Wilbur Cherry
Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Served in the Texas army, 1836. Purchased the "Galveston News" 1843. Born in New Haven, N. Y. January 4, 1820; died June 19, 1873. His wife Catherine Crosby French Cherry born in Sligo, Ireland, February 22, 1826; died February 15, 1909.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A New York-born young man who came of age with the Texas Republic, Wilbur Cherry served in the Texas army during the revolutionary year of 1836 before turning to the printed word. In 1843 he purchased the Galveston News, joining the ranks of the frontier newspapermen who knit together public life in a scattered new nation. His Irish-born wife, Catherine, outlived him by decades, their intertwined lives marking Galveston's growth from Republic-era port to Gilded Age city.
Why it matters
Cherry links two pillars of early Texas — the soldiers who won independence and the pioneer press that gave the young Republic its voice — in a single Galveston life.
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Related people
- · Wilbur Cherry
- · Catherine Crosby French Cherry
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Wilbur Cherry House
Galveston, TX
New York native Wilbur Cherry fought in the Texas revolution and then helped launch the newspaper that survives today as the Galveston Daily News. Around 1852 he built this two-story home with its distinctive double gallery of square pillars, one of the oldest surviving residences on the island. His widow Catherine lived on there past the turn of the century.
Major John M. Allen
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John M. Allen fought at San Jacinto in the war that won Texas its independence, then went on to serve as the first mayor of Galveston. Kentucky-born, he died in 1847, only a year after the Republic joined the United States. This state marker remembers a founder who helped launch one of the young state's leading port cities.
Captain William S. Fisher
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