James Wellington "Wake" Latimer
Erected by his friends—as a testimonial of their appreciation of his worth----He has gone---- who shall fill his place among us.
12/27/1825-4/6/1859

( J. W. “Wake” Latimer, born in Carroll Co., TN, came with his parents, brothers & sisters to Red River Co., TX in 1833. His father & brothers took a prominent part in the liberation of TX in 1836, & one brother signed the TX Declaration of Independence. J. W. Latimer studied law but never practiced. He edited the Paris Weekly Herald in 1848 & in 1849, he came to Dallas hauling his printing press by ox team & started publishing the Dallas Herald, the first newspaper printed in Dallas. The newspaper was the dominant one in town until the Dallas Morning News began publishing in 1885 & bought out the Herald. He was elected Chief Justice of the County in 1850 & served for four years while his wife, the former Lucy Jordan, edited the Herald (which, according to research, was supposedly not the same Herald newspaper-known as The Dallas Times Herald-which many long time Dallas residents are familiar with which was acquired & then shut down by The Dallas Morning News in 1991). When Latimer arrived, there were said to be fewer than 50 people in town, a clear indication that the newspaper's intended audience was not so much those already in Dallas as those outsiders who might be enticed to move to the area. He was elected City Alderman when Dallas was incorporated in 1856. He died at the age of thirty-three years from a fractured skull received in a fall in the backyard of his home. Latimer Street is named for him.

NOTE: While researching this project, I read that he went out one night to get firewood, fell & hit his head & died of the concussion he received from the fall. Their home was the first in Dallas to have a piano, as Lucy Jordan Latimer brought hers with them by covered wagon when they first moved to Dallas.)