The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 286
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
joicing in the establishment of a newspaper, the Texas Eagle,
I. C. Huege, editor."' Later that same year the Echo carried
this brief announcement: "For lack of support the Buffalo Gap
News has suspended."'12
The difficulty of bringing in newspaper supplies also imposed
hardships on the papers. Before the railroad came the supplies
had to be shipped inland from a port on the Gulf or freighted
overland in wagons from some large city. Only the barest essen-
tials were brought to frontier towns; a hand press perhaps capable
of turning out from one hundred to two hundred newspapers an
hour, a job press, type, and a limited supply of ink and paper.
Dr. J. B. Cranfill, who founded the Gatesville Advance in 1882,
described his equipment:
It consisted of a Washington hand press, which, I think, was the
one that came over in the Mayflower; a Gordon jobber, which, no
doubt, was the first one that Gordon turned out; a supply of to-point,
then called long primer, and eight-point, then called brevier type.
There were some job faces, but these faces were so old that they were
ashamed to be seen in company.3
The size of a frontier newspaper's staff usually matched equip-
ment: just enough to get out the paper every week. Usually this
meant one person did it. For that reason, a frontier editor was
capable of filling all positions on a newspaper, writing all news
stories and editorials, handling circulation and advertising, and
often setting type, which was done by hand.
The Comanche Chief, which called itself "the paper with the
largest circulation on the frontier," stated in 188o: "The junior
Chief has not yet returned and the entire force of the office at
present consists of the senior and an intelligent apprentice, Jno.
Switzer."4 The Chief was fortunate in having two others besides
Switzer. They were the Hill brothers, owners and editors of the
weekly. In another issue that year the Chief printed a story telling
of a frontier editor's life.
The editor of a country newspaper should be a happy man. He
11Fort Griffin Echo, February 5, 1881.
2bid., November 2o, 1881.
13James H. Lowry, History of the Texas Press and the Texas Press Association
(Dallas, 1929), 178.
14Comanche Chief, March 18, 188o.286
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957, periodical, 1957; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101163/m1/311/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.