The Comanche Chief

The Chief reported on a county of shifting politics. For some years after 1873 it was the only newspaper in this part of Texas, the Handbook says, and Comanche had become the political center for some fifty counties. The Handbook's Hill entry calls the paper staunchly Democratic. Yet in the 1890s the People's Party grew powerful in the county, and in 1898 the Populist slate won a number of county offices. The paper's readers lived in a county that grew from 8,608 people in 1880 to 23,009 in 1900.

What the plaque says

The Comanche Chief Army engineers laid out a military road in this area in 1850. By 1855 thirty to forty families had settled in the vicinity. Comanche County was created in 1856, and Comanche became the second county seat in 1859. Its citizens, who entertained dreams of greatness for their town, envisioned a newspaper. Geraldo Alonzo Beeman, an experienced newspaperman, obtained an idle printing press and became the first editor of "The Comanche Chief." Its first issue published on August 21, 1873, the "Chief's" main goals were to draw more settlers to the area and to lobby for the protection and improvement of the lives of Comanche residents. The paper was instrumental in securing a Texas Ranger force for the area and in promoting legislation for placing public school lands on the market. By 1873, after the last of the Comanche tribe in the area was relegated to a reservation in Oklahoma, the town began to grow. "The Comanche Chief" was influential in social and political life, from chronicling the daily events of the neighborhood to lobbying for proper representation in the state legislature. It found its way to other regions of the country, advertising the advantages of the Comanche area and attracting new settlers. Sixteen-year-old Robert Thomas Hill (1858-1941), later called the Father of Texas Geology, began working at the "Chief" with his brother Joe in 1874. The Hills became co-editors of the paper and operated it together until Robert went to Cornell University in 1882. Other newspapers were organized and discontinued over the decades, but "The Comanche Chief" thrived; it was sold to the Wilkerson family in 1925. One hundred and forty-two years old at the dawn of the 21st century, "The Comanche Chief" is recognized as the oldest business in Comanche County. (2000)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dublin Bottling Works — 20 mi
  The Erath County plant that bottled Dr Pepper with cane sugar from 1891 until a 2012 settlement ended its Dr Pepper license, and that still makes its own sodas the same way.
• Lake Brownwood State Park — 25 mi
  A CCC park on a reservoir that filled in a single flood before its dam was done, with stone cabins, a hilltop dance pavilion and a grand staircase climbed by dancers arriving by boat.

More markers nearby

• Old Cora Courthouse — steps away
• Fleming Oak — steps away
• General Ashbel Smith, C.S.A. — steps away
• Indian Raid in Comanche — steps away