James W. Latimer (Weck)

The Herald outlived its founder by more than two decades. The Handbook of Texas says James Latimer and William Wallace bought the Paris, Texas, Times in summer 1849 and moved it to Dallas that fall; it may first have been the Cedar Snag, but by December it was the Herald. Wallace retired in 1850. Latimer ran it alone until John Swindells became co-owner in 1854 and owner when Latimer died in 1859. A daily edition began in 1874. New owners took over in 1879, and the Dallas Morning News bought it on December 3, 1885.

What the plaque says

James W. Latimer (Weck) (1783 - 1860) Latimer was born in New London, Conn. Moved to Texas, with family, in 1833. Founder and editor first newspaper in Dallas, 1849. Known originally as "The Cedar Snag" then as "Dallas Herald." Incorporated into "Dallas Morning News" in 1885. Recorded, 1968

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 0.5 mi
  A plow-company warehouse of 1903, identified by the Warren Commission as the building Oswald fired from, now a museum on its sixth and seventh floors above Dealey Plaza.
• Dallas Museum of Art — 0.8 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.
• Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park — 0.8 mi
  Dallas's first city park, laid out around Browder's Spring in 1876, now a museum of historic buildings moved here from across North Texas, among them Millermore, a cotton planter's mansion.
• African American Museum, Dallas — 2.1 mi
  Founded in 1974 at Bishop College, a free Fair Park museum holding the Sepia photograph archive, African art and A. Maceo Smith's papers, and the story of the Hall of Negro Life.

More markers nearby

• Crockett, John McClannahan — steps away
• Nicholas Henry Darnell — steps away
• Juliette Abbey Peak Fowler — steps away
• Pioneer Cemetery — steps away