McGregor Mirror

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the McGregor Mirror, straight out of McLennan County. In 1904, T.E. Streight founded the McGregor Mirror.

That's where our story begins, in a building that would end up meaning a whole lot more than anyone might have guessed on opening day. A young typesetter named Charles, known to everyone as Chas, B. Hall came to work at the Mirror when it opened.

Now, Chas Hall was born in 1887, and he was just getting his hands inky and his eye sharp when he walked through that door. He would not walk away a stranger to that place. He and his wife, Lillian, known as Lillie, Spross Hall, purchased the Mirror in 1918.

Just like that, a typesetter became a publisher. The building stayed the same. The commitment deepened.

Then came the next chapter, and this is where a family story turns into something genuinely impressive. Bonnie Hall Mooney, born in 1925, daughter of Chas and Lillie, and her husband Thomas E. Mooney, born in 1924, took up the work and published the Mirror from 1956 to 1992.

Thirty-six years of deadlines, of community milestones, of the kind of news that matters most to the people it's about. And when Thomas and Bonnie stepped back, their children carried it forward. Three generations, all in the same building where T.E.

Streight opened the doors back in 1904. Now, a paper like this doesn't just survive on stubbornness, though stubbornness probably helps. It survives on the stories it tells.

Births and graduations and losses and celebrations, the personal, important events of a community's life, documented and preserved year after year. And tucked inside that building is one more treasure worth knowing about. One of the earliest Model 14 Linotypes in Texas.

The Mirror purchased it at the State Fair in 1925, and that machine kept on working right up into the 1990s. An award-winning newspaper, three generations deep, still running out of the same building where it all started. Some things in Texas, friend, just hold.

What the marker says

In 1904, the McGregor Mirror was founded by T.E. Streight (1870-1910). A young type setter, Charles "Chas" B. Hall (1887-1964), went to work at the Mirror when it opened. Later, he and his wife, Lillian "Lillie" (Spross) Hall (1890-1955), purchased it in 1918. Their daughter Bonnie Hall) Mooney (1925-1998) and husband Thomas E. Mooney (1924-1994) published the Mirror from 1956 to 1992. Their children continue publishing the award-winning newspaper marking three generations in the same building where it was established in 1904. The building houses one of the earliest Model 14 Linotypes in Texas, which was purchased at the State Fair in 1925 and was used until the 1990s. for generations, the Mirror has documented and preserved important, personal community events through the years.