< Previous“The interests of the new state will be better promoted by keeping aloof from party contests,” Richardson wrote in an editorial in 1845, the year he became a partner in the paper’s ownership and the last year of the Republic of Texas. “We believe it is our duty to have decided opinions upon all public questions and to declare them frankly, giving our reasons for them, regardless of whether they are considered as favoring one party or the other.”TORN ON SECESSIONRichardson was not a man without stain; he not only sided with those advocating the preservation of slavery, he held a slave. But he opposed secession.Texas in the late 1850s boasted an emerging economy, in no small part due to Richardson’s widespread promotion of the state as a land of opportunity, and the publisher argued that secession would only disrupt that progress. Yet, when the state voted to throw in with the Confederacy — its second rebellion in 15 years against a nation to which it had pledged loyalty — Richardson went along with no small amount of fervor.Yet, he continued to promote Galveston and the rest of Texas.By 1856, he had conceived of a state-owned rail system and took his proposal to Austin for legislative approval, which wasn’t forthcoming. Still, Richardson’s well-argued and well-advertised plan spurred private development of rail lines.His editorial push also altered established railroaders’ plans, including those of the Southern Pacific, who had envisioned a sweep of track from the western banks of the Mighty Mississippi to the Pacific shore — just not through Texas.Richardson set out to persuade the Southern Pacific to his view.Twenty-seven years later, in 1883, an article on the front page of The News announced the opening of Pacific Southern service through Texas as part of the nation’s transcontinental rail system.It came eight years too late for Richardson to see.Willard Richardson, who in 1849 had married the former Louisa Blanche Murrell, breathed his last at 3:20 a.m. on July 26, 1875, at his home on Galveston Island.He was 73 years old.20 | The Daily News | Celebrating 175 Years THE FOUNDERS“WE BELIEVE IT IS OUR DUTY TO HAVE DECIDED OPINIONS UPON ALL PUBLIC QUESTIONS AND TO DECLARE THEM FRANKLY, GIVING OUR REASONS FOR THEM, REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY ARE CONSIDERED AS FAVORING ONE PARTY OR THE OTHER.”WILLARD RICHARDSON Celebrating 175 Years | The Daily News | 21THE FOUNDERSA successor’s successesALFRED BELOBY TOM BASSINGThe first volley pierced the crown of the captain’s cap, the second the shoulder of the major’s coat; neither found flesh and bone.The captain — assistant adjutant-general of the Confederate Army’s Alabama Brigade, named Cousins — had co-written a brigade report identifying the 55th North Carolina Infantry Regiment as having failed to protect an artillery piece seized by Federal troops during an evening raid outside Suffolk, Va.The major, assigned to the 55th, was Alfred Belo.Belo’s commanding officer, Col. John Kerr Connally, on learning of the allegation, accosted Cousins and his deputy, a captain named Terrell, demanding they retract the offending report. Orders showed the 55th had been positioned elsewhere during the raid, but the Alabamians refused.“Colonel Connally ... called a meeting of the field officers and captains, stated the circumstances to them, and insisted the honor of the regiment required its officers should demand satisfaction from those who had slandered it,” the 55th’s adjutant wrote, according to the regiment’s official history.Connally challenged Terrell to a duel, and avowed that his second in command, Lt. Col. Maurice Smith, would deal with Cousins. Smith, however, a Presbyterian elder before the war, morally objected to dueling.Belo volunteered.The matter would be settled at 40 paces. But a reprieve was in the works even as Cousins and Belo reloaded for a third round.“The friends of Colonel Connally and Captain Terrell were engaged in an effort to make an honorable settlement of the affair, and Captain Terrell, who was a gallant officer and true gentleman, became satisfied that he had been mistaken in the report which he had made and which had been the cause of offense, and he withdrew the same, which action prevented any further hostilities.”No blood was shed that day, but Belo’s soon would flow.PROMOTION BY BLOODAt Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, Belo — now a colonel after two battlefield promotions — led a charge at the dug-in Union forces, who unleashed a fusillade of rifle and artillery fire.The assault came midway through three days of carnage on the Pennsylvania battlefield. An artillery shard struck Belo, ripping apart his leg, a wound that took the better part of a year to heal. When it did, he resumed command of the 55th North Carolina Regiment and on June 3, 1864, led his troops on a similar charge during the second battle of Cold Harbor — with a similar result.“Colonel Belo was seriously wounded in this charge,” Cooke reported. “Colonel Belo’s wound was in the arm, half way between the elbow and shoulder joint; the bone was shattered and the operation of re-section was performed.”The round and the surgery rendered Belo’s left arm useless — and ended his war.