The Uvalde "Leader-News"

🏛️The era

Uvalde grew up in the brush country of Southwest Texas, a ranching region where sheep, goats and cattle shaped the economy. In the late nineteenth century, small towns across the West wanted their own newspaper almost as much as they wanted a railroad. A local paper carried legal notices and market news, gave a town a voice, and signaled that it meant to grow.

Small papers also came and went quickly. They merged, folded, changed hands and were reborn under new names. Uvalde's history shows exactly that: a line of papers from 1879 onward, each giving way to the next.

By the twentieth century, papers like this one were more than news sheets. They were civic boosters that pushed for roads, schools and new business, and they championed hometown figures in state and national politics.

👥People & events

The central figure is Harry P. Hornby, an Englishman who arrived in Uvalde in January 1898. He moved remarkably fast: within three weeks he had launched a paper called the "Leader." Three years later it absorbed the Uvalde "News," and the combined paper took the name it still carries, the "Leader-News."

The paper changed hands more than once. It was sold to Frank M. Getzendaner in 1908 and to Bessie Fletcher in 1919. By 1925, Hornby was back as editor and publisher. He was also active in town life beyond the newsroom, and he served as mayor from 1926 to 1930.

The paper's proudest moment came with its support for a local man, John Nance Garner. Garner, a Uvalde resident, rose through Congress to become Speaker of the House and then Vice President of the United States under Franklin D. Roosevelt. According to the marker, the paper's enthusiastic backing drew national attention.

The family tradition carried on. Hornby's son, also named Harry, spent four years as a Marine officer and began editing the paper in 1946. He and his wife became its owners in 1948. In the 1960s the paper backed another Uvalde man, Dolph Briscoe, who went on to become Governor of Texas.

🇺🇸Its place in the American story

The "Leader-News" is a reminder that American politics has often started on Main Street. A small-town editor who believed in a local man could help turn him into a statewide or national figure. From one ranch town, this paper watched two of its own neighbors rise to the vice presidency and the governor's office.

Its story also reflects the immigrant energy in American journalism. An Englishman arrived in a Texas brush-country town and within weeks was running a newspaper that would last more than a century under his family's influence.

Finally, the paper stands for the long tradition of hometown boosterism. Its editorials championed enterprise, education, recreation and conservation. Local papers everywhere played that role, and in many towns they did as much to shape the community as any elected official.

🧭If you visit

Uvalde is a gateway to the Texas Hill Country and the brush country to the south, and it's a natural stop on a drive across Southwest Texas. The marker is a good excuse to slow down and look at the town itself, since its history as a political hometown is unusually rich for a place its size.

As you stand at the marker, think about how much the town's story passed through a newspaper office. Editors, mayors, a vice president and a governor all came out of the same community.

If you're exploring further, keep an eye out for other reminders of Uvalde's famous residents, especially John Nance Garner, whose connection to the town is well known. This stop pairs well with a scenic drive into the nearby Hill Country river valleys.