The Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first issue of the Corpus Christi "Caller" was published on January 21, 1883. It was established by Eli Merriman, owner of the Corpus Christi "Free Press", Ed Williams, co-owner of the "Semi-Weekly Ledger", and W.P. Caruthers, who is credited with naming the "Caller". One of the original stockholders was King Ranch founder Captain Richard King. W.E. Pope, who was to represent Corpus Christi in the state legislature for many years, purchased the town's "Daily Democrat" in 1917 and renamed it the "Times". Eleven years later he sold it to Houston Harte of San Angelo and Bernard Hanks of Abilene, owners of several Texas newspapers. In 1929 the "Caller" was purchased by the Harte-Hanks group and the two papers were combined as the Corpus Christi "Caller-Times" with Grady Kinsolving as publisher. The "Caller-Times" has outlasted over two dozen newspapers that have served the city since the first two, the "Gazette" and the "Star", were published in the 1840s. The "Caller" and the "Times" were in two separate locations until operations were consolidated at a third site in 1929. The newspapers have been published at the present location since 1935. (1983)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Corpus Christi Caller published its first issue in 1883, launched by local newspapermen including Eli Merriman, with King Ranch founder Captain Richard King among the original stockholders. Over the following decades rival papers were bought, renamed, and merged — the Times emerged from the Daily Democrat, and in 1929 the Harte-Hanks group combined the two into the Caller-Times. It outlasted more than two dozen competitors dating back to the 1840s.
Why it matters
Local newspapers were the connective tissue of frontier and coastal Texas towns, and this one's long survival traces the consolidation that shaped American regional journalism.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1880s, Corpus Christi was a small, ambitious port town on a beautiful bay at the edge of the South Texas brush country. Behind it stretched enormous cattle ranges; in front of it lay the Gulf of Mexico. Merchants, ranchers and shippers all needed news: prices, ship arrivals, politics, and word from the wider world.
Newspapers were the lifeblood of towns like this. In the nineteenth century, almost any community that hoped to grow had at least one paper, and often several rivals printed from cramped shops. Many lasted only a few years. Starting a paper was easy. Keeping one alive was hard.
Corpus Christi's own newspaper history reached back to the 1840s, when the Gazette and the Star became the first. By 1883 the town had seen a string of papers come and go. The founders of the Caller were stepping into a crowded, risky business in a frontier market that was still finding its footing.
People & events
The first issue of the Corpus Christi Caller appeared on January 21, 1883. Behind it were three experienced newspapermen: Eli Merriman, owner of the Free Press; Ed Williams, co-owner of the Semi-Weekly Ledger; and W. P. Caruthers, who is credited with giving the paper its name. Instead of competing, they pooled their efforts.
One of the original stockholders was Captain Richard King, founder of the King Ranch, which was already one of the most famous cattle operations in the country. His backing tied the new paper to the powerful ranching interests of South Texas.
Meanwhile, a second line of the story was forming. In 1917 W. E. Pope, who would represent Corpus Christi in the state legislature for many years, bought the Daily Democrat and renamed it the Times. In 1928 he sold it to Houston Harte of San Angelo and Bernard Hanks of Abilene, partners who owned several Texas newspapers.
In 1929 the Harte-Hanks group bought the Caller too and combined the two papers into the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, with Grady Kinsolving as publisher. Operations that had been spread across two locations came together at a third site that year. The papers moved to the present location in 1935.
Its place in the American story
The history of the Caller-Times follows one of the great patterns in American journalism. The nineteenth century was full of small, independent, often short-lived papers. Over time they gave way to consolidated dailies owned by regional newspaper groups. Harte-Hanks, built by partners from West Texas towns, grew into one of the notable newspaper companies of its day, and this merger was part of that growth.
The paper's survival also says something about local newspapers in general. The Caller-Times outlasted more than two dozen papers that had served the city since the 1840s. For generations, a paper like this was where a community recorded its births, deaths, storms, elections and arguments. Much of what historians know about South Texas comes from pages printed in rooms like these.
Its founding reflects the region's power structure, too. With the King Ranch's founder among the stockholders, the Caller came out of the same world of ranching wealth and coastal commerce that shaped South Texas.
If you visit
The marker is in Corpus Christi, a bayfront city where history and the Gulf breeze go together. The paper has been published at this location since 1935, so as you stand here you are standing at the working heart of a newspaper story that runs back well over a century.
Take a moment to imagine the noise and bustle that once filled newspaper buildings like this one: clacking typewriters, the rumble of presses, and bundles of fresh papers heading out to be delivered before dawn. It is a good stop for anyone who loves words, or who grew up reading a hometown paper.
Make it part of a larger day in Corpus Christi. Walk the bayfront, then think about the ranch country inland, where Captain King's empire spread. Driving the South Texas brush, it is easy to see why a scattered region of ranches and small towns needed a newspaper to connect it.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Eli Merriman
- · Captain Richard King
- · W. E. Pope
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Guaranty Title Company
Corpus Christi, TX
When the great South Texas ranches were carved up in the early 1900s, buyers needed clean titles to land whose ownership often traced back to old Spanish grants. Henry B. Baldwin met that need, founding an abstract firm in 1904 and moving into the young business of title insurance a decade later as Guaranty Title. The two-story brick building raised here in 1926 housed a firm that grew into trusts, mortgage lending, and property management across several counties.
Corpus Christi Fire Department
Corpus Christi, TX
After a house fire alarmed Corpus Christi in 1871, citizens passed a subscription list and formed the volunteer Pioneer No. 1 Company that November, raising money through parades, balls, and banquets to fund a Fireman's Hall. Early crews pumped water from the bay, cisterns, and wells and rang a Market Hall tower bell coded by city ward to signal a blaze's location. The opening of a waterworks in 1893 and paid firefighters beginning in 1913 transformed the service into a modern department.
Site of Old Salt Mill
Corpus Christi, TX
Captain John Anderson, a Swedish-born seafarer who brought his family to Texas in 1852, built a house on what was then the Corpus Christi waterfront and raised a wind-powered mill here. The mill ground salt and corn and cut wood, working chunks of salt gathered from the shores of the Laguna Madre into fine table salt and coarse curing salt. Much of it supplied the meat-packing and hide plants that flourished along the Texas coast after the Civil War before the family replaced the windmill with a residence in 1900.
Site of the Nueces Hotel
Corpus Christi, TX
As railroads made the Texas coast reachable, South Texas businessmen built the 205-room Nueces Hotel on the Corpus Christi waterfront in 1912–13 to draw vacationers to the bay. It weathered a devastating 1919 hurricane and thrived through the 1920s as the port opened, passing into the hands of rancher William W. Jones's family before Hurricane Celia's damage led to its demolition in 1971.