The Austin Statesman

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You know, some newspapers are born out of pure political fire, and the Democratic Statesman is one of them. The year is 1871, and the Democratic Party of Texas has had just about enough.

Radical Reconstruction government is runnin' things, and the Democrats decide they're going to fight back the way people with words always fight back: they start a newspaper. They call it the Democratic Statesman, and from the very first edition, nobody has to wonder where it stands. Now, here's where the story gets interesting.

That paper, born as a party organ, quickly passed into private ownership. It didn't stay a house publication for long. And the man who stepped up as that first popular editor?

An attorney named John Cardwell. An attorney. There's something fitting about a lawyer being the one to shape a paper built on argument.

By 1873, the Statesman was publishing daily. Every single day. That's a commitment, out there on the Texas frontier of journalism, when ink and paper and readers were all hard-won.

The paper kept on, kept printing, kept talking to Austin and to Texas, right on through the decades. Then came 1924, and the Democratic Statesman, by then simply the Statesman, merged with a paper called the Austin American. Two voices, one press.

That's the Austin Statesman, born of opposition and stubbornness, and still running.

What the marker says

Begun as the "Democratic Statesman" in 1871 by the Democratic Party, in opposition to radical Reconstruction government in Texas. Quickly passed into private ownership popular first editor was attorney John Cardwell. Published daily since 1873, paper merged with "Austin American" in 1924. (1970)