The Gilmer Mirror

Silver Alley is the story the Mirror left on the map. A 1946 county history says the paper once stood at the corner of Silver Alley and Harrison Street, and that town wags named the alley after editor Mr. Holmes, who opened his collection rounds with a request for a little silver today. The history guesses he remembered Civil War paper money and preferred hard coin. That history was itself printed by the Mirror in August 1946. The Portal to Texas History hosts digitized issues of the daily and weekly Mirror across nine decades.

What the plaque says

"The Gilmer Mirror" Oldest continuous business in this county. Founded as weekly, "Upshur County Democrat," Jan. 1, 1877. Early owners included W. C. Paul, the Rev. S. R. Chadick, and J. P. Hart, who named it "Texas Mirror" in 1882; "Gilmer Mirror," 1895. Owned since 1915 by family of George Tucker (1861-1934), veteran of journalism in New York and other cities. From 1916 to 1944 had a daily edition-- considered a record for a town this size. russell H. Laschinger has been one of the publishers since 1924. Ray H. Greene is co-owner. After occupying various sites, firm erected this building 1941.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Bob Sandlin State Park — 24 mi
  A 1987 state park on a 9,000-acre reservoir, where a Republic of Texas stockade called Fort Sherman stood in 1838 and the Caddo lived from A.D. 800 to 1860, now with fishing piers, trails and cabins.
• Daingerfield State Park — 25 mi
  A pine-and-hardwood park built in 1935-39 by a white and a Black Civilian Conservation Corps company, with a dammed lake, Bass Lodge and a 2.4-mile loop trail around the water.
• East Texas Oil Museum — 25 mi
  A Kilgore College museum that rebuilds the 1930s oil boom in a full-scale Boomtown with a general store, drugstore and newspaper office, plus dioramas, films and antiques given by East Texans.
• Tyler State Park — 26 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.

More markers nearby

• Cherokee Trace — steps away
• Upshur County, C. S. A. — steps away
• The Looney School — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Gilmer — steps away