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Gonzales
County Courthouse
©2007 Bill Morgan. All
rights reserved
GONZALES COUNTY - A couple of months after
graduating from college in 1953, I landed a job as -- get this -- editor of The
Gonzales Daily Inquirer, "oldest continuously operating daily newspaper in
Texas." Not bad for a 21-year-old kid with a brand new journalism degree from
60 miles up the road at the state university, right?
Wrong. It was
bad. Not only was I the editor, I was the entire staff of a newspaper that
printed six days a week, Monday through Saturday. Just me and the United Press
wire machine that sent us the "general" wire, meaning only short versions of
only the most important stories. Local stories meant covering events after
office hours and writing them that night so the typesetter could get started at
6 in the morning.
Getting photographs in the paper took roughly as
long as it took a good portrait painter to get a picture on canvas. I'd load
the Speed Graphic camera with sheet film, go shoot the picture, develop the
film and make the print at the Gonzales Warm Springs Foundation darkroom around
the corner. Then I'd bus the print down to Cuero or Yoakum, I don't remember
which town actually had an engraving lab. Or why. The lab needed about half a
day to make a zinc halftone of the print and bus it back to me the next
afternoon. That meant we could follow up our big news stories with a photo of
the fender-bender two days later, maybe three if the lab or I missed the bus.
All this was wrapped around getting the paper out between 6 a.m. and
about 1:30 or 2 p.m. After that miracle, I'd start on my rounds of gathering
news from city hall, courthouse, sheriff's and police office, the school,
various civic clubs, etc. Then it was back to the editor's office (a desk
behind the office-supply store that I suspect kept the whole operation in the
black) to write the day's stories. Then if the linotype or Ludlow machine or
the flatbed press broke down (all real possibilities), the paper would be two
or three hours late. As far as I remember, the pressman and paper boys were the
only people in town who noticed the paper was late.
The highlight of
every day was visiting that stunning battleship of a courthouse to gather all
the county news. There was one almost barren room that I could never find
reason, or maybe courage, to visit. The only person who used that room was the
most beautiful 20ish brunette I'd ever seen. She spent her days typing some
kind of forms, as best I could tell. Just her, a small desk and a typewriter.
She must have been good at her job because she never looked up when I walked
by.
That lousy job kept me so busy that I never got to know the
beautiful old courthouse or the beautiful young girl. I hope she aged as
gracefully as the courthouse did.
Buy A
Print
11x17 prints on sturdy stock of the Gonzales County
Courthouse are available on my ordering page. The cost is $20 for the first
print and $16 for additional prints of this, or any of the other 11
courthouses, purchased at the same time. (Add $3 for shipping) |
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