The first newspaper in Grapeland was printed in March of 1897. Phil H. Blalock was the editor. 

In August of that same year, it was sold to D. McNaughton of Palestine. The paper was edited by Riley T. Runyan and was called the ‘Grapeland Times and Farmers Journal’. 

The name was changed to ‘The Grapeland Messenger’ in 1899 when purchased by W.B. Johnson, Mose Spence, George E. Darsey Sr., and Dr. H.S. Robertson. These men bought the business with plans to use the profits of the paper for the building of the Methodist parsonage. Dr. H.S. Robertson was the editor. 

In 904-05, Lee Satterwhite operated the paper and then sold to George E. Darsey Sr. and A.H. Luker became the editor.

Mr. Luker leased the business for five years and then 1910, he became sole owner. For 45 years until his retirement in 1953, Mr. Luker published ‘The Grapeland Messenger’. 

Publication was continued by his sons, Merle and Ed. Merle served as business manager; Ed as editor. In 1959, Merle Luker left the business here to begin a newspaper operation in Vidor, Texas. Ed Luker operated the paper from 1959 until 1968 when it was purchased by Weldon Kerby, present owner and operator. 

The original newspaper office was located next door to the post office on the block behind Darsey’s Store where the warehouse now stands. It was housed in a frame building with a corrugated iron roof and it and the post office building survived the fire of 1913. After the fire, Mr. Darsey moved both buildings across the street on to the lots now occupied by First State Bank parking area so that he could build a warehouse where they had been located. A new Masonic building was also needed after the fire and when it was completed, the Grapeland Messenger moved into the downstairs portion of that building on block 6, lots 8 &9. On August 29, 1929, the Messenger Office and plant was moved to Front St. on block 2, lot 1. It occupied this location until 1986 when Weldon Kerby, the present owner, constructed a new building across the street on the property that was once the residence of Charlie Kennedy.