Robert W. Loughery, Civil War Editor
Marshall, Harrison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the mid-nineteenth century Robert W. Loughery (b. 1820) was one of East Texas' best known journalists through his association with several Harrison County newspapers. As owner and editor of Marshall's "Texas Republican", he supported such controversial issues as slavery, secession and the Confederacy, while boldly denouncing his opposition. After the Civil War he wrote for other papers around the state and was appointed United States Consul in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1885. He retired to Marshall, where he died in 1894, and is buried in the Marshall Cemetery. (1983)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Robert W. Loughery, born in 1820, became one of East Texas' most influential newspapermen through his Harrison County papers, above all Marshall's Texas Republican. A fierce partisan, he used his columns to champion slavery, secession, and the Confederacy while lambasting his critics. After the war he wrote across the state, served briefly as U.S. Consul in Acapulco, and died in Marshall in 1894.
Why it matters
His career shows the outsized role the partisan press played in stoking Southern secession, and how a single editor's voice could shape a region's politics on the eve of civil war.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Robert W. Loughery
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Methodist Church
Marshall, TX
Marshall grew into one of East Texas's leading towns before the Civil War, and its First Methodist congregation reflects that arc. Begun by circuit-rider Littleton Fowler in 1839 and organized in 1845, the church raised its brick sanctuary in 1861 with hand-molded bricks and a north gallery for enslaved worshippers. During the war its basement stored munitions and its bell was given to the Confederacy, later replaced by one taken from Federal forces; a wartime pastor, E. M. Marvin, went on to become a Methodist bishop.
Site of the Capitol Hotel
Marshall, TX
Business leader George B. Adkins built a fine three-story brick hotel on this Marshall site in 1857, and "Adkins House" quickly became a stage depot serving the southern branch of the Butterfield Overland Mail. During the Civil War, the exiled Confederate governor of Missouri met here with the Confederate governors of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, making the hotel a quiet crossroads of Confederate wartime politics. Later renamed "The Capitol," it hosted celebrities for decades before its first floor turned to shops and the building was finally razed in 1971–72.
Marshall
Marshall, TX
Marshall was founded around 1841 after landowner Peter Whetstone offered land for a courthouse, church, and school, and representative Isaac Van Zandt named it for U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall. By 1850 it ranked among the wealthiest towns in East Texas. During the Civil War it was a major Confederate stronghold, home to the exiled Missouri state government and the postal headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi Department; afterward it hosted a Freedmen's Bureau office and, with the arrival of the Texas and Pacific Railway, became a regional education center anchored by Wiley and Bishop colleges.
Marshall Cemetery
Marshall, TX
Incorporated in 1849, this cemetery is the resting place of a remarkable roster of early Texas leaders. Among them are Edward Clark, governor of Texas in 1861 and a Confederate colonel; Walter P. Lane, a veteran of the Texas Revolution and Mexican War who rose to Confederate general; John T. Mills, a Republic of Texas supreme court justice; and Horace Randal, a Confederate general — with two Texas counties named for men buried here. A United Daughters of the Confederacy obelisk honors unknown soldiers who died in local hospitals.