Newspapers are the ultimate history books

Both newspaper offices have been a flurry of activity lately. We’ve had many visitors this summer going through our bound files, or newspaper archives, to gather information published over the past 100+ years.

I’m sure our guests in Carrington have heard their share of newsroom banter, as noise flows through those uninsulated faux walls like the North Dakota wind through a screen.

Author Karri (Bye) Theis brought her daughter and a friend to the Carrington office to do research for a book she’s writing. That article is in the Independent this week.

Lion Tom Paintner has spent many hours paging through the bound files this summer looking for articles written about the Carrington Lions Club in advance of their 40th anniversary this fall. We’ll have more on that in a future addition of the Independent.

In New Rockford, Women’s Auxiliary Cemetery Association president Kathy O’Connor has spent time going through archives as she completes research on unmarked graves for her “Ashes to Ashes” column. She also took the time to follow up on a report of an unmarked grave in Ken Gardner’s “History of New Rockford” column.

Reporter Nathan Price did a deep dive into the 1960s’ volumes to find more on the history of the Lutheran Home of the Good Shepherd, which celebrated its 60th anniversary this past month. The fruits of his research were on the front page of the Aug. 7 edition of the Transcript, including a photo of the groundbreaking ceremony in 1962.

I did a little digging of my own recently, as I put together the construction timeline for the Carrington fire hall, which is on the front page of the Independent this week.

Every time I open one of those bulky bound books, I find “gems.” As I went through the 1997-98 bound file looking for fire hall photos and stories, I found the baby announcement for my husband’s cousin, Mandy Hermanson. Yes, there was a photo! No doubt her proud grandparents, Pete and Donna Wobbema of Barlow, wanted to make her arrival known to the local community.

One of the most memorable gems I have found is a photo of the Grandfield Lutheran Church WELCA ladies printed in 1991, which included my paternal great-grandmother, Gudrun (Myhre) Hendrickson. I recognized a few of the fine ladies in that photo, so I shared it on my personal Facebook page. I enjoyed the subsequent interaction with my “friends” as they identified their own relatives, many of whom were no longer with us by that time.

The bound newspaper archives are available to read anytime during office hours, which are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. in New Rockford and 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. in Carrington.

If the request is for a recent edition, such as in the last few months, we will likely remember approximately when an article or public notice was printed. If we do, we’ll be happy to get you a copy (or 10 if you like) of the exact edition. If not, we can point you in the general direction and give you time and space to look.

For more vintage archival searches, it’s helpful if you can remember a date or a year at least. With more than 1,000 pages in the average bound file, it takes time and work to comb through them. Anyone who’s spent time looking at old newspapers knows that they put a lot of words on those few pages, and there were almost no photos in the early editions. That means it takes longer to read through multiple articles to find what you’re looking for.

While we love to see readers spend time in our office paging through our bound files, we also know that time is not always in ample supply, especially for readers who don’t live in the local area.

Remember, digital copies of the Foster County Independent from 1914 to 1979 are archived and available to search and read on the Carrington City Library’s website. Go to https://carringtonlibrary.org/. Click the “Digital Newspapers Archive” link on the right side of the home page.

These archives are searchable from almost anywhere. All you need is an internet connection and a cell phone, tablet or computer. As reported in a past edition of the Independent, the digital archive project for Foster County was paid for by private donations. The archive contains all the newspapers published in Foster County and is fully searchable. Type in a relative’s name, and you’ll be surprised what you might find.

I’d love to see digital copies of the New Rockford Transcript become available. The five years of editions archived on our website, http://www.newrockfordtranscript.com, are so helpful for us in the newsroom as we follow up on articles and issues we’ve previously written about.

Newspapers are the ultimate history books. From vital records and weather reports to business news and updates from city hall, we do our best to cover it all.