Newspaper Archives Peek Into Past
(From Heritage Hunting column, August 27, 2000): The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society meets at 1 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Salvation Army, 222 E. Indiana. The location was listed wrong in last Sunday’s column.
Every once in a while someone theorizes that newspapers will one day be as rustic as the Model T. I find that hard to believe. Computers, they say, will be the reading medium of choice in the future. Do they actually think we’ll snuggle down in a comfy chair with a computer in our laps? Nah. Besides, computers may become extinct, and if there isn’t a paper backup, how will future genealogists ever read what we, their ancestors-to-be, did?
The written word in black-and-white and read all over is best. Some of the most fun in compiling genealogical information is reading age-old newspapers, especially those you can touch.
In 1990, I threw a 100-year-old birthday party for my dad, which he would have thoroughly enjoyed if he had not died 10 years earlier. He attended in spirit. To find information on my dad’s birthplace, a friend and I drove to Atkinson in Holt County, Neb.
The town’s two newspapers at the turn of the 20th century provided gems of small items, which, in turn, provided a peek as to who my ancestors were. While reading the papers in the still-quaint publishing office, we noticed a log of coming and going around us. Word had it that two women were in town, driving a car with Washington State license plates, and asking questions about their burg. They came to say hello, and did we know a friend who lives in Spokane? There are so many bonuses to researching genealogy.
The March 4, 1897, Atkinson Graphic reported: A post office has been established in Green Valley Township with L.M. Smith as postmaster. L.M., Lindley Murray, was my grandfather. I’d never heard that story. Another item said Lem (L.M.) and his wife came in from Green Valley last Thursday, and Mr. Smith took the passenger for ONeill. That one-sentence paragraph allows me to see these grandparents conducting business in Atkinson and ONeill, now about a 15-minute drive away. It’s a shame that “wife” was the only reference to my grandmother. Sigh. The papers last item about my family read: L.M. Smith, Jno. Tulk and their families of Green Valley Township started for the Alberta country last Monday noon. We are sorry to lose these highly regarded citizens from Holt County but we wish them luck in their new home. The article solved a mystery as to when they emigrated. My dad was off by a year about their move to Ponoka, Northwest Territories. But because I found this item in the 1901 newspaper, I know exactly when they left. Another important date was confirmed in this minor obsession of ours that strives for perfection.<’ Searching for another ancestor in another state - this time on microfilm, via interlibrary loan - provided much data, along with a personality glimpse of the Rev. Eddie Gildersleeve Merrill (a.k.a. E.G.) According to the Feb. 15, 1901, weekly newspaper in Arapaho, Neb., he left his church in an apparent huff. The next week’s issue, however, implied that his congregation had convinced him to stay, after all. But by March, he was off again, never to return. He ran an ad in the paper to sell household goods, including 20 Belgian hares. That’s great fodder for a character study.
This time E.G. really did leave for Baola, Kan., which turned out to be Paola, which goes to show one must be creative with misspellings. Long live newspapers, I say.
Robert Singletary, who teaches at Lewis and Clark State College, will discuss North Idaho History for Eastern Washington Genealogical Society at 1 p.m., Sept. 9 at Union Gospel Mission, 1224 E. Trent.