This information was found in the vertical files of the genealogy department of the Longview Public Library in the form of one page of a newspaper with the only identifying marks being in the top left corner: Page 10-C - Longview, Texas. Someone hand wrote the following: LNJ (Longview News Journal) 7-2--73.

Three years before Gregg County came into being, residents of the area were kept abreast of current events by a tri-weekly published by James Stephen Hogg.

The future governor, then only 20, selected Longview as the site for the publication, "Longview News," and the ideals and goals of the newspaper became the ideals and goals of its readers.

In choosing Longview, Hogg had kept in mind that cotton crops being moved to the railhead assured money being in circulation during the autumn months in which he hoped to get the paper started.

The first issue of the News came out in October and the subscription rates were announces as $5 a year; $2.75 for six months; and 50 cents per month.

The publication proved profitable from the beginning.

Hogg used his paper to press embarrassing charges against the Davis administration and all Radicals, although the neighboring Marshall editor had been arrested and fined by Radical officials.

Hogg's reputation as a courageous and able newsman spread and it was only a matter of months before a delegation from Quitman visited him and urged him to move to their town.

Prior to the establishment of the city's own paper, citizens in Longview had relied upon publications from Gilmer, county seat of Upshur, in which most of Gregg County was then a part.

These included the Upshur County Tribune, published by Trowell Brothers in 1860, and the Gilmer Sentinel, founded by M.R. Willeford, nine years later. Willeford sold his rights in the Sentinel to Laura Cowsar and Irvin T. Cowsar on Jan. 8, 1870. It is thought that Cowsar later combined the two newspapers, the Tribune and the Sentinel.

A year after Hogg established the Longview News, a second paper came into being in Longview. It was the Longview New Era, published by E.S. and J.S. Terry. Since Gregg County had still not become a reality, the Longview New Era also appeared under the listing of Upshur County newspapers.

The first newspaper established after the new county of Gregg was formed was the News Item, founded in 1873. Five years later the Texas New Era was a Longview Publication.

The Longview Clarion was established in 1885 by F.M. Marschalk, a veteran newspaper man from Mississippi. It was a first class small town weekly and was operated by Marschalk until his death in 1888. at that time J.W. Johnson took over the publication.

Johnson renamed the paper the Times-Clarion and published under that banner from 1893 until 1916. He was ably assisted by his wife. At his death, Mrs. Johnson, along with Tom Moore and Albert H. Shields, Jr., assumed responsibility of the paper and published another two years, when she sold the paper to G.B. Whitley.

Kilgore Chronicle

Also serving Gregg County was Kilgore's first newspaper, the Kilgore Chronicle, established in 1916. However, no files or records of the pioneer weekly are now available.

The Chronicle was owned and edited after WWI by C.R. Shockley. By 1925 the paper was being published by C.H. Lister and at one time, the late Rupert Craig of Athens was its editor. Publication was discontinued prior to the oil boom.

Gladewater Weeklies

Gladewater, too, had been served by several publications originating there before the discovery of oil. Weeklies were published by W.C. Holloway and F.N. Henderson. Old timers recalled some time ago that a weekly had been published in Gladewater around the turn of the century.

The current Gladewater publication, the Gladewater Mirror, has been under the ownership of the Harry Kates family since 1954, when he purchased it from the T.W. Lee Estate.

It now operates as a semi-weekly.

Times-Clarion

Preston Whitley, who worked with his father, G.W. Whitley, in the newspaper office in 1918 recalls that all of the machinery was run by hand and all the type, except for the one linotype machine, was also set by hand. The paper was printed on a hand fed press, then cut and folded separately on a hand fed machine. The usual daily was four pages. When a special edition of eight pages was published it was a big task for the five employees to get it out on time and for the four carriers to make the routes before bedtime.

When the Times-Clarion and the Longview Leader were consolidated, the hand fed press was retained along with three other manual job presses.

The Longview Daily News changed ownership four times from 1929 to 1934. It was sold in late 1929 by Hal Winnsborough and Herrin of Marshall to W.K. Leatherock of Sayre, Okla. W.J. Bacon, also of Sayre, was named vice president and S.A. Parker, secretary. The Longview Morning Journal was started by this group on Feb 19, 1931.

Clarence E. Faulk of Monroe, La., bought the News and the Journal in March, 1931.

Longview News Company

Carl L. Estes became owner-publisher in October, 1934, and the name of the firm was changed to the Longview News Company, Inc. with Estes as president; Parker as vice president and C.F. Worthen as secretary. Following Estes' death in 1967, his wife, Margaret V. Estes, became publisher and chief executive.

Oil Boom

When 72 hours after the discovery well extended the new East Texas Oil Field to near Kilgore, Tom E. Foster of Center, hastened to put out The Kilgore News on his press at Center. He soon was printing a semi-weekly in a building acquired on Kilgore Street. Two months later Kilgore got its first post-boom brick building to house the publication, which, in 1931, became a daily.

The present publisher, Charles K. Devall, came to Kilgore in 1935 to establish the weekly Kilgore Herald. In Oct. 1, 1940, he purchased The Kilgore Daily News and the paper became the Kilgore News Herald.