You Can’t Talk about Texas History without The Galveston Daily News

Unboxing History: The Typewriter that Survived the 1900 Galveston Storm

In this episode of 'Unboxing History,' hosts Christine Hopkins and Jodi Wright Gidley explore the intricate history of an 1891 Oliver typewriter used by RB Spangler, a compositor for the Galveston Daily News. The discussion delves into Spangler's pivotal role during the 1900 Galveston Storm and the importance of the local newspaper in chronicling such significant events. Special guest Leonard Woolsey, the publisher of the Galveston County Daily News, joins to provide further insight into the newspaper’s historical legacy and its role in documenting the hurricane and other critical events in Texas history. You can’t talk about Texas History without The Galveston Daily News. The episode highlights the enduring relevance of local journalism and the museum’s efforts to preserve and share these fascinating stories.

Special thanks to the Galveston Chamber of Commerce for their ongoing support and Shawn Schoellkopf for creating and performing the theme music.

Thank you for listening to Unboxing History, presented by the Galveston County Museum.
For more information on the Museum, visit our website.

History of the Galveston County Museum
The Galveston County Museum was formed in 1976. It was located on Market Street for many years. After Hurricane Ike damaged the HVAC and electrical systems in 2008, the unharmed artifacts were moved. Now, the museum is located in the Galveston County courthouse building at 722 Moody/21st Street in Galveston.

​Galveston County Museum is a joint project of the Galveston County Commissioners Court and Galveston County History, Inc. The museum cares for a collection of 20,000 artifacts and archives. We also maintain the Historical Commission's library. If you are interested in research or donating an artifact related to Galveston County history, please call 409.766.2340.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Unboxing History
• 0:38 Unveiling the Artifact: RB Spangler's Typewriter
• 1:54 The Life and Legacy of RB Spangler
• 3:07 RB Spangler and the 1900 Storm
• 4:43 Interview with Leonard Woolsey: The Daily News
• 7:17 The Role of Local Newspapers in Chronicling History
• 13:27 Conclusion and Museum Information

Transcript

Episode 17

[00:00:00] 

Christine Hopkins: Welcome to Unboxing History, where we take a deep dive into the collection of the Galveston County Museum. I'm Christine Hopkins.

Jodi Wright-Gidley: And I'm Jodi Wright Gidley, director of the 

Galveston County Museum.

So each episode we unbox an artifact from our museum's collection and we talk about the people behind it and the stories behind it.

Christine Hopkins: So today we're doing something related to two really important parts of our history. The. 1900 storm and the longest, continuously running newspaper in the state of Texas.

So Jodi, what do we have? 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: So we have a typewriter. Wow. So this typewriter belonged to RB Spangler. He was an employee at the Galveston Daily News back in the late 1800s, early 1900s. 

This was an 1891 model. And the special thing about this one was [00:01:00] the U shaped type bar. It'll let you be able to see what you were typing. 

Earlier typewriters that couldn't let you do that.

Yeah. 

Christine Hopkins: And the Oliver Company still exists. 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Yes. The Oliver Company is still in Chicago. They sell vintage typewriters. They take old typewriters and refurbish them, and they even still sell the typing ribbon for some of the models.

Christine Hopkins: Well, and Mr. Spangler, the owner of this typewriter was a compositor for people that don't know, which I didn't know what that was.

What is a compositor?

Jodi Wright-Gidley: So a compositor is the type setter for the newspaper. He takes the, um, individual letters and lays them out along with little. Drawing type illustrations and it creates the whole page of the paper.

Christine Hopkins: That's incredible. Mm-hmm. I mean, can you imagine how much time that would take?

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Yes.

Christine Hopkins: And they were, and they were at that time doing papers sometimes in the morning and in the evening. 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Yes.

Christine Hopkins: So that's a lot of work for. Um, maybe just a few people doing. So tell me a little bit more about, uh, Mr. Spangler.

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Well, our research shows us some really interesting [00:02:00] things. Mr. Spangler was, came to Texas and started working in the newspaper business in the late 1800s. We found in the city directories. In 1903 and 1904, that he was listed as a telegraph editor for the Galveston Daily News here in Galveston.

By 1905, the records show he had moved to Navasota and also worked for a newspaper, but he remained involved with Galveston newspapers for a really long time because he was still serving on the union for the type setter group. And he was very connected to Galveston. 

Christine Hopkins: And on that union, there's an interesting fact about the union.

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Well, it was the first one of the very first chartered in Texas. 

Christine Hopkins: Incredible. Let's so much history here. 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Yes. So for 52 years he worked in the newspaper business and in 1910 the Galveston Tribune had an article about him and described him. Mr. Spangler is known to every man, woman, and child in Galveston, and although he has on account of his age retired from the active life of a printer, he is still one of the most faithful [00:03:00] members, never missing a meeting and always ready to lend a helping hand in any work that might be required.

Christine Hopkins: Very nice. Yes. Nice tribute. So one of the things that is important about this typewriter is it would've been used after the 1900 storm. Mm-hmm. Um, so tell us about his story related to the 1900 storm.

