Plainview Daily Herald

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Way back in the late 1880s, out on the South Plains where Hale County was still finding its footing, two men by the names of D.B. Hill and John Davidson sat down and started a newspaper.

They called it the Hale County Hesperian. Now that's a name with some weight to it, some ambition. But names, as you'll see, have a way of changin' out here.

In 1891, a man named John Minor Shafer came into the picture. He was an early Plainview area settler, and he didn't just subscribe to the paper. He became the owner and publisher.

The Shafer family held onto that operation, kept it runnin', kept it printin', all the way through 1912. That's a good long run for any family enterprise, and the paper grew right along with the land around it. When the Shafer era came to a close, the name changed too.

Out went the Hale County Herald, and in came the Plainview Herald. Then, in time, it grew again into the Plainview Daily Herald. A paper that started with a grand old name had worked its way down to something that said exactly where it was and what it did.

Then came 1929, and consolidation with the Plainview News, a move that allowed for continued growth and expanded coverage. Two voices in the same town decided one strong voice carried further. The story doesn't end there.

In 1978, the Daily Herald was purchased by the Hearst Corporation. What D.B. Hill and John Davidson started in a young county on the Texas plains had traveled a long road, through family hands, through name changes, through consolidation, and all the way to one of the biggest names in American publishing.

Not bad for a paper that once called itself the Hesperian.

What the marker says

Originally known as the "Hale County Hesperian," this newspaper was established in the late 1880s by D.B. Hill and John Davidson. In 1891 John Minor Shafer, an early Plainview area settler, became the owner and publisher. The newspaper remained a Shafer family operation until 1912. Its name then was changed from the "Hale County Herald" to the "Plainview Herald," and later to the "Plainview Daily Herald." Consolidation with the "Plainview News" in 1929 allowed for continued growth and expanded coverage. In 1978 the "Daily Herald" was purchased by the Hearst Corporation. (1984)