A historical link is severed. (original) (raw)

Whenthe Houston Chronicle decided to stop delivering its daily editions to homes in Lufkin and Angelina County, it severed a connection that reaches back more than a century.

In 1908, the Chronicle was acquired in part by Jesse H. Jones, who grew up in the lumber business connected to East Texas. His uncle M.T. Jones founded the sawmill town of Emporia near Dibollin 1882 and owned other sawmills at Orange.

Jesse also founded his own lumber company in Houstonbefore entering the newspaper business. He became the _Chronicle_�s sole owner in 1926.

During World War I, Jones managed military relief for the American Red Cross at the request of President Woodrow Wilson. In the 1930s, another president, Herbert Hoover, appointed Jones to chair the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to combat the Great Depression, becoming one of the most powerful men in America.

After flirting with the vice-presidential nomination in 1940, Jones was offered the post of secretary of commerce, but was allowed to keep another federal title, head of the Federal Loan Agency, which superseded the RFC.

In the late 1930s, when Southland Paper Mills, Inc., was founded at Lufkin, Jesse Jones steered RFC money to the mill�s construction. And when the mill began making the first newsprint from Southern pine trees in 1940, the _Chronicle_was among its first customers and continued to buy paper made in Lufkinfor a half-century.

Two Lufkinites--Morris Frank and Clayte Binion--became prominent Chronicle employees. Both were newspapermen in Lufkinand Binion�s family owned the forerunner of the Lufkin Daily News.

Frank, who wrote a Chronicle column, �Of Cabbages and Kings,� also became one of America�s best known toastmasters. He often spoke in Lufkin, always starting his speeches with �Uncle Jesse sends his regards,� even though Jones wasn�t a blood relative.

Binion became an executive in the _Chronicle_�s news room and was responsible for the creation of a Chronicle East Texas bureau at Lufkin in 1959. I was lucky enough to become the first bureau chief.

Everytime I made a trip to the Chronicle building in downtown Houston, Binion and Frank always asked me about �the folks in Lufkin.�

I always stayed at Jones� Rice Hotel across the street from the Chronicle. He also owned a Houston radio station known as KTRH. The last three letters stood for �The Rice Hotel.�

While working for the Chronicle, I wrote my first book on East Texas ghost towns.

No one in Lufkinknows why the Chronicle pulled out of Lufkin, but it was a frothy issue in town for a few weeks, especially because the _Chronicle_decided to continue home deliveries at Corrigan, south of Lufkin--a town with about 31,000 less people.

©

Bob Bowman January 6, 2012 Column
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