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Yeah, so his story is chronicled in the book A Weekend in September. That's all about the storm. And so he was working at the paper office, the, as the storm was rolling in, he received a telegraph at about 1:00 AM about a storm coming across the Gulf, but there wasn't a whole lot of detail because the telegraph lines were down and those other places too. So he didn't get a lot of detail, but he wanted to, he was hanging on at the newspaper waiting for new news to come in, and when it didn't come in, he finally decided, well, let me type.

Put in the paper what I know about the storm, and it was on page three that he wrote about the storm. And he went to bed, went home at about 3:45 AM started heading home. So he's walking [00:04:00] home. His newspaper office is downtown on mechanic. His home is not far from the beach.

The water is up to his knees as he approaches home, which didn't really alarm him because it had happened other times before. As we all know, the 1900 storm grew and grew and flooded the island. Him and his family lost his home, but he, his family members, and he survived.

He continued to work on the newspaper. So he wrote the articles about the aftermath of the storm. He helped list those people that were missing or still alive. He was a big part of telling that story. 

Christine Hopkins: It's interesting to think about the role, the critical role that your local newspaper had at that time and still continues to have

Jodi Wright-Gidley: and still today.

Yeah. 

Christine Hopkins: So that brings us to our next guest. 

Jodi Wright-Gidley: Okay. 

Christine Hopkins: So we have Leonard Woolsey here. He's the publisher of the Galveston County Daily News and the President of Southern Newspapers. He's gonna tell us a little bit more about the history of the Daily News and um, their role in chronicling the history of our [00:05:00] county. Welcome Leonard. It's so nice to have you on inboxing history today. So the Galveston County Daily News, which is now The Daily News. Yes, yes. Um, was is the longest, continuously running newspaper in the state of Texas.

I mean, that really is incredible. What was the year it goes back to, is it 

Leonard Woolsey: 1842 

Christine Hopkins: That's amazing. Well, and we have this incredible, um, artifact that's part of the museum's color. Action that, you know, uh, was used during the 1900 storm. The Daily News was a critical part of what was happening and covering the news.

How would they have done that then? And, you know, what stories have you heard about the 1900 storm and where they were at the time for people that don't know.

Leonard Woolsey: Well, what's interesting, and Christina, thank you for having me and thank you for having The Daily News here. And I gotta tell you folks, this artifact is a jewel and you need to come down to the Galveston County Museum and see this thing.

The truth is that this was used by one of the editors at the Daily News, and you know, back in that day you had telegraphs and you had couriers and you didn't have, you [00:06:00] know, you didn't have the internet and you didn't have cell phones and you didn't have ways to connect with everybody. And most likely what was occurring is they were getting first and secondhand information at the time and when the storm came in on the island and, and as those of us that lived here and followed the history, understand, you know, 14, 15, 16 feet surges coming through, washed across the island 'cause the sea wall wasn't there yet. Came all the way in downtown and again, many of us know that the Tremont played a critical role and being the place citizens were housed because you know, there were, at one point, you may correct me more than a thousand people inside that building. Trying to stay away from the water. Just down the street was the Daily News, which was the Clayton building. 

Christine Hopkins: Yes. 

Leonard Woolsey: Built in 1842.

Nicholas Clayton. Pretty much penned the architecture of Galveston. 

Christine Hopkins: For those of you that don't know that building still stands. Yes. You know, it's a beautiful, red brick building. Um, it is on Mechanic Street between 21st and 22nd.

And, you know, uh, Leonard's actually had a chance to even see it, but, you know, can you imagine? I mean, it's [00:07:00] in the downtown, the amount of water, but, so Mr. S Spangler the owner of this? Yeah. This typewriter made his way home. He did survive. Mm-hmm. Uh, but you know, what other things were happening and why was it, what's the role of your local news during a crisis situation like that?

Leonard Woolsey: Well, we need to rewind to remember that, you know, channels of information were pretty limited at at that point. 

Christine Hopkins: Yes. 

Leonard Woolsey: And The Daily News job, which is the still, the role that it has today, is the right history to chronicle history. And Mr. Spangler was most likely receiving either. Telegraphs or handwritten notes about what was going on in the community.

And he was a, what you call a composer. So you'd have the reporters that would write their stories and they'd write 'em in long hand, and then they would hand them to a composer who could type and put this in. And from there it would go into the production cycle, which is another whole story. But he was the first person to take the handwritten stories and convert them into sentence form and write the original stories that were gonna be published in The Daily News, [00:08:00] which if you come to this museum, you'll see a lot of the pages of The Daily News up here. Chronically the Storm, even The Daily News that would run lists of people that survived and lists of people that had been missing.

And again, this, they were writing history and that piece of history was coming off of Mr. Spangler's typewriter. 

Christine Hopkins: We have all of these different major news stories that have happened in all of the years of our history. You know, what are some of the ones that stand out to you, um, that the Daily News might have covered?

Leonard Woolsey: Well, I think we've covered more than a dozen hurricanes since our inception in 1842. The newspaper was actually 60 years old when The 1900 Storm came ashore. And, you know, 1842 makes it one of the oldest existing newspapers in the United States. It's older than New York Times older than the Wall Street Journal.

