The Uvalde "Leader-News"

The town the paper covered roughly doubled between 1940 and 1960, from 5,286 people and 100 businesses to 10,293 people and 202 businesses, and it had 14,908 residents by 1989. The 1980 census counted Uvalde 63 percent Hispanic and 36 percent white. The town called itself the honey capital of the world, and it kept a United States fish hatchery, a Texas A&M research and extension center, and a fairgrounds with a rodeo arena and a racetrack for quarter horses. A large asphalt mine lay outside the city limits.

What the plaque says

The Uvalde "Leader-News" This newspaper succeeded earlier ones: The Uvalde "Hesperian" (founded 1879), "West Texan" (1884), The Uvalde "News" (1886), and The "Leader" of 1898. Harry P. Hornby (1876-1948), an Englishman, arrived in January 1898 and in three weeks launched The "Leader". Three years later this paper absorbed The "News" and took the present name. The "Leader-News" was sold in 1908 to Frank M. Getzendaner and in 1919 to Bessie Fletcher. By 1925, Hornby was again Editor and Publisher. He also had other business and civic activities, including holding office as mayor in 1926-1930. The paper attracted national attention in 1931 by its triumphant support of local citizen John Nance Garner for the Vice President of the United States. The son, Harry Hornby, after four years as a U.S. Marine officer, began editing The "Leader-News" in 1946, and with his wife became owner in 1948. The paper in the 1960s boosted the candidacy of another local resident, Dolph Briscoe, who became the Governor of Texas. Maintaining policies stated in the first issue, The "Leader-News" continues to support new enterprise and industry; its editorials promote education, recreation, and conservation improvements in Uvalde and throughout the state. 1976

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Uvalde Grand Opera House — steps away
  An 1891 Victorian opera house on the Uvalde square with a turret and a dragon weathervane, once owned by John Nance Garner and still staging volunteer theater upstairs.
• Briscoe-Garner Museum — 0.4 mi
  The Uvalde house of John Nance Garner, the vice president who made the office a power in Congress, now a free museum to him and to Governor Dolph Briscoe.
• Fort Inge Historical Site — 2.4 mi
  A county park on the Leona River below a 140-foot volcanic plug, where an army post guarded the new road to El Paso from 1849 to 1869 and Texas Rangers camped after.

More markers nearby

• Rice Hotel and Saddlery — steps away
• Reading Wood Black — steps away
• Uvalde County — steps away
• Fort Inge, Camp Dix, C.S.A. — steps away