OUTSIDERS LOOKING IN

Newspaper articles about Freestone County, Texas from external sources

By Eric Bonner Wood

Purpose

This book is composed entirely of newspaper articles published in external newspapers about Freestone County, Texas. The purpose of the book is to be a primary source reference where one can refer to the original article.

Most people, if you were to ask them, have never been to the tourist attractions of their home town. They grew up in their hometown, but never went to them. Maybe my fascination with Freestone County is because I have never lived there.

Formatting

1) The newspaper titles are in italics.
2) Places in Freestone County or references to Freestone County itself are bolded.
3) The phrase “Special to the [newspaper]” is sometimes left off, since it does nothing to the content of the news and it is so common since the majority of the articles about Freestone County are considered "Special to the News" to the outside news firms.
4) Since the book is not restricted by the columns that newspapers are written in, expect fewer dashes in long words broken up by the end of the line. I have keep the original end of the lines with poetry pieces.
5) Capitalization has been usually keep as the original.
6) My comments are in brackets. For example, [Comment].

Recurring Newspaper Columns

     Travel letters were commonly published in the earlier 1840s to 1860s. These provide descriptions of the terrain and buildings. The interest in these would subside when the huge distraction of the Civil War arrives and later when railroads make it easier to travel.

    "Mr. Big Hat" and "Cozy Corner" was popular column where kids and teenagers wrote in from at least 1896 to 1903. The editor, "Mr. Big Hat", was suppose to have Piggy and Peggy (a mule) that would eat articles that were not up to the column's standards.
    Another popular column was the society news. The early versions of this column focused on the tourists, businessmen, and other town visitors when they arrived at the hotel. Later versions, shifted their focus to the high society "Beau Monde" (Fine World) visitors especially on the young unmarried ladies and social events.
    "The State Press" was a long-running column that listed the news from the various other newspapers in the state. A similar long-running column was "The Craft" that focused specifically on the other newspapers themselves and their editors.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC DOMAIN

This work in its entirety is relinquished to the public domain. This work is intended to be a transcription of original primary sources that are in public domain because of the expiration of the copyright law. Any part of my transcription may be reproduced, edited, etc. as a basis of research for other works. I consider this in the public domain for use by any person or entity for any purpose without any fee or charge. People and entities includes (but is not limited to) libraries, history clubs, museums, genealogy groups, etc. This work may be copied in its entirety.

Table of Contents

COUNTY LISTING
for commonly mentioned cities and towns