Houston Chronicle Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===1901–1926: Marcellus E. Foster era=== The ''Houston Chronicle'' was founded in 1901 by a former reporter for the now-defunct ''[[Houston Post]]'', Marcellus E. Foster. Foster, who had been covering the [[Spindletop]] oil boom for the ''Post'', invested in Spindletop and took $30 of the return on that investment—at the time equivalent to a week's wages—and used it to fund the ''Chronicle''. The ''Chronicle''{{'}}s first edition was published on October 14, 1901, and sold for two cents per copy, at a time when most papers sold for five cents each. At the end of its first month in operation, the ''Chronicle'' had a circulation of 4,378—roughly one tenth of the population of Houston at the time.<ref name="tsha">[https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eeh02 The Handbook of Texas Online.] ''Houston Chronicle''. Retrieved December 2, 2009.</ref> Within the first year of operation, the paper purchased and consolidated the ''Daily Herald''. In 1908, Foster asked Jesse H. Jones, a local businessman and prominent builder, to construct a new office and plant for the paper, "and offered [a] half-interest in the newspaper as a down payment, with twenty years to pay the remainder. Jones agreed, and the resulting Chronicle Building was one of the finest in the South."<ref name="tsha"/><ref>{{cite book |title=Jesse H. Jones, the Man and the Statesman |first=Bascom Nolly |last=Timmons |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=London |year=1956 |isbn=978-0-8371-7925-4 |page=77}}</ref> Under Foster, the paper's circulation grew from about 7,000 in 1901 to 75,000 on weekdays and 85,000 on Sundays by 1926. Foster continued to write columns under the pen name ''Mefo'', and drew much attention in the 1920s for his opposition to the [[Ku Klux Klan]] (KKK). He sold the rest of his interest to [[Jesse H. Jones]] on June 26, 1926, and promptly retired.<ref>Handbook of Texas Online. "[https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ffo52 Foster, Marcellus Elliot (1870–1942)"]. Retrieved March 26, 2010.</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page