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Near this site on November 6, 1880, the first "Beaumont Enterprise" came off the press. The newspaper, founded by John W. Leonard, is one of southeast Texas' oldest continuing business institutions. Over the years, "The Enterprise" has had a number of outstanding editors and publishers, including William P. Hobby, who came to "The Enterprise" in 1907 and later became governor of Texas. The "Beaumont Enterprise" attained national stature under James L. Mapes, who came to the newspaper in 1908 and in 1931 acquired the business. Mapes served two years as president of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association. When he died in 1936, his widow, Kathryn Smythe Mapes, served as president. Upon her death in 1948, she left the majority stock in trust to her grandnephew. The "Beaumont Journal," founded in August 1889 by Robert Emmett Kelley, was published under the same ownership as "The Enterprise" from 1921 to 1983, when "The Journal" was merged into "The Enterprise." The "Beaumont Enterprise" serves a Texas-Louisiana community extending from the Trinity River on the west to the Calcasieu River on the east, and from the Redlands on the north to the Gulf of Mexico. |
