When News was Fun to Read...

Gone are the days when newspapers were truly enjoyable to read.  Not because of what was reported, but how it was reported.  Face it, today’s news articles are short and succinct, and birth and marriage announcements easily fit within a Tweet.  It seems that we are so rushed and so in need of instant gratification, anything longer than a headline gets passed over.  So I propose that we step into my time machine and travel back to Boone County, Kentucky in the late 1800’s to see how news used to be written.  (I almost feel like Ebenezer Scrooge with the Ghost of Christmas Past…)

The September 30, 1880 Boone County Recorder had a notice in the Local News section about my Great-Aunt’s nuptials. (This is an exact transcription, so any grammar and punctuation errors are not my doing :)  )

• “Monday morning before the breakfast bells had been silenced two gentlemen and a lady arrived in town and stopped at the Sandford House.  In a short time the county clerks office was sought and the necessary authority obtained for the marriage of Mr. Walter E. Sanders and Miss S. Josie Reed, of Big Bone.  The services of Elder H. J. Foster were obtained and the above named parties were united in matrimony in the parlor at the Sandford House, in the presence of several town people.”

(In my personal opinion, that is more fun to read than ‘Marriage license issued for Walter Sanders and S. Josie Reed, Big Bone.’)

Just a few years earlier, the June 21, 1877 issue of the Boone County Recorder announced the marriage of Josie’s sister, Susan.  Let’s see how they handled that announcement…

• “The matrimonial market, this summer, has been rather off till Wednesday, the 13^th inst., when it eased up and Ben Crisler obtained license to lead Miss Laura Aylor to the hymenial altar.  The market then shut down and remained closed till Tuesday morning, when one Enoch Barlow was granted the necessary documents to render valid his becoming a benedict by uniting in marriage with Miss Rhoda Aylor.  Barlow had hardly vacated the Clerk’s sanctum when in came one Philip Cayton, shoving at the Clerk a written instrument recommending a dose of marriage license authorizing him (Cayton) to commit matrimony with Miss Susan Reed.  The boys all seemed in high spirits, and appeared to care nothing about the mercury’s trying to kick the nineties of the thermometer.”

It must have been hot when Susan and Philip married because on the same page this was found, “It is estimated the sentence, “It is a warm day, was spoken on Monday, something like 79,612,191,013,843 1/8 times.”"

I have to admit I love reading the old newspapers.  The writers weren’t in a hurry to report the happenings, especially in small towns like Big Bone, Kentucky, and the readers weren’t in a hurry to read about their friends and neighbors.  Articles were filled with adjectives and adverbs and came alive to the readers.  You read about the things that mattered, for example “Cleve Hankins has purchased a fine buggy.”, and “Miss Annie and Charlie Baker, of Indiana, have been visiting relatives at this place for the past few days”.

Old newspapers are helpful for genealogists in uncovering information about your ancestors.  All I ask, is that you take the time to read the news that your ancestor read…read about events that mattered to them, the people who mattered to them…instead of just gleaning the information and moving on.  Stop for a minute and enjoy the ‘poetry’ that  was newspaper reporting a century ago, when the world was a lot smaller and a lot simpler.  Step back into their time and soak up their history, not just their data.

As always,

          Happy Hunting!