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 short stopover at Galveston Island, the youth put his employer’s high-minded ideas on paper. T...