Texas' first printer couldn't catch a break

On Feb. 16, 1817, a Boston teenager with a hand-cranked press produced the first printed words in Texas history – the long-winded manifesto of a doomed expedition. On his way to free Mexico from Spanish tyranny, Francisco Xavier Mina docked at an American port to take on provisions. He also picked up a printer for his British-made press, an adventurous 16 year old named Samuel Bangs. During a…