The Bryan-College Station Eagle Newspaper
Bryan-College Station Communications, Inc.
(closest local daily newspaper)
1729 Briarcrest Drive
P.O. Box 3000
Bryan, Texas 77805
www.theeagle.com
979.776.4444 / 800.299.7355
The Eagle Obituaries Index has obituaries online that date back to 3.8.2000.  This index will become searchable in the very near future.  Check back here or at The Eagle's obituaries index.  According to Kelly Y. Durham, Director of New Media at The Eagle, "We most definitely will leave our obituaries online in perpetuity. My dream is to one day have ALL of our obituaries online from the first edition of the Eagle back in 1877."  Way to go Kelly!  What a tremendous resource that would be for historical & genealogical researchers in the counties in the The Eagle's service area.  Good luck!

Hearne Democrat Newspaper
Calvert Tribune Newspaper
Franklin Advocate Newspaper
(all are weekly papers)
120 West Third Street (corner 3rd & Magnolia)
Post Office Box 869
Hearne, Texas 77859
979.279.3411 phone, 979.279.5401 fax
news@robconews.com
Hours: Monday – Friday: 8 – 5
These three weekly Robertson County newspapers are owned by American Consolidated Media in Dallas and are operated out of Hearne. An incomplete set of the Hearne Democrat from 1911 on is available for viewing on microfilm at the Hearne office. If you are unable to come in and know specific dates or date ranges, staff will conduct lookups for an hourly charge. A close-to-complete set of the Hearne Democrat from 1911 - 1941 on microfilm is at the Carnegie Center of Brazos Valley History in Bryan (see Hearne Democrat at the Carnegie). Available copies of the Calvert Tribune and Franklin Advocate only date back to 1992.

Franklin News Weekly Newspaper
(weekly newspaper)
Post Office Box 935
Franklin, Texas 77856
979.828.3221 phone, 979.828.5536 fax
fnw@txcyber.com e-mail
Hours: Monday & Tuesday: 9 – 4;
Wednesday: Noon – 4
The Franklin News Weekly has most issues of the paper dating back to 12.3.1970. You can come in to look at past issues of the paper. No look-up services are available.

Bremond Press Newspaper
(weekly newspaper)
Bremond, Texas 76629
254.746.7033 phone

Historic Newspapers

The Eugene C. Barker Texas Newspapers Collection at the Center For American History at the University of Texas has only a handful of historic Robertson County Newspapers covering assorted dates. The Texas State Library & Archives Commission's Newspaper Collection at www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/news.html has no Robertson County newspapers on microfilm.  The Texas & Local History Collection (www.hpl.lib.tx.us/hpl/txr.html) of the Houston Public Library (downtown at 500 McKinney Street in the old library building) has a very limited selection of scattered dates (some are pre-1900) of Calvert newspapers on microfilm. These closed reference collections are available for viewing at the libraries (materials cannot be checked out and viewed elsewhere). Rumors persist that there are caches of Robertson County newspapers at the Rosenberg Library in Galveston & San Jacinto Museum Library.  Neither of these libraries has any Robertson County newspapers.  If anyone is aware of the availability of old Robertson County newspapers in libraries, archives, or elsewhere, contact William Kent Brunette.

The following newspapers have been published over the years in the indicated towns:

Bremond

Central Texan (weekly), 5.1870 - ?, (Tx: 11.11.1870; TxU: 5.30.1870 - 6.4.1870)
Bremond Press (weekly), 1922+, still publishing (see above), (Pub: 9.1922+)

Calvert

Alliance-Citizen (weekly), 1892 - 1893, followed by Citizen-Democrat
Central Texan (weekly), 1871 - 1878
(CU-B: 10.26.1878 - 11.2.1878, 11.30.1878; TxU: 12.20.1872)
Calvert Chronicle (weekly), 1898 - 1903, follows Citizen-Democrat, united with Calvert Courier to form Courier-Chronicle (TxU: scattered dates 11.11.1898 - 5.1900 - 1903)
Citizen-Democrat (weekly), 1893 - 1898, follows Alliance-Citizen, followed by Calvert Chronicle
Calvert Courier (weekly), 1878 - 1903, united with Calvert Courier to form Courier-Chronicle
Calvert Chronicle-Courier (weekly), 1904 - 5.19.1911, formed by union of Calvert Courier & Calvert Chronicle, followed by Calvert Picayune (Tx 2.1908 - 5.19.1911; TxU: 1904 - 5.1908)
Calvert Enterprise (weekly), no publication dates
Calvert Picayune (weekly), 5.26.1911 - 1916, follows Calvert Courier-Chronicle, followed by Calvert Tribune (Tx: 5.26.1911 - 1913; TxU: 5.23.1912 - 6.1913, 1914 - 8.1915)
Calvert Tribune (semi-weekly & weekly), 1870 - 1872 (DLC: 3.30.1872)
Calvert Tribune (weekly), 1916+, follows Calvert Picayune, still publishing (see above)
(Pub: 1.1936+; TxU: 8.21.1925 - 1926, 5.16.1929 - 1933)

Franklin

Franklin Advocate, still publishing (see above)
Central Texan, 1884 - 1920, followed by Franklin Texan
Franklin Favorite, 1931+, (Pub: 9.1931+)
Franklin News Weekly, still publishing (see above)
Franklin Paper, no publication dates
Franklin Texan, 1920+, follows Central Texan, (Pub: 1920+; TxU: 1.1932 - 10.1932)

Hearne

Hearne Signal, Spring 1872
Hearne Enterprise, latter part of 1874
Hearne Argus, Fall 1876
Hearne Courier, Fall 1876
Hearne Advocate (weekly), 1889 - 4.1911, followed by Hearne Democrat
Hearne Standard, late 1890s
The Independent, late 1890s
Hearne Democrat, 5.2.1911+, follows Hearne Advocate, still publishing (see above)
(Pub: 5.1911+; Tx: 6.28.1918; TxU: 6.13.1919 - 4.22.1921)

Much of the above information on Robertson County's historic newspapers was obtained from:

Texas Newspapers 1813 - 1939
A Union List of Newspaper Files Available In Offices Of
Publishers, Libraries, & A Number Of Private Collections
Prepared by Historical Records Survey Program
Division Of Professional & Service Projects
Work Projects Administration Of Texas
San Jacinto Museum Of History Association
Houston, TX, 1941

Purple information reflects which papers were in the indicated collections when the above report was published in 1941.  Since this was over 60 years ago, current collections need to be checked to determine whether any Robertson County newspapers still exist in them.  Abbreviations:  Pub - Newspaper Publisher Collection; Tx - Texas State Library & Archives Commission Newspapers Collection; TxU - University of Texas Center for American History Texas Newspapers Collection; CU-B - University of California at Berkeley; DLC - U.S. Library of Congress Newspapers Collection.