TOWN TOPICS

INTRODUCTION

The Collegeport Chronicle, a weekly, was one of the area's first newspapers. Murray A. Travis, brother of William A. Travis, moved to Collegeport from Canada in 1909. Besides publishing the paper, he was the first pastor of the Federated Church and helped his brother with the development of the university programs by serving as dean. The Houston Post Special Industrial Edition printed in 1912 reported that "the Collegeport Chronicle has a circulation of several hundred and is the mouthpiece of the community." The paper was published every Thursday and in April of 1910, J. H. Adams was listed as business manager. The rates in 1910 were $1.50 for one year and $1.00 for six months. In 1911, a three month subscription was $.50.

In 1914, the Collegeport Chronicle became the Collegeport New Era and was published weekly by J. J. Rodebaugh. The January 8, 1914 edition announced that the phone number for the New Era was 10. The rates were $1.50 for one year, $.15 for one month or a special of four weeks on trial for $.10. The rate for Canadian subscribers was $2.00. The January 7, 1915 issue listed individual copies for $.05. The Texas Gazetteer 1914 listed Mr. Rodebaugh as the publisher and job printer.

Both newspapers contained ads from the many Collegeport businesses as well as businesses in Palacios. Ads from Citrusgrove could also be found.

The ten existing issues of the Collegeport papers are housed in the archives of the Matagorda County Museum. One of the nine was taken from the cornerstone of the First Presbyterian Church. The earliest issue of the Collegeport Chronicle (April 28, 1910) does not appear in this group because the corner with the Town Topics column was missing.

Most of the issues have darkened with age and a few are in several pieces because of wear at the folds. It was a guessing game as to which portions belonged together.

As you read Town Topics, be aware that spelling and capitalization rules were different at that time. Minor spelling corrections were made in some cases. In the sections where one line or more might have been lost in the tearing of the fold an ... was used to indicate that several words were missing. At times a ____ was included to indicate a few missing letters. Letters or words in [ ] are guesses based on the context of the surrounding material. Guesses are also indicated with a ?.

Paper #	Newspaper	Volume	#	Date
i	Introduction
1	Collegeport Chronicle	I	23	Thursday, June 3, 1910
2	Collegeport Chronicle	I	18?	Thursday, August 4, 1910
3	Collegeport Chronicle	II	44	Thursday, November 2, 1911
4	Collegeport Chronicle	III	37	Thursday, September 12, 1912
5	Collegeport New Era	I	17	Thursday, January 8, 1914
6	Collegeport New Era	II	5	Thursday, October 15, 1914
7	Collegeport New Era	II	11	Thursday, November 26, 1914
8	Collegeport New Era	II	12	Thursday, December 3, 1914
9	Collegeport New Era	II	17	Thursday, January 7, 1915
The following issue was not included in the booklet published by the Collegeport Cemetery Association and is not in the following index. It was found in 2007 and the information from it was obtained by courtesy of Mark and Cathy Merck.
10	Collegeport New Era	II	7	Thursday, October 29, 1914

TOWN TOPIC COLUMNS
Paper 1	Paper 2	Paper 3	Paper 4	Paper 5	Paper 6	Paper 7	Paper 8	Paper 9

Copyright 2004 - Present by Carol Sue Gibbs All rights reserved
Created Dec. 17, 2004	Updated May 10, 2007

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