“Tis not birth, nor wealth, nor state/ But git-up-and-git that makes men great.”
So wrote the Texas Farmer in response to a blip published in Galveston’s The Daily News on May 24, 1885, that the paper would soon establish a branch office in the young city of Dallas.
On Oct. 1 of that year, the News made good on its promise, and the press rolled on Commerce Street.
Now, 140 years on, here we remain as witness and recorder of the people and occurrences that shape our great city and state.
Opinion
The Texas Farmer must have known something true and deep about George Bannerman Dealey, the newspaper he would oversee and the place he would lead from a town of train tracks and crossroads into a powerful American city.
Dallas is nothing if not a city of git-up-and-git. It’s a place willed into being by the belief of those who came here that it could be a center of commerce and industry, a place where a person could make a mark based on smarts, hard work and a desire to succeed.
This sense of self-reliance and a spirit of independence have defined Dallas and shaped the editorial voice of this newspaper for generations.
Now, as we celebrate 140 years of publication, we also celebrate a new era of ownership and stewardship that will see us continue this important work for generations to come.
G.B. Dealey and his family treated The Dallas Morning News not just as a business but as a public trust, as a pillar of Dallas. They believed in our city and its potential. They wanted the paper to hold it accountable when it failed and urge it forward to success.
In our time, we have been blessed to have Dealey’s great-grandson, Robert W. Decherd, carry on his family’s tradition of ensuring that The News upholds the highest journalistic standards while maintaining the financial strength to sustain a robust newsroom.
His decision to sacrifice personal financial gain to see The News sold to Hearst, a company dedicated to strong journalism, only demonstrates the depth of devotion he and his family have for our work and our city.
No one pretends that the path forward will be easy. We live in an age when sources of information are fragmented in countless shards, and falsehoods have more standing than facts.
That only makes this work so much more urgent. And it only energizes our own determination to carry it forward under new ownership.
The News has always been about a belief in Dallas, in reflecting the city back upon itself.
Tomorrow is another day to do that work. We will be there with git-up-and-git.
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