100th Anniversary Brenham "Banner-Press"

The paper's first year was a fight with the Freedmen's Bureau. The Handbook of Texas says editor McGary attacked the Bureau in the Brenham Banner, that federal authorities arrested him in 1866, and that the arrest raised tensions. On September 7 of that year, three federal soldiers were shot at a dance, and the soldiers who returned arrested two citizens and set a fire that burned part of the town. The plaque dates the burning of McGary's shop and nearby businesses to the same year.

What the plaque says

100th Anniversary Brenham "Banner-Press" (1866-1966) Founded Jan. 1, 1866, as weekly "Southern Banner", by Dan McGary and John C. Rankin, Confederate veterans. For his independent policies, editor McGary was jailed that year; shop and nearby businesses burned. But paper survived; became a daily in 1876. "Banner" was merged with "Press" in 1912 by George Neu. Mrs. Ruby Robertson, on staff in 1912, in 1917 became first woman in Texas to edit a daily. Jim Byrd, production superintendent, has been on force since 1921. Ben F. Blanton, a newspaperman since 1939, became editor and publisher on Feb. 1, 1962. (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 12 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 18 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 19 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 19 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.

More markers nearby

• Germania Mutual Aid Association — steps away
• William H. Watson — 0.6 mi
• Brenham — 1.0 mi
• Evangelical Lutheran Colleges of Texas — 1.2 mi