So it's, you know, it has been here. And, uh. Um, what's interesting is we've covered everything and you consider in modern history in the forties, the great explosion in Texas City. 

Christine Hopkins: Yes.

Leonard Woolsey: You know? That was some of the things we covered. [00:09:00] We've had a lot of hurricane coverage. We've had the prohibition and gambling period

Christine Hopkins: Yes.

Leonard Woolsey: In the twenties. Mm-hmm. And thirties. Mm-hmm. And then the raids and the fifties. And Galveston's never been short for generating its own kind of news.

Christine Hopkins: That's true. Well, that, that is true, especially if you think about the Free State.

Leonard Woolsey: Yes.

Christine Hopkins: You wonder about what articles might've been included or not included mm-hmm.

In, uh, in the, the local newspaper. So are there any artifacts that the Daily News has as part of your collection or archives?

Leonard Woolsey: We do. I've had readers. It's, it's, it's a beautiful thing because there are a lot of readers and subscribers. You know, they feel connected to this newspaper and rightly so, because it's their newspaper.

And they'll bring in artifacts. Somebody recently brought me front pages from the 1900s that were following the storm. Then I had somebody bring in a yellowed worn, almost, maybe even moth eaten. Um, apron that said The Daily News and then like a nickel, and it was a, it [00:10:00] was what the street vendor would sell.

Christine Hopkins: Wow.

Leonard Woolsey: The kids would wear on the street and sell. And so we have that piece. And even if you come by The Daily News, we have the original printing press that the newspaper came off in 1842.

Christine Hopkins: And that's in the lobby.

Leonard Woolsey: That's in the lobby. That's right. And it's a literal physical mechanical press, and you can see a piece of living history.

And touch it. 

Christine Hopkins: So why do you think it's important that communities have their local news to, um, kind of chronicle history? 

Leonard Woolsey: Well, newspapers play a role in a community, like it's a fabric. It's just a thread that goes through fabric. And a newspaper's job, if done correctly, is to put its arms around the community and be as welcoming to as many people as possible, as many opinions as possible, not, not take a strong point of view.

It's their newspaper to collectively talk about their community. You know, today the world is full of news media around the world. This is our community and that's what The Daily News is all about. [00:11:00] Voices from our community, what they think today and in the future, people will be able to look back and say, Bobby Sue felt this way about this, or this happened on Galveston Island then.

I know what happens in Washington DC and New York City and Tokyo's important. What really matters to us is what's going on in Galveston County and for us to still have a local and locally owned newspaper, uh, is very critical.

Christine Hopkins: Well, thank you Leonard. Is there anything else that you wanna add that you want people to know about, um, as far as resources available through The Daily News and when it comes to research or any other things that you wanna add?

Leonard Woolsey: Well, I would say as subscribers of The Daily News. We have an interesting model now of print subscribers and digital subscribers.

Christine Hopkins: Yes.

Leonard Woolsey: All of our archives are in our digitals and people that are subscribers can go in and search our archives for as far back as they want. And we can also direct you to digital versions of these pages that have to deal with the history of the 1900 Storm.

So our job is to create [00:12:00] a sustainable journalism model for this community going forward. And that's our commitment. And um, we're 183 years old now, and I fully expect it won't be me, but somebody else in 183 years will be leading the charge.

Christine Hopkins: Well, thank you again and again. Thank you Leonard, for coming and sharing this story. I mean, you think about how closely connected The Daily News is with the history of Galveston and the role that you've played to, to archive that. Before we had these museums and before we had these, like you, when you walk around the Galveston County Museum, you'll see articles from the Galveston Daily News all over the walls.

Leonard Woolsey: So one thing about what you touched on there is I read a lot of Western books and Western history, and invariably every book has multiple references to the Galveston Daily News. It's impossible to read Texas history without reading it through the pages of The Daily News, because it was, it was originally there, it was preserved and it was such, it was a depository of what was going on across the entire [00:13:00] state.

And so, you know, our little local community newspaper makes it possible to tell accurate stories about the history of Texas.

Christine Hopkins: Well, thank you again.

Leonard Woolsey: You're welcome, Christine. Thank you so much for having me. It's been an honor.

Christine Hopkins: Oh, we appreciate it. It's, I mean, I think every time people come here, there so surprised at our, at how much is here.

Leonard Woolsey: This is a wonderful facility. I encourage everybody on the other side of this, make your way down here and see this museum. It is a beautiful experience.

Thanks again.

Thank you for tuning into unboxing history presented by the Galveston County Museum. You can see RB Spangler's Oliver typewriter at the Galveston County Museum, and remember to subscribe to Unboxing History everywhere you listen to your podcast and find us on YouTube.

Jodi Wright-Gidley: And we also invite you to follow us on social media and join our email list where you'll receive news about new exhibits and things going on here at the museum.

And remember that Galveston County Museum is free to visit Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 10 to 4 on Tuesdays and Thursdays are the days that you can schedule private [00:14:00] tours here or our Padlock Mystery Game. So give us a call, check out our website, www.GalvestonCountyHistory.Org Thank you