By Tracy Gupton

Columbia Historical Museum

My interest in the writer Victor Rose was piqued a little over a year ago when East Columbia history buff Flem Rogers donated his copy of the book, “The Life and Services of General Ben McCulloch,” to the Columbia Historical Museum.  Rose was a resident of Columbia, Texas, when he dedicated his McCulloch biography to Colonel M.S. Munson.  This book was originally published in 1888, although Rogers’ copy of Rose’s book was a facsimile reproduction printed in 1958 by The Steck Company of Austin.

Never having even heard of Victor Rose prior to 2021, a scant amount of research led me to purchase Louise O’Connor’s book, “Wild Rose” (Texas A&M University Press, 2018), so that I could read about the man who had penned the Ben McCulloch tome donated to the museum that I presently serve as an officer of the board of directors. In doing so, I easily found out why Rose was residing in Columbia 135 years ago.

At some point in 1887 Rose moved from Edna in nearby Jackson County to Columbia, leaving behind his The Edna Progress newspaper to begin publishing The Old Capitol newspaper in either East Columbia or West Columbia (both of these local communities were referred to simply as Columbia at various times in the late 19^th century).  Rose named his new publication The Old Capitol because Columbia was the original first capital of the Republic of Texas.

O’Connor’s biography of Rose states that “the only remaining copies of The Old Capitol are for the years 1887 to 1889.”  She reveals that “A large part of each paper promotes the deepwater port (at the mouth of the Brazos River in Velasco). The remaining pages are filled with news and educational material of all kinds.”

Oddly enough, lifetime West Columbian Mark Ducroz recently brought his copy of an issue of The Old Capitol by the West Columbia museum to offer it for display purposes.  Flem Rogers (who donated the Ben McCulloch biography to the local museum) and his wife now reside in the East Columbia mansion near the west bank of the Brazos River where Ducroz’s wife grew up.

As a longtime local history buff myself, I’m ashamed to admit I had no knowledge of Victor Rose’s Columbia newspaper until only recently.  I was well aware of The Telegraph and Texas Register newspaper having at one time been printed in the West Columbia area during the short span of time Columbia was the Republic of Texas’s capital city. 

During The Runaway Scrape, advancing Mexican soldiers seized The Telegraph and Texas Register’s printing press and threw it into Buffalo Bayou in Harrisburg when the April 14, 1836, issue was being readied for publication.  That historic early Texas newspaper printed its first issue in San Felipe de Austin on October 10, 1835, under the ownership of Gail Borden Jr., his brother Thomas H. Borden and Joseph Baker.

By December of 1835 the Borden brothers and Baker boasted circulation of about 500 copies each week during an era when only nine publishers were printing newspapers in Texas between 1819 and 1836, when the future Lone Star State was still under the thumb of Mexico. But only The Telegraph and Texas Register was still in publication when Texans were fighting for their independence from the dictatorship of Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

Among other early Texas newspapers in publication prior to 1836 were the Texas Republican (1834-36), published by Franklin Gray in neighboring Brazoria, The Texas Gazette (1829-33) owned by Robert Williamson, originally in San Felipe de Austin but later moved to Brazoria, and the Matagorda Bulletin (1827-39) in nearby Matagorda County.

During the summer of 1836 when the Republic of Texas was in its infancy, Gail Borden Jr. obtained a new printing press in Cincinnati and was able to resume publication of his Telegraph and Texas Register newspaper in Columbia, site of the new republic’s capital.  The first issue printed in Columbia was the August 2, 1836, edition which contained a copy of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas.  Prior to that publication in Columbia, the recently scripted constitution had been available for viewing by very few Texans.

The early Texas newspapers were usually only four pages and were printed weekly, semiweekly or triweekly.  They often fearlessly took sides in political campaigns, included foreign news and literary features, official notices and little local news.

Thomas Borden sold his interest in The Telegraph and Texas Register to Francis Moore Jr. on March 9, 1837, Gail Borden Jr. sold his interest to Jacob W. Cruger June 20, 1837, and Moore bought out Cruger in 1851.  Shortly after Moore assumed editorial control of this historical publication, the printing press and all those involved with publishing the paper moved to Houston when the Republic of Texas’s government relocated the capital from Columbia to the new city named for the Texas Revolution’s military hero, General Sam Houston, who was also the first president of the Republic of Texas.

The first issue of The Telegraph and Texas Register printed in Houston was May 2, 1837. Francis Moore Jr. continued publishing this newspaper until 1854 when he sold it to Harvey Allen.  It continued publication as a weekly newspaper until April 30, 1855, in Houston.

Victor Marion Rose was born in Victoria, Texas, in 1844, the third of the dozen children born to John Washington Rose and Margaret Scott Rose.  His father, a native of Washington Parish, Louisiana, was the grandson of John Frederick Rose, a veteran of the American Revolution, and Mary Washington Rose, a niece of America’s first president, George Washington.

John Washington Rose came to East Texas with a large family group around 1839 and later made Victoria County his home.  He served as chief justice of the municipality of Victoria from 1842 to 1846 and, after Texas became a state in 1845, John Washington Rose was elected to the House of Representatives of the first state legislature in 1846.

Victor Rose served in the Confederate Army under Colonel Elkanah Greer with Company A of the Third Texas Cavalry known as the “Texas Hunters” during the Civil War.  His regiment was connected to Benjamin McCulloch’s command and later in the war to Ross’s Brigade.  Rose’s fondness for General McCulloch led him to pen the book in 1888 that Flem Rogers donated to the museum in West Columbia.

Rose was wounded at least three times during the Civil War and nearly died of starvation while imprisoned at the notorious Camp Chase in Ohio.  He was released from custody in 1865 and recovered from his wounds at Vicksburg.  In 1866 Victor Rose married Julia Hardy who, after giving birth to Victor’s daughter Julia in April of 1867, died during Victoria’s yellow fever epidemic that also nearly claimed Victor.

Following his involvement in the War Between the States, Victor Rose was co-editor and publisher of The Victoria Advocate from 1869 to 1873. He moved to Laredo in the early 1880s and became editor of The Laredo Times.  Rose wrote several historical books, including “Victor Rose’s History of Victoria” and “The Life and Services of General Ben McCulloch,” and published a number of volumes of poetry.

A few months after his General McCulloch biography was published, Rose found himself in the town that is modern day West Columbia. McCulloch (1811-1862) was a Texas Ranger, U.S. Marshal and brigadier general in the Army of the Confederate States of America. Author O’Connor writes in her Victor Rose biography that “news was the least thing these newspapers considered worthy of note – content was often promotional or editorial. However, Rose broke from the typical pattern of the day, discussing far-reaching subjects in his newspaper columns.”

O’Connor says in her book that “The Old Capitol has the best collection of Rose’s postwar works and shows his change in thought and writing quite well on a number of subjects. His articles in The Old Capitol cover many subjects and were amazingly thorough – far more sophisticated than average small-town newspapers of this era. There was always local news of the social and business variety, but the bulk of each edition was widespread in its content. He taught history in each edition in some way and corrected historical inaccuracies, always one of his main interests throughout his writing life.”

Rose’s columns written from Columbia often appeared in the Galveston Daily News and also were printed in some Northern newspapers. But O’Connor writes in her book that, at the time Rose lost his Columbia newspaper “reportedly because of financial troubles” in the fall of 1889, “His writing and editing at this time were some of his best output.”

He was editor of a newspaper in Myrtle Springs, Texas, in Van Zandt County prior to his death from pneumonia February 5, 1893, in Victoria, the city of his birth, at the relatively young age of 49.