“The loss to the regiment was irreparable,” Cooke wrote. “He had been with the regiment in all its hard-fought battles, and had the absolute confidence of every man in the regiment. He was cool and intrepid. … He had a genius for organization.”Those qualities, that genius, would serve him well in his return to civilian life.LONG WAY TO TEXASBelo’s injury at Cold Harbor ended his days in combat, but not in service; he accompanied Gen. Robert E. Lee to Appomattox, where, on April 9, the Confederate commander surrendered to Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. The war was over.Belo had heard of opportunity in Texas and set out on horseback, reaching Houston, where in August 1865 the 26-year-old veteran was introduced to Willard Richardson, the owner and publisher of The Galveston News.Belo’s bearing and service record impressed the publisher, who had ardently supported the Confederacy. He offered the colonel a six-month assignment, paying $500 in gold, to straighten out the newspaper’s delinquent accounts.Belo in short order collected the bulk of debts owed by subscribers and advertisers and otherwise cleaned up the paper’s books. Impressed, Richardson offered him a share of the company. On March 1, 1866, almost exactly six months after Belo’s arrival at the paper, he was promoted to junior partner in charge of business.When Richardson died nine years later, Belo bought out the publisher’s heirs and took full ownership of the company, which in 1881 he incorporated as A.H. Belo & Co.A LASTING LEGACYFour years later, on Oct. 1, 1885, Belo launched a sister paper, the Dallas News.His philosophy, handed down by Richardson, reflected his mentor’s commitment to an independent journal.“A great newspaper must be serenely indifferent to personal likes and dislikes, personal opinions and prejudices inside or outside of its organization, which would interfere with its functions as a faithful collector and disseminator of news; as a voice, an intelligence and a reasoning conscience, to interpret for the reading public the ripest thought and best judgment of the time touching all questions of public concern,” Belo wrote.He continued to oversee The News, commissioning the architect Nicholas Clayton to design an elegant, solid, three-story building in the 2100 block of Mechanic Street to consolidate the paper’s business offices, its newsroom and composing room and its latest press.The building opened in 1884, and for the next 17 years The News thrived under the colonel’s command.Alfred Horatio Belo was born in Salem, N.C., on May 27, 1839, and died on April 19, 1901, while visiting his family’s summer home in Asheville, N.C., where he often traveled in his later years to recuperate from his evermore debilitating war injuries.Now, 116 years later, Belo is survived both by the paper he founded and by the paper that adopted him.22 | The Daily News | Celebrating 175 Years While most of this publication is dedicat-ed to the people and events that shaped and directed The Galveston County Daily News during its long history, it’s appropri-ate to spend a little time on the leaders of the future. To that end, The Daily News posed five questions to Lissa Walls.She is the daughter of Carmage and Martha Ann Walls, whose leadership shaped the modern Daily News, and sole proprietor of the newspaper.Walls has been in the newspaper business since 1980. She began her career as a reporter for the Rosenberg (Texas) Herald Coaster, owned by Hartman Newspapers, and became chief operating officer of Southern Newspapers in 1985. She was elected CEO in March 2014. She has served on the boards of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation, Mutual Insurance Company and Trinity University and is a past vice chairwoman of The Associated Press.She was born in Guntersville, Ala., and moved to the Houston area with her family in 1973. She is a 1980 graduate of Trinity University in San Antonio and lives in Houston.Q: You were born into a newspaper family. Did you pursue it as a career because it was the family business or for other reasons?A: I never entertained any other career or profession. My parents were true partners, both actively engaged in a business that doesn’t get left at the office after 5 p.m. It’s part of your life, almost as if Southern were another child with a seat at the table. I saw how exciting and challenging it was. My parents did interesting things, went to interesting places, had interesting friends. I saw how much fun they were having.I wanted that and it has been that for me.I still find this business exciting, challenging and fun.Q: In the context of the newspaper and the company’s other publications and operations there, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Galveston County?A: Well, it’s a couple of things. Each community is unique, but there are some that are more unique than others. Galveston County is very unique, and it’s just a wonderful place to work as a journalist or to own and publish a newspaper. Southern has always expected high quality journalism from its papers, and The Daily News has always set the standard of quality for the other newspapers.Q: We’ve had a decade or two of gloom and doom about the future of printed newspapers. What’s your best