DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight. Way back in 1878, two men sat down and decided Pilot Point needed a voice. David J.
Moffitt and James T. Jones, Moffitt born in 1848, Jones in 1845, they put ink to paper and brought the Pilot Point Post into the world. Now right from the start, this little paper had opinions.
It backed the Democratic Party. It championed local commerce. And it stood square against what the marker calls the lawless element in town.
That last part alone tells you something about what Pilot Point was like in those early years. A newspaper with enemies. The best kind of newspaper there is.
Then came the merging years; and friend, newspapers in the late 1800s merged the way rivers merge, quietly and then all at once. Between 1888 and 1898, the Post folded in with the Mirror, and then the whole thing rolled into the Signal. When the dust settled, a new name had taken hold: the Pilot Point Post-Signal.
Part Post, part Signal, carrying a little of everything that came before it. And here's the thing that makes this story worth telling on a road through Denton County: that paper never stopped. Not once.
It holds the title of Denton County's oldest continuing newspaper, still bringing news to the community and the surrounding areas, just like it has since 1878. Moffitt and Jones are long gone, but the paper they started is still on the clock.
What the marker says
First published as the "Pilot Point Post," this newspaper was established in 1878 by David J. Moffitt (1848-1917) and James T. Jones (1845-1915). In its early years, "The Post" supported the democratic party and local commerce and opposed the lawless element in town. Between 1888 and 1898 "The Post" merged with "The Mirror" and then with "The Signal" and has operated since then as the "Pilot Point Post-Signal". As Denton County's oldest continuing newspaper, "The Post-Signal" has played a significant role in bringing news to the community and surrounding areas. (1984)