The first few issues may have appeared under the name the Cedar Snag, but the nameplate read Dallas Herald by December 1849.
The Herald under Latimer supported the Democratic Party, slavery, transportation improvements, and education and opposed Sam Houston.
It urged Democrats to select the moderate Stephen A. Douglas as the party's 1860 presidential nominee, rather than a more extreme Southern partisan because Douglas probably could be elected and would listen to the concerns of the southern states where a less moderate candidate would not likely be elected.
The Herald papers had been missing from the Dallas scene for barely more than a month when an item appeared in the Morning News on January 14, 1886, noting that “the first number of the Dallas Daily Herald made its appearance last evening.
Clayton had been manager of the San Antonio Evening Times[citation needed] and in his Herald editorials often advocated for prohibition.
On June 7, 1886, it was acquired by Lafayette L. Foster, a journalist and the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.