Abstracts from the Clarksville Standard (Formerly the Northern Standard)

The Northern Standard, later renamed The Clarksville Standard, was a weekly newspaper first published in 1842 by Charles DeMorse in Clarksville, a small town in the northeastern corner of the Republic of Texas. The paper grew to become the second largest in circulation in Texas and DeMorse was hailed as the Father of Texas Journalism. In 1854 and 1855, Texas was still "growing up." The Standard was more than a country newspaper. It published national and international news received from "exchange papers" from other parts of Texas, the Eastern seaboard, and even Europe. A myriad of political ideologies, temperance, and the growing issue of slavery and abolition were some of the topics discussed. Local news focused on Clarksville and the reader's home terrain: Bowie, Cass, Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Hopkins, Hunt, Jack, Johnson, Kaufman, Lamar, Montague, Parker, Red River, Tarrant, Titus, Upshur, and Wise Counties. Town activities, marriages and deaths, celebrations, crops, weather and more were covered. Both the genealogist and the student of Texas history will prize this work. For the genealogist, there is a wealth of names. For historians, this volume offers a taste of the people, events and attitudes in motion which were to shape Texas and the United States. An every name index enhances the text.