Williamson County Sun

The Sun began in rented space on the third floor of the original courthouse on the Square, and the paper dates its first issue to May 19, 1877. In 1881 it moved into the stone building at 711 Main Street, and in 1936 it bought and moved into the two-story building next door. A biographical sketch of founder J. E. Cooper says he was born in Maury County, Tennessee, on February 5, 1855, practiced law in Georgetown and edited the paper, and that his father, a Confederate captain, was killed at Raymond, Mississippi, in 1863.

What the plaque says

Williamson County Sun First published on May 19, 1877, the "Williamson County Sun" was founded by Jessie E. Cooper (1855-1944). In its first century of operation, the "Sun" initiated numerous civic projects, such as the building of the first railroad in Georgetown, Wesleyan Retirement Home, and low cost housing. Editors of the paper included Frank T. Roche, John R. Allen, John M. Sharpe, and Robert W. Cooper, son of the founder. Donald and Clara Scarbrough became the second full owners of the enterprise in 1948. The oldest newspaper in Williamson County, the weekly "Sun" became a semi-weekly in 1974. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Williamson County Courthouse — steps away
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 2.1 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• The Round Rock — 8.6 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• Mount Bonnell — 23 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.

More markers nearby

• C.A.D. Clamp — steps away
• Ku Klux Klan Trials — steps away
• In Memory of George Washington Glasscock, Sr. — steps away
• Williamson County — steps away