professional estimate about the future of newspapers like The Daily News?A: I can only speak about newspapers in small and medium-sized communities, but I think that if you have a small or medium-sized newspaper in a community with a stable or growing economy, you have a very good future. There’s an if, though, and it’s a very big if — If you commit the resources to produce high-quality, accurate, engaging, relevant content that fulfills a need in that community.I think every community has a need for that kind of content, and I don’t think it can be fulfilled in any other way. It can’t be done with social media, and it can’t be done on a digital platform alone.The product may change in the future. We may package that content differently, but it comes back to quality content that is relevant to the community. If you are producing that, then yes, this is a good business to be in. Certainly, there’s a place for digital publications, but print is still the primary medium and will be for some years to come.Q: What is most important to you about community newspapers? I’d like you to consider your answer from three perspectives, if you would: the journalism, the business and the community partner, or corporate citizen, maybe is a better description.A: It’s an interesting question, but I don’t think you can separate any one from the others. What you have there is three legs of a stool, each essential to supporting the others.You can’t have a strong community newspaper if you’re not doing all three of those things well.If it’s not a strong business, it can’t pay its employees a competitive wage or offer good benefits, so it can’t hire the best people. It can’t invest in the equipment, technology and the facilities you need to do the job.If you’re not producing good journalism, you’re not going to attract the readers and the advertisers you need to have a strong business.Being part of the community — being a very active part of the community, in my mind — is just as essential.Q: When you think back over your time with The Daily News, what are the three or four most memorable stories, just the first that come to mind?A: Hurricane Ike. I’ll just say that three times. Honestly, there have been a lot of stories that have been important to the community, but in my career there hasn’t been anything as important as how the paper covered that hurricane from the beginning until now, because we still feel the effects.I’ve always been proud of The Daily News and the people who worked so hard during, and served the community so well during that time. There have always been other challenges, and we have not always gotten it right, but we got it right that time, and I’m very proud of that.FIVE QUESTIONS FOR DAILY NEWS OWNER LISSA WALLSLISSA WALLSBY MICHAEL A. SMITHwww.GalvestonChamber.comJOIN NOW!First Chamber in TexasAre you a member?Happy aNNIversary GalvestON COuNty DaIly NeWsCelebrating years with our first chamber member!175 Celebrating 175 Years | The Daily News | 2324 | The Daily News | Celebrating 175 Years This summer, I’ll celebrate 30 years in Galveston.The late Vince Stiglich took a photo of me on my first day as publisher. The man in Vince’s picture is too young for his job. He’s trying to smile but smirks instead. If you look closely enough, there’s also a touch of fear in his eyes.Galveston and The Daily News changed me.That change did not come from the ups and downs of business. It didn’t come from the dramatic shifts in technology. (In 1987 the internet existed, just barely. None of us had ever written an email, and spam was a disgusting form of lunchmeat.)The change did not come from politics — always a passionate and bloody sport in Galveston.No. People, flesh and blood human beings, are at the heart of all real change. The Daily News gave my friends and me the opportunity to tell those human stories.What a strange and challenging trip it’s been, so full of victories and defeats, so filled with remarkable people.The month I arrived in Galveston, Shearn Moody was on the cover of Texas Monthly under the headline, “The sleaziest man in Texas.” I met him later at The Shrimp Boat, proudly flamboyant.J.R. McConnell came to me as a disembodied voice from a Houston jail cell. Weeks later, he committed suicide in disgrace.In Galveston, money, or at least the appearance of it, buys instant acceptance. But, oh, don’t slip. The fall is deep and painful.Robert Durst came to Galveston pretending — pretending to be mute, pretending to be a woman, pretending to be poor. Who could guess that his truth would turn out to be so much more bizarre?There were tragedies — lost girls in killing fields, deadly blasts at refineries. There were stories of heroes and villains, of the brilliant and the addled.And there was Hurricane Ike.After the storm, some of our staff lost everything they owned. But they showed up in the wake of personal loss, working by lantern light around our conference table, funky and exhausted but inspired.I think of wonderful, talented colleagues — people like Rosetta Bonnin, Heber Taylor, D’Lorah Collier, Bill Cochrane and many more.I also think of our owners, Carmage and Martha Ann Walls and today of their daughter, Lissa. No newspaper ever had better or more generous owners than the Walls