In the late 1800’s and 1900’s, newspapers were the most important news source. One newspaper in particular kept settlers on the North Texas frontier connected to the outside world, and still remains in circulation today: The Pilot Point Post-Signal.
The Post-Signal is the oldest operating business in Denton County. Established in 1878 as the Pilot Point Post, the newspaper has delivered the community’s news for 140 years. Residents have relied on the Post-Signal since its beginning to stay updated on local issues.
A 1900 edition of the Pilot Point Post-Signal.
Before the Post-Signal was established, three other newspapers had tried and failed to deliver the city’s news: the Herald, the Citizen, and the Democrat. Despite those odds, David Jesse Moffitt and James Taliaferro Jones were determined to launch the Pilot Point Post.
Moffitt and Jones created a slogan for their paper, as follows: “Upon honest and economical legislation and purity of the ballot box depends our national prosperity.” And with that, over a century of history began when the first issue was published on August 31, 1878.
In it’s early days, the Pilot Point Post supported the Democratic Party, local commerce, and opposed Pilot Point’s frontier lawlessness. Moffitt and Jones also used the paper to encourage locals to trade at home and make Pilot Point one of the best tradings points in North Texas.
The outside of the 1930 Pilot Point Post-Signal office.
Jones retired in the mid-1880’s to pursue a photography business, and Moffitt and Jones’ partnership dissolved. From there, Moffitt partnered with H.D. Caldwell, publisher of the Pilot Point Mirror, to establish the Pilot Point Post-Mirror in February of 1888. By this time, Pilot Point had become a thriving community, and the paper served the town along with the Pilot Point Bank, a grocery store, a flour mill, cotton gins, a saloon, a hotel, and many other businesses.
The partnership between Moffitt and Caldwell only lasted a short time, and Moffitt became the paper’s sole owner in 1890. Moffitt then began a new partnership with J.L. Harper, the founder of the Pilot Point Signal. In 1900, the papers combined and became known as the Pilot Point Post-Signal.
That name stuck, and has remained the same for the rest of the paper’s history- although the owners and location have changed over the years. The paper was first published in Pilot Point, but was moved to Sanger in 1964. It stayed there for a decade until being purchased in 1974 by David and Pam Lewis, the paper’s current owners, who moved it back to Pilot Point.
Ralph Cole, owner of the Post-Signal from 1969 to 1974, stands in the paper’s Sanger location.
Over the years, the Post-Signal has become an integral part of the community. Besides distributing the local news, the paper used their printing press to print the Pilot Point School District’s first yearbook in 1909. The community and the Post-Signal continued to grow, and by 1991, the newspaper was published weekly, with a circulation of 2,000.
Today, the Post-Signal is still covering the news of Pilot Point and the surrounding area. It is the official newspaper for the cities of Pilot Point, Aubrey, Krugerville, Providence Village, and Cross Roads, and has won more publishing awards than any weekly newspaper in the area. David Lewis remains as the president of the company, and continues to serve as both editor and publisher.
To learn more about the Pilot Point Post Signal, visit their website at postsignal.com.
All information in this blog was pulled from the Office of History & Culture’s records, the Pilot Point Post Signal’s website, and the Texas State Historical Association Online.
Denton County Office of History and Culture: Blog 