned, merging it in 1946 with the "Granbury News". In 1964 widowed Mrs. Crawford moved paper into this 1891 building and began to advocate historic preservation--a policy continued by later owners after she retired in 1970.