Whitney Messenger

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Whitney Messenger. Now, every good story needs a beginning, and this one starts with a railroad town. Whitney, Texas, was founded, and four years later, in 1883, a newspaper came to life right along with it.

H. P. and J. O.

Jones established the Messenger, and if you're keeping score, that's two Jones brothers putting ink to paper in a brand-new town, which takes a certain kind of nerve. Seven years on, in 1890, the paper changed hands. J.

T. and Dan S. Mayes purchased it, and here's where the story gets a little satisfying. Dan Mayes, who would eventually gain full ownership of the Messenger in 1893, had first walked through the door of that very paper back in 1888.

An apprentice. Working under H. P.

Jones himself. So the man who started sweeping up around the press, learning the trade from one of the paper's own founders, ended up owning the whole operation. The marker doesn't say what H.

P. Jones thought about that, but you have to imagine there was at least a nod of respect somewhere along the way. And Dan Mayes made something of the opportunity.

When he took the reins, the Messenger was a four-page paper reaching about 400 readers. By 1903, it had grown into a 12-page paper with a circulation of about 1,700. That's a community growin', and a newspaper growin' right alongside it, page by page, reader by reader.

The Whitney Messenger, the marker tells us, has provided a significant service to the community and the surrounding area throughout its history. Some stories don't need a dramatic ending. Sometimes the whole point is that something kept showing up, week after week, for the people who needed it.

What the marker says

This newspaper began publication in 1883, four years after the railroad town of Whitney was founded. Established by H. P. and J. O. Jones, the "Messenger" was purchased by J. T. and Dan S. Mayes in 1890. Dan Mayes, who gained full ownership of the paper in 1893, had started in the business in 1888 as an apprentice under H. P. Jones. Under Mayes' leadership, the "Messenger" grew from a four-page paper with about 400 readers to a 12-page paper with a circulation of about 1,700 by 1903. Throughout its history, the "Whitney Messenger" has provided a significant service to the community and the surrounding area.