Hubbard City News

Duane's take

The way the official marker tells it, here's what I know about the Hubbard City News. Back in 1881, the very same year the town of Hubbard City was founded, a man named S. H.

Sayer put ink to paper and started publishing the Hubbard City News. Right out of the gate, this little newspaper was as much a part of the town as the town itself. Down the road, Sayer's operation merged with S.

R. Boyd's paper, the Texas Pick and Pan, and somewhere along the way another publication entered the picture: the Hubbard City Progress, started in 1901 by two brothers, George and Jim Mecklin. Now those brothers weren't strangers to the trade.

They were former City News workers, which means they knew exactly what they were walking into. Under their leadership, and later through ownership by Andy and Ralph Mecklin, the paper grew into something genuinely notable, a prominent publication of central Texas. That's not small praise in a region that had no shortage of stories worth telling.

In 1969 the News Publishing Company out of Mexia came along and purchased the paper, adding it to their fold. But here's where the story takes a hard turn. In 1973, a tornado came through and destroyed a City News office right here on this very site.

Some stories, it turns out, get told about the newspaper, and some get told by it, and some, well, some get written by the wind.

What the marker says

S. H. Sayer began publication of the "Hubbard City News" in 1881, the year the town was founded. The business later merged with S. R. Boyd's paper, the "Texas Pick and Pan" and the "Hubbard City Progress", a newspaper started in 1901 by brothers George and Jim Mecklin, former "City News" workers. Through their leadership and later ownership by Andy and Ralph Mecklin, the paper became a prominent publication of central Texas. In 1969 it was purchased by the News Publishing Co. of Mexia. A "City News" office at this site was destroyed by a tornado in 1973.