O. P. Pyle

The Handbook of Texas says Pyle ran for Wood County judge on the Populist ticket in 1892 and lost. The local Alliance made him editor of its Mineola paper in 1894, and he bought it. The Farmers' Union purged its nonfarmer officers in August 1905, Pyle among them, though he was elected national president that December. In 1907 he apparently struck state president David J. Neill; charges were dropped, but the news discredited him. He sold the National Cooperator in April 1908 and broke down. Governor Oscar B. Colquitt named him to the Texas Industrial Accident Board in 1913.

What the plaque says

O. P. Pyle Arkansas native Owen Pinkney Pyle (1867-1919) was publisher and editor of the Mineola "Courier" at the turn of the century. An advocate of the farmer, he was instrumental in establishing the Texas Farm Union and the National Farmers' Educational and Cooperative Union. He served as the first president of the latter and also published the "National Co-Operator", the organization's weekly newspaper. Pyle built his home at this site in 1903-04, but later settled in Belton, where he continued to be a prominent journalist and leader of the state's Progressive movement. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Governor Hogg Shrine — 9.0 mi
  Quitman's 27-acre city park, once a state historical park, where two houses tied to James Stephen Hogg's marriage stand beside an arboretum, a nature walk and the grounds of the Old Settlers Reunion.
• Tyler State Park — 17 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 23 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 24 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.

More markers nearby

• Birthplace of Miss Ima Hogg — steps away
• Gov. James Stephen Hogg and Wood County — steps away
• Select Theater — steps away
• Mineola Opera Houses — steps away