A town that kept starting newspapers
Six mastheads since 1888. Only the last one survives whole.
Written by Robert Phipps · Photographer unknown
A town of a hundred and seventy-five people put out three newspapers in three years.1 The Enterprise in 1888, the Sun in 1889, the Rustler in 1890.2 The Times followed and ran the better part of ninety years; its own folio called it the Oldest Business Institution in Blooming Grove.3
Of those four, one is gone completely. Not a single copy of the Enterprise is known to exist anywhere — it survives as a sentence in a reference book.4 The Sun is three issues from 1889 on a reel at Nacogdoches.5 The Rustler is about ten issues in Austin, on a reel it shares with the Times.6 And of the Times, ninety years of it, exactly one issue has ever been digitized.7
Four papers, a dozen-odd issues, two reels of film two hundred miles apart. A fifth, the Community News Weekly, started on 17 November 1983 — Vol. 1, No. 1 of it has turned up — and ran at least through 1984.8
The sixth came out of the library on Fordyce Street from March 2009 to May 2012. All twenty-five issues are here, seven hundred and thirty-four pages, as printed.9 Nobody knew the May issue was the last one, which is why it does not say goodbye.10
The whole run is in the archives, with three generations of the town's website.
Notes and sources (10)
- U.S. Census Bureau, decennial census, 1890 population of Blooming Grove (175), as tabulated in 'BG history research wave,' 14 September 2026, BG archive Project (claude/BG_2026-09-14_HISTORY_RESEARCH_WAVE.md). The Handbook of Texas and Polk's 1890 directory give 800 for the same year; the two counts have not been reconciled. ↩
- Carol M. Rushing, 'Blooming Grove, TX,' Handbook of Texas Online, rev. 20 September 2023, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/blooming-grove-tx, accessed 2 October 2026 (Enterprise, 1888; Rustler, 1890); Library of Congress, U.S. Newspaper Directory, The Blooming Grove Sun, LCCN sn88083481 (1889, E. P. Gordon); N. W. Ayer & Son's American Newspaper Annual (1920), 926, Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc9268/m1/222/ (Rustler, 'established 1890,' R. W. George). ↩
- Blooming Grove Times, 6 December 1967, folio line, Portal to Texas History (Texas Ghost Town Newspapers collection); Library of Congress, U.S. Newspaper Directory, Blooming Grove Times, LCCN sn86088350 (from 1891); Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, microfilm index, holdings December 1924–February 1980. ↩
- Rushing, 'Blooming Grove, TX,' Handbook of Texas Online ('The first newspaper, the Blooming Grove Enterprise, was published briefly in 1888'). No holdings were found at the Library of Congress, the Briscoe Center or the Portal to Texas History (search of 14 September 2026, claude/BG_2026-09-14_HISTORY_RESEARCH_WAVE.md). ↩
- The Blooming Grove Sun, 16 August, 23 August and 22 November 1889, microfilm service copy, East Texas Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches; LCCN sn88083481. ↩
- The Blooming Grove Rustler, about ten issues 1906–1918, microfilm, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin, microfilm index, 23; LCCN sn86088348. ↩
- Blooming Grove Times, 6 December 1967, 8 pages, Portal to Texas History, University of North Texas Libraries, the only digitized issue found in a public catalogue (claude/BG_FIELDNOTE_001_REWRITE.md, evidence table). ↩
- Blooming Grove's Community News Weekly, vol. 1, no. 1, Thursday, 17 November 1983 ('First Edition … This is your first copy of COMMUNITY NEWS WEEKLY'), copy marked 'D. HADEN,' photographed 28 September 2026, in the author's collection; obituary citations 'Blooming Grove's Community News Weekly – Thursday, Dec 20, 1984,' submitted by Karen Rost, Navarro County obituary index, texaslocalhistory.com/navarro/obituaries/pg90278.htm. ↩
- Community News (Blooming Grove Community Library), March 2009–May 2012, twenty-five issues, 734 pages, PDF files in the author's collection (ARCHIVE/Phipps Archive/01_Blooming Grove/BG Library). ↩
- The June 2012 and July 2012 newsletter folders in the author's collection hold incoming submissions only, with no layout, draft or PDF (claude/BG_2026-09-21_MAYORS_FROM_HIS_OWN_NEWSLETTERS.md); the author's recollection. ↩
Last revised 2 October 2026.
