The Houston Chronicle was founded in Houston, Texas in October of 1901 by Marcellus Elliot Foster (1870-1942), a graduate of Sam Houston Normal Institute (now Sam Houston State University) and former reporter and managing editor for the Houston Post.

The Chronicle experienced quick growth. Within a month, it had a circulation of 4,378, impressive in a city of 44,638. In 1908, Foster partnered with Jesse H. Jones (1874-1956), builder and entrepreneur, to build a ten-story plant and office building in return for fifty-percent ownership of the Chronicle. Buildings for the paper would eventually come to occupy an entire block. During the 1920s, when support for the Klu Klux Klan was high in Harris County, the Chronicle was known for its blistering editorials attacking the clan, written by Foster.

By 1926, the paper had 75,000 readers each weekday and 85,000 on Sundays. In June of 1926, Foster retired and Jones purchased his remaining interest in the Chronicle. At the time, the paper was valued at $2.5 million. Foster went on to become an editor for the Houston Press and write on issues such as overcrowding and atrocities in the state prison system. He continued his journalistic pursuits until his death in 1942.

Jones, a former student of Hill’s Business College in Dallas, was the largest developer in Houston area before he joined the Houston Chronicle as part of a switch towards investment and banking. Jones was involved in many profitable endeavors over the years; he was chairman of the Texas Trust Company, president of the National Bank of Commerce (now part of JPMorgan Chase & Co), and was an original stakeholder in Humble Oil and Refining Company (now Exxon Company, U.S.A.).

During World War I, he was asked by President Woodrow Wilson to become the director general of military relief for the American Red Cross, a position which he held for several years, and later was appointed chair of the Reconstruction Finance Committee (REC). The REC was a government entity established to combat the Great Depression which became the leading financial institution in America and a primary investor in the economy. The Houston Endowment, which Jones established in 1937, continued to contribute to the Chronicle even after Jones' death in 1956.

In March 1964, the Chronicle purchased the assets of the Houston Press, its evening competition. In 1987, the Houston Endowment had to divest itself of the profit-making paper under new state laws. As a result, the Chronicle was sold to the Hearst Corporation in 1987 for $415 million. In April 1995, the Houston Post closed and the Hearst Corporation bought the Post’s assets from the Media News Group, making the Chronicle the only major daily in Houston.