Marker Number: 10513
Marker Text:
Near this spot on November 6, 1880, the first "Beaumont Enterprise" came off the press. This newspaper, founded by John W. Leonard, is southeast Texas' oldest business institution.
The "Beaumont Journal," founded in August 1889 by Robert Emmett Kelley, bears the distinction of being the second oldest newspaper in this area.
The two papers, published under the same ownership since 1921, serves a Texas - Louisiana community extending from the Trinity River on the west to the Red River on the east, and from the Redlands on the north to the Gulf of Mexico.
They attained national stature under auspices of James L. and Kathryn Smythe Mapes, Alabama natives, who cames to the Enterprise in 1908 and in 1931 acquired the business. Jim Mapes for two years was president of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. When he died in 1936, he willed stock to key employees. Mrs. Mapes then served as president, and upon her death in 1948 left the majority stock in trust to her grandnephew, Robert E. Myers.
Impartial presentation of the news and responsibility to the public welfare continue as the hallmarks of the Enterprise and the Journal.
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