The city in the early s was a regional medical center serving northeast Texas and southeast Oklahoma. Around that time Paris had some ninety churches, representing every major religion and denomination. In Paris had a council-manager form of city government ; its seven-member council selects one of its members as mayor.
During the early s local residents were involved in agribusiness-including the raising of beef and dairy cattle, hay, wheat, and soybeans-and in numerous industries, among them Babcock and Wilcox steam generation ; Campbell Soup, Incorporated; Flex-O-Lite reflective glass beads ; Kimberly-Clark Corporation disposable diapers ; Merico earth grains and packaging divisions ; and Philips Lighting incandescent-lamp parts.
In the early s Paris was still served by the daily Paris News. Chisum , and Democratic Senator A. Aikin, Jr. The population of Paris was reported as 9, in , as 11, by , as 15, by , and as 15, by The newspaper was one of the casualties of the blaze. The newspaper plant and its records, stretching all the way back to , were lost, but the paper did not miss an issue. The day after the fire, The Paris News, its title abbreviated through haste and lack of space, and printed on a borrowed printing press on handbill-sized paper, hit the streets of the fire-ravaged town.
Within a matter of days, however the paper had made arrangements to use another newspaper's presses and publication continued. A few months later, the newspaper moved into its new building on North Main Street, facing the county courthouse, which was also undergoing repairs to its gutted structure. North Texas Publishing Co. Mayse was named publisher and within a few short years the publication's format was altered and renamed The Paris Evening News, only to have its name changed once again in to The Paris News, the name by which it is known today.
The Depression of the s hit Paris hard, but The Paris News weathered hard times, even printing a kind of scrip for its struggling readers. In , according to a clipping from the paper's archives, the first Associated Press teletype transmission in Texas was received in the offices of The Paris News. In , long-time publisher A.
He was succeeded by his son-in-law, Walter W. Bassano, himself from a long-time Paris family. Bassano was succeeded in his turn by Roger Amdall in , and Bill Martin in , before Bassano's son, Pat Bassano, was named publisher in On Dec.
With the new owner came a new publisher, Michael Graxiola, who served in that position until , when Patrick Graham replaced Graxiola as the publisher. In , The Paris News, which had been at its downtown location since , moved into new quarters on Southeast Loop The move was accomplished without interruption in the publication schedule.
While the structure that stands today dates from , the land was used as early as , and is said to have come from the Presbyterian congregation in Clarksville , which had its start in the s.
Plaza Theatre in TE Photo. Photo courtesy Gerald Massey , August Camp Maxey. Sunset Photo courtesy Holly Gibson, April Owl Photo courtesy Holly Gibson, April Hwy 82 west 15 miles. Paris, Texas Chronicles. We arrived after the Chamber had closed, but were fortunate to be photographing the Courthouse when Mr. Moree emerged well after 5 pm. The Judge told us that as a boy, his family had unearthed a trove of crockery and bottles in their front yard while transplanting a rose bush.
He owns a pocketknife engraved from a Paris Hardware Store that burned in the fire. Judge Moree, who has been known to hunt Turkey in Coleman County, has said he wouldn't consider living anywhere else but Paris. That's his final decision. Paris' first water tower photo courtesy of Herb Campbell, Paris.
Well I was born there, but my formative years were spent on the outskirts of Paris in Taylor Town. It is my belief that we can't just ignore the bad things in our past. We need to examine them and learn from them so they do not happen again. This article was written in and things were different then, just as they will be different 70 years from now. HERE are some facts that will serve to settle arguments that sometimes arise.
I have from time to time been called on to give several of these dates. I have documentary evidence of each and they are not based on my memory. The coldest officially recorded weather in Paris was Sunday, February 12, At that morning it stood at 14 below zero on a private thermometer, which later was found to register one degree higher than the government Instrument.
It had reached zero at 8 o'clock Saturday night.
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