family.Galveston is a freewheeling place, unlike any other in Texas. All of you, the people who read the newspaper, grant us a kind of freedom that few small-town newspapers have. You have given my friends and me the opportunity to tell the human stories that give a place its myths, its culture and its identity.We can tell the truth when it’s pretty and when it’s ugly and every variation in between.For those of us who write, such freedom is the greatest gift. With it comes a responsibility to be courageous and to be right at least half the time.My assignment here was to write about what the newspaper has meant to me. The answer is simple. For me, this is a love story.AT THE CORE, IT’S THE PEOPLE THAT MAKE THE PLACEBY DOLPH TILLOTSONThe reporting staff of The Galveston County Daily News works by lantern light in the conference room at the newspaper after Hurricane Ike. A web of extension cords run through the windows to generators on the loading dock. JENNIFER REYNOLDSDolph Tillotson on his first day as publisher of The Daily News. VINCE STIGLICHThe University of Texas Medical BranchcongratulatesThe Galveston County Daily Newson its 175th AnniversaryWhat began in 1842 as a single broadsheet paper to inform the community on the happenings of the island and beyond, continues 175 years later. As the oldest newspaper in the state of Texas, The Daily News continues to tell the stories of Galveston County and the world. With its longstanding mission to improve health in Texas and beyond, the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB Health) shares the same commitment to our communities. Since 1891, the university has trained generations of health professionals and has made countless research and patient care advances, while our hometown newspaper has been there to share these wonders.Working together—with local businesses, our employees, our students, our patients and our friends —we are working wonders to transform the future of health care and of our communities. Celebrating 175 Years | The Daily News | 25“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”—Thomas JeffersonFrom its original hand-cranked press, I believe that the “news without views” mantra that The Daily News was founded upon is the reason she has 175 years of recorded history today.Local newspapers are an invaluable resource for communities. Our founders understood the importance of educating our citizenry and a transparent government. As the mayor of Galveston, I personally can appreciate this sentiment.For 175 years, The Daily News has covered the governing body of Galveston while standing independent of political parties. They have been a voice to the inner workings at city hall and an opportunity for citizens to become engaged. She can be credited with inspiring political careers, public movements to support or protest, and a driver for voters to fulfill their civic duty.She is honest in her coverage, and the integrity with which The Daily News has enjoyed for 175 years can be directly tied to her success. She is a historian, a storyteller and a record keeper of times that we’ve gotten it right, and times when we’ve gotten it wrong.The community of Galveston is blessed to have a local paper that has withstood the test of time and managed to reinvent itself along the way to keep current with the trends. As Jefferson so eloquently stated, I would prefer to have newspapers without a government, rather than government without newspapers.I would like to personally thank The Daily News for 175 years of service to this community; here’s to the next 175!BY JIM YARBROUGH26 | The Daily News | Celebrating 175 Years NEWS WITHOUT VIEWSThe Daily News’ resiliency and success can be directly tied to its integrityJIM YARBROUGHMen work together to get the paper out. DAILY NEWS FILE SINCE 1976SALES AND RENTALS 409.763.8030 • 800.765.0576thehousecompany.comPat BrownSandy BastienBillie ArchuletaBrian Becker Joyce FantCarolyn ClyburnJay GoberEdie HarringtonSergio MontanezCarmen MontanezBrian KuhnAlex MonteithCathy MaplesMike SparksSonny VaianiDavid BowersTanya Jones Casey HowellGary ScheroCary LamSidney TregreTom SchwenkGinny AdamsCongratulations on 175 years of excellence in service to our communities.Thanks for being a great partner. Celebrating 175 Years | The Daily News | 27MAJOR STORIES THROUGH THE YEARS28 | The Daily News | Celebrating 175 Years It was a momentous decision, one that Willard Richardson had fought against, then accepted as Texas’ secession from the Union became all but ordained.So it was that The Galveston News owner and publisher made his way to Austin in late January 1861 to report on the proceedings of a weeklong convention called to draft and vote on an ordinance to sever the state’s ties to the nation it had eagerly joined a mere 15 years and a month before.Richardson’s report on the gathering’s conclusion ran in a single-page Extra edition of The News under a decidedly workaday headline: “Texas State Convention. Last Day’s Proceedings.”