Jasper "News-Boy"

Edward I. Kellie landed in Galveston in 1859 and worked as a printer's helper, later at Sabine Pass, after his parents died of yellow fever in New Orleans in 1856, according to Bob Bowman's East Texas column. He joined the Confederate army in 1861 and came back to Jasper in 1865 to start the weekly with a hand press and jumbled type. Bowman reports that historians have called him the Mark Twain of East Texas. In 1880 he left for a steamboat crew at Sabine Pass, became a captain and pilot, and kept writing columns.

What the plaque says

Jasper "News-Boy" (Published continuously since July 1865) Founded by Capt. Edward Irwin Kellie (1845-1928), a New Orleans newsboy who came to Texas 1859, and worked in a printshop in Galveston. After fighting in the Civil War, he set up shop here with old hand press of pre-war "East Texas Clarion" and "East Texian." Staff associates were Wallace Blake and T. H. Good. Style was blunt, homespun. "We bend our knee to none but God" was the editorial slogan. Kellie sold his interest in 1880, but the "News-Boy" editors and publishers since his time have maintained the original policies of service to Jasper. (1966)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Martin Dies, Jr. State Park — 13 mi
  A 705-acre state park on Steinhagen Reservoir at the meeting of the Neches and Angelina rivers, with about 14 miles of paddling trails through sloughs and more than 200 campsites.

More markers nearby

• Jasper County, C. S. A. — steps away
• Jasper County Courthouse — steps away
• Jasper Public Schools — 0.5 mi
• Site of J.H. Rowe School — 0.7 mi