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AN
EDITOR'S HOMEColonel
Charles DeMorse & The Standardby
Bob Bowman | |
| Anyone
who has read a history of Texas in the 1800s will find many references to the
Clarksville Standard, which DeMorse founded as the Northern Standard in 1842.
It was one of Texas' foremost newspapers, largely because DeMorse not only recorded
Texas history; he was one of the principal makers of it. |
Home
of Charles DeMorse in Clarksville
Photos courtesy Barclay
Gibson, April 2009 |
When
Colonel Charles DeMorse -- widely acclaimed as the father of Texas journalism
-- died at Clarksville
in 1887, he left behind what has become one of Texas' rarest buildings.
The DeMorse house, Clarksville's oldest structure, was originally built as a two-room
log cabin with a central hallway in 1833, three years before Texas won its independence
from Mexico.
The Red River County Historical Society has embarked on
a $1 million fundraising effort that could lead to the restoration of the early
Greek revival home as an educational museum of early Texas architecture and the
remarkable life of Colonel DeMorse. "This structure is in danger of complete demise
without immediate intervention," said the Society. |
DeMorse Home as it appeared in 1936
From "Monuments Commemorating the Centenary
of Texas Independence", State of Texas, 1938. Courtesy Sarah
Reveley |
| Anyone
who has read a history of Texas in the 1800s will find many references to the
Clarksville Standard, which DeMorse founded as the Northern Standard in 1842.
It was one of Texas' foremost newspapers, largely because DeMorse not only recorded
Texas history; he was one of the principal makers of it. |
Home of Northern Standard
From "Monuments Commemorating the Centenary of Texas
Independence", State of Texas, 1938. Courtesy Sarah
Reveley |
|
DeMorse
was born Charles Denney Morse at Leiceser, Massachusetts, in 1816, and
came to Texas in 1835 to help Texans in their fight
for independence. While traveling to Texas he was
detained by British agents at Nassau. They mistakenly listed his name as Charles
DeMorse, but he liked it so much that he adopted it permanently.
He served numerous roles for the new Republic of Texas, first in the Texas Navy
and then the Army, as a commissioner of public debt, and as a reporter for the
House of Representatives in the Republic Congress.
When he founded the
Standard, its first issue bore the motto, "Long May Our Banner Brave the Breeze--the
Standard of the Free."
The sparsely settled East
Texas area, the lack of roads and mail routes, and the numerous streams and
rivers that could not be crossed during floods created serious problems for DeMorse,
but he persevered -- and by 1846 the paper was doing so well that it was enlarged.
In 1852, he changed the name to The Standard and built a cylinder press. The only
other such press in Texas was at the Galveston Daily
News.
In the following years, the Standard was second in circulation
among Texas newspapers and had agents as far away as Philadelphia, Boston and
New York.
Recognizing its influence, early Texans used the Standard as
a forum for their views on statehood, the Civil War and other major political
events. DeMorse often had something to say about non-political issues, too. If
a particular event such as a lynching or murder caught his attention, his readers
were likely to be get a good dose of his views. |
 |
Morse
ran the paper from its birth to his death in 1887. Only during the Civil War,
when DeMorse rode off to become a colonel with the 19th Texas Cavalry, was he
absent and John R Woolridge took over the paper. Even upon his death, his daughter
continued the publication of the paper for about a year.
The Standard
was unique for 45 years because it was edited and published by a single individual
whose personality, opinions and hopes it reflected, and neither DeMorse or his
family wanted its control to pass to anyone else. |
Home
of Colonel Charles DeMorse
Photos courtesy Barclay
Gibson, April 2009 |
DeMorse
Home Centennial marker
Photos courtesy Barclay
Gibson, April 2009 | |
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