The Waxahachie Daily Light Archive

Established in 1894, the Waxahachie Daily Light outlasted its local competitors to become one of the oldest continually published newspapers in the state of Texas. A community of 100 settlers established Waxahachie as the county seat of Ellis County in 1850. The city has supported a weekly newspaper since the Waxahachie Argus began publishing in 1866. Just prior to the founding of the Light, there were at least three other weekly newspapers publishing in Waxahachie: the Ellis County Mirror, the Waxahachie Enterprise, and the Waxahachie Democrat. In 1895, the editor and publisher of the Light, A. S. Williams, purchased the Democrat and consolidated the two newspapers into one weekly Democratic newspaper. In 1896, this eight-page weekly edition was published on Thursdays and measured 15 by 22 inches, with a yearly subscription cost of $1.50 and a circulation of 750. The daily (except Sunday) edition averaged six pages, measuring 13 by 20 inches, and had a yearly subscription cost of $5.00.

The Light and the Enterprise were published from the same plant in the late 1890s. W. J. Buie, who edited the Enterprise and managed its business operations, purchased both the weekly and daily edition of the Light, discontinuing the weekly edition by 1900. Buie raised the newspaper's profile in the state by serving as president of the Texas Press Association from 1901 to 1906. In 1902, Buie's Light Publishing Company was managing both the Enterprise and the Light. Buie, along with co-proprietors R. D. Hudson and Charles W. Kent, established the Enterprise Publishing Company in 1904. The company continued to publish both newspapers for another three decades.

The Light's relationship with other area newspapers has not always been so congenial. On September 16, 1902, the Daily Light ran an unsigned editorial refuting a claim made by the recently established Waxahachie Eagle that the Daily Light had published paid editorials. In its response, the Daily Light's accused the "Eaglet" of "hypocrisy" and offered "$100 in gold for every line of paid editorial matter that has ever appeared under its columns, under its present management." This editorial may have been the work of Judge W. A. Ownby, who served as managing editor of the Enterprise Publishing Company for 25 years, retiring in 1926. Under Ownby's tenure, the Daily Light measured 15 by 22 inches, published four pages, and reported a circulation of approximately 1,000 copies. In his farewell editorial, Ownby claims the paper advocated for the best interest of the community, and in particular for good roads and soil conservation.

Ownby's successor, Floyd Casebolt, steered the Daily Light to prominence in Texas following World War II; in 1962 it was named outstanding daily paper for a town with a population of less than 15,000 by the Texas Press Association. The Daily Light is currently owned by the Gannett Company. In 2016, the Daily Light was the first Texas newspaper to endorse Donald Trump for president.