San Marcos Free Press (San Marcos, Tex.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
659 issues from 1877 to 1890, published in San Marcos, Texas, digitised for Chronicling America.
In 1873, Issac H. Julian relocated from Indiana to San Marcos, Texas. The publisher of a newspaper in eastern Indiana for 14 years, Julian quickly bought the only existing paper in Hays County, the San Marcos Times. He published the paper under several names over the next 27 years.
Julian began the paper as the West Texas Free Press and San Marcos Valley Times. In 1874, he renamed it the West Texas Free Press and in 1877, the San Marcos Free Press, a title it held until it ceased publication in 1892. Throughout its tenure, the paper ran as a four-page Saturday weekly, but its physical characteristics varied, sometimes measuring 22 x 30 or 24 x 35 inches and featuring five, six, or seven columns. The price of an annual subscription remained constant at two dollars and fifty cents until 1898, when it dropped to one dollar and fifty cents. In 1886, the San Marcos Free Press officially reached 550 subscribers, but Julian reported printing an edition of 1,200 copies that same year.
The official paper of Hays County, the Free Press strove to meet the needs of all residents, including women and children. In addition to Texas and national news, the newspaper printed jokes, aphorisms, and advice targeted specifically to young women. A published poet, Julian always printed a poem on the front page, and fiction frequently appeared there as well.
Politically, the paper supported the Jeffersonian wing of the Democratic Party. Editorials advocated increased personal liberty, state…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- San Marcos, Texas, United States
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress