Samuel Oliver Young, Jr. (1848-1926) grew up among San Jacinto veterans and the prominent citizens of early Houston. He was born just two months after the death of his father, Dr. S. O. Young, Sr., in one of Houston's many Yellow Fever epidemics. 

He was reared by his mother, Maud Jennie Young, in the household of her parents. Maud Jennie Young seems to have been set on raising her son to be a carbon copy of his father, giving him the same name and pushing him to become a physician. He dutifully practiced that profession from 1870 until her death in 1882.  

At that time he abandoned medicine to become a newspaperman, first as business manager of the original Houston Post which promptly collapsed. He then founded the Houston Morning Chronicle, which through the course several mergers and buy-outs became the modern Houston Post which ran until 1995. His later years were spent writing for the Chronicle that we know today.

Newspapers in the 19th century sprang up like mushrooms and died just as quickly. They served as the Internet of that age. What Dr. Young did was a bit like leaving medicine to start a blog. People probably scratched their heads.

S. O. Young served in the Civil War, enlisting at the age of fifteen in Company A of the Fifth Texas Infantry (Bayou City Guards), Hood's Texas Brigade. His mother sewed the Brigade's battle flag, which now resides the the Texas State Archives.

Dr. Young is also notable for how he survived the 1900 Galveston Storm. He was Secretary of the Galveston Cotton Exchange at the time and was determined to ride out the storm in his house. The storm destroyed the house leaving Dr. Young to surf across the island on his front door! Anyone who has read the book, Isaac's Storm, or seen the History Channel documentary of the same name, is familiar with Dr. Young's story.