Tarantula

The Tarantula was an early newspaper published at Washington-on-the-Brazos in the Republic of Texas between late March or the beginning of April 1841 and January 1842. Anderson Buffington, a member of the recently organized Baptist church in that locality, along with Alfred Brigance, obtained the Emigrant's press after that paper folded, and began publishing this small weekly. Politically, the Tarantula favored Sam Houston. Editor Buffington, who later was ordained a minister, opposed the taverns of Washington-on-the-Brazos and advocated founding a temperance society. The Tarantula had continual difficulty obtaining a sufficient supply of paper. By early 1842 Buffington had quit printing the paper because too few of the town's residents could afford to buy it. Buffington proposed to publish a new paper, the Texas Emigrant, at Sarahville, but there is no evidence that he carried out this project.