This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Marshall, Perry, Jones, Page, Feris, Mitchell, Andrus, Bassett, Pleasants, Degress, Smith Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/hkB.2ACE/8426 Message Board Post: Dallas Morning News, 21 Jan 1899, p. 5 Dallas, Dallas County, Texas Prof. J. P. Marshall Death of an Old Texas – How He Grew With The News Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex. 19 Jan – J. P. Marshall died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Lillie Perry, in this city on Monday morning last, aged 68 years. He was buried Tuesday in the City cemetery. He leaves four children – M. W. H. Marshall and Mrs. Lillian Perry of Rockdale, Mrs. Lola Jones of Cooper, Tex., and Mrs. Fannie Page of Tombstone, Ariz. Mr. Marshall was an old Texan, having resided in this state since 1835 and had been a constant reader of The News for nearly fifty years. Prof. J. P. Marshall was born in Giles county, Tennessee, in 1831, removed to Texas in 1835, went to Richmond, Fort Bend county, in 1853, where he first saw and became acquainted with The Galveston Weekly News, Willard Richardson, proprietor, He engaged as a private tutor at the home of George W. Pleasants, who was a subscriber to The News. In a few months Mr. Marshall changed his location and of course needed a newspaper, so he subscribed for The News and remembered very distinctly that he paid $5 per year for it. In subsequent years the price was gradually reduced to $4, then to $3 and $2, and finally to $1 per annum. After reading The News for one year he concluded that he must have it for another year so he subscribed again and repeated his subscriptions annually from that day to his death. Prof. Marshall recently wrote The News as follows: Prof. J. P. Marshall “The News is emphatically my ideal of what a newspaper should be and I have often said that if I had to confine myself to one paper that one should be The News. As I came here before the battle of San Jacinto was fought, I call myself an old Texan and you probably know how old Texans love each other and how we love the good old times we had long ago and no doubt I love The News because of my old and long acquaintance with it. I have often declared that if I could not have my coffee and The News I would take The News and do without the coffee. The course of The News on all the great questions that have agitated the country in last forty-three years has not always, of course, met my approval, but I have been with The News like we old Texans were with Sam Houston – we would fall out with him sometimes – and curse him and swear we would never vote for him again, and start to the polls with a ballot against him, but before we got there we would tear up ! the ballot and put in one for the ‘Old Hero.’ I never cast a vote against him in my life. He was my ‘political god.’ So I have often cursed The News and sworn I would never subscribe for it again, but when the time came to renew away went my money to The News. And I will say right here that if the opposition of The News to Old Sam away back in the fifties came mighty near creating an estrangement between me and The News forever. “Having been a constant reader of The News for forty-three years I think I ought to know it pretty well. I must say that I think it is a bold and fearless paper and a consistent and independent paper, and the very best exponent of Texas, her resources and interests of any paper in the state or world. I have always admired its independence. I have know it often to condemn the administrations it helped to make and also to commend the acts of E. J. Davis, who was odious to the people in reconstruction days, when they were right and just. Many times I heard it called a radical paper because it dare to approve anything done by the party in power in those dark and troublous times. Papers were scarce in those days. The Houston Telegraph seemed to be a prominent rival for public favor, but it is forgotten, while The News has grown to be a great double-ender, with 315 miles between the ends. Merit wins. “Of those who lived at Richmond in 1853, when I first saw The News and who still live there, I can recall the names of Dr. George A. Feris, John C. Mitchell, Walter Andrus, Clem Bassett and Mrs. George W. Pleasants. All the rest have passed over the river to rest under the shade of the trees. Mrs. Pleasants is the relict of G. W. Pleasants, my first friend and patron, who died January 7, 1891. “In 1850 I taught my first school in Texas and have been continuously engaged in teaching ever since – forty- five years. I claim to have taught longer in Texas than any teacher in the state. If this should meet the eye of any one who has taught longer in Texas I wish him to communicate the fact to me. If no one does I shall claim the ‘belt.’ I am still in the harness, being engaged to teach next year. I also claim to hold the first public free school certificate ever issue to a teacher in the state. It was issued at Austin, signed by J. C. Degress. I was examined by R. H. Smith at Richmond June 30, 1871, who told me that I was the first teacher who had applied to him for examination. I have also the military order (dated at Houston September 2, 1872) assigning me to duty in the public free schools. “I will close with the favorite toast of old Sam Houston to his friends: ‘Here is hoping The News may live to be a thousand years old, weigh 700 pounds and die worth a million.’ Courteously yours, “J. P. Marshall”