“Austin, Tuesday, Feb. 5th, 1861 — The Convention met at 3 p.m. yesterday. …“Gen. [John] Sanford … was welcomed by the President [of the convention] as the representative of the sovereign and independent State of Georgia. Having then been conducted to the President’s stand, Gen. S. delivered an eloquent address setting forth some of the objects of his mission, and the causes that impelled Georgia to secede from the Federal Union, and expressed his gratification at the prospect that Texas would also soon occupy the same position, and both States would speedily constitute part of a Southern Confederacy, in which our common rights and institutions should be preserved. …“Enclosed I send the Declaration of the causes that have induced the Convention to adopt the Ordinance of Secession. W. R.”The latter document — “A DECLARATION Of the Causes Which Impel the State of Texas to Secede From the Federal Union” — ran in full in the Extra; it began with an accounting of the former Republic of Texas’ Dec. 29, 1845, admission as a state:“Texas abandoned her separate national existence and consented to become one of the confederated States, to promote her welfare, insure domestic tranquility, and secure more substantially the blessings of liberty and peace to her people.”Left unsaid was that the consent brought with it federal funds sufficient to retire the Republic of Texas’ debilitating, multimillion-dollar debt.The declaration then assumed the words and tenor of a white-supremacist diatribe.“She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery — the servitude of the Africans to the white race within her limits — a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should continue to exist in all future time. Her traditions and geographical position established the strongest ties between her and the other slaveholding States of the Confederacy.”A losing battle to avoid joining a lost causeTHE SECESSIONBY TOM BASSINGMAJOR STORIES THROUGH THE YEARS Celebrating 175 Years | The Daily News | 29The declaration proceeded to list grievances attributed to abolitionists.“They have, for years past, encouraged and sustained lawless organizations to steal our slaves and prevent their re-capture. ...“They have invaded Southern soil and murdered unoffending citizens; and, through the press, their leading men and a fanatical pulpit, have bestowed praise upon the actors and assassins in these crimes — while the Governors of several of their States have refused to deliver parties implicated and indicted for participation in such offenses, upon the legal demands of the States aggrieved.“They have, through the mails and hired emissaries, sent seditious pamphlets and papers among us to stir up servile insurrection and bring blood and carnage to our firesides.“They have sent hired emissaries among us to burn our towns and distribute arms and poison to our slaves for the same purpose.“They have impoverished the slaveholding States by unequal and partial legislation, thereby enriching themselves by draining our substance.“They have refused to vote appropriations for protecting Texas against ruthless savages, for the sole reason that she is a slaveholding State. …“We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the [Union] itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as inferior and dependent races, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable. …“For these and other reasons, solemnly asserting that the Federal Constitution has been violated and virtually abrogated … and realizing that our own State can no longer look for protection, but to God and her own sons — We the delegates of the people of Texas, in convention assembled, have passed an ordinance dissolving all political connection with the government of the United States of America and the people thereof and confidently appeal to the intelligence and patriotism of the freemen of Texas to ratify the same at the ballot box, on the 23rd day of the present month. …“Adopted in Convention on the 2nd day of Feb., in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty one … .”In the decade preceding the adoption of the Ordinance of Secession, the Texas population had virtually tripled, to 604,215 people, 182,921 of whom were enslaved.Gov. Sam Houston had argued strenuously against secession — albeit allowing that should Texans vote to do secede, the state should return to its status as a republic and not join the Confederacy — but many of the state’s newcomers hailed from other slaveholding states, and Houston’s argument was dismissed. The ordinance passed by a vote of 166 aye to eight nay.On Feb. 23, 1861, three quarters of the roughly 61,000 Texans who voted in the statewide referendum similarly affirmed the ordinance, and, on March 2, Texas became the seventh member of the lost cause that was the Confederacy.Two days later, on March 4, President Abraham Lincoln raised his right hand, placed his left on a Bible, and solemnly swore to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.Houston, the hero of Texas’ independence, the first elected president of the Republic of Texas, and, too, the third, and twice elected the state’s governor, 12 days later refused to swear allegiance to the Confederacy — and his colleagues in Austin ousted him from office.The following month, on April 12, the bloody, awful war began.IN THE DECADE PRECEDING THE ADOPTION OF THE ORDINANCE OF SECESSION, THE TEXAS POPULATION HAD VIRTUALLY TRIPLED, TO 604,215 PEOPLE, 182,921 OF WHOM WERE ENSLAVED.Next >