Wise County Messenger
Decatur, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Started by William Forster in 1880, the "Messenger" was published in Paradise (10 miles southwest) and Alvord (11 miles northwest) before a permanent move to Decatur in 1885. Early editions included poems, love stories, and lists of strayed animals and mail at the dead letter office. N. W. and H. A. Halcomb became the owners in 1894. Two of their staff members, Marvin Smith and R. E. "Dick" Collins, bought the paper in 1907. A correspondent during the Spanish-American War, Collins worked on the staff for 40 years. Mergers with Decatur papers include the "Post" (1890), "News" (1935), and "News Review" (1940). (1981)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded by William Forster in 1880, the Wise County Messenger wandered between Paradise and Alvord before settling permanently in Decatur in 1885, its early pages carrying poems, love stories, and notices of strayed livestock. Passing through the Halcomb family and then to staffers Marvin Smith and R. E. "Dick" Collins in 1907, the paper absorbed rival Decatur sheets over the decades. Collins, once a Spanish-American War correspondent, served the Messenger for forty years.
Why it matters
Small-town newspapers like the Messenger knit frontier Texas communities together, recording the everyday business of rural life long before radio or telephone reached the county seat.
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Related people
- · William Forster
- · Marvin Smith
- · R. E. "Dick" Collins
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Charles Vernon Terrell
Decatur, TX
Charles Vernon Terrell rose from a Wise County law practice to become one of Texas's most consequential public servants across four decades. As a state senator he sponsored the act that created what became North Texas State University, and as a member of the Texas Railroad Commission he helped steer the agency during the wild East Texas oil boom of the 1930s. His generation of regulators pioneered oil and gas conservation rules just as Texas was becoming a global energy power.
First National Bank of Decatur
Decatur, TX
Organized in 1883 by cattleman Dan Waggoner, Henry Greathouse, and other pioneer businessmen, the First National Bank of Decatur became a pillar of Wise County commerce. Waggoner's son W. T. Waggoner — a prominent rancher and oilman — served as president from 1904 until his death in 1934, guiding the bank safely through the Great Depression. It anchored Decatur's town square for over eighty years before moving in 1966.
First Baptist Church Bridgeport
Bridgeport, TX
First Baptist Church of Bridgeport was founded in 1882 by Rev. Alphus Hawkins, W.W. Cannon, and twenty-three charter members in old Bridgeport, moving to its own one-room building in 1895. Coal mining, cattle ranching, and the railroad swelled the town, and by 1920 the congregation numbered three hundred and had sent Blanche Groves as its first missionary to China. Decades of new sanctuaries and education buildings, along with three sponsored missions, chart the church's growth alongside its Wise County community.
Bridgeport Coal Mines
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Coal turned up here by accident in the late 1800s, when diggers hunting for water struck a vein 60 feet down, and the ground beneath northeast Bridgeport is still honeycombed with the resulting tunnels and shafts. The Wise County Coal Company was chartered in 1882, later became the Bridgeport Coal Company under Virginia's Colonel William H. Aston, and at its peak employed 500 workers before the rise of oil and gas closed the mines in 1929.