Maintaining a collection can be a relaxing activity that counteracts the stress of life, while providing a purposeful pursuit, which prevents boredom.

The widespread appeal of collecting something is connected to the hunting and gathering that was once necessary for human survival but for many collecting is a hobby.

The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector.

At the turn of the century a popular form of collecting took many turns. Items for collecting were scarce and therefore our early ancestors started collecting as frugally as possible.

Many people collected newspaper clippings. Some were of the same subject while others cover a multitude of topics. The Edwardsburg Museum has a number of such collections given by families who did not want them destroyed but also didn’t want to keep them.

Being frugal many people reused what ever they could find to keep the clippings in. Some of them are in old books and some are in old ledgers as well as regular scrapbooks.

Scrapbooks are a popular hobby for many people even today. But the scrapbooking so popular today is nothing like the books of early days.

Keeping newspaper clippings could be of a single topic or could be a multitude of subjects. Some were of obituaries, wedding notices or brides pictures, poetry, recipes or just items of interest.

One of the mysteries of these collections is trying to guess why they were of interest to the collector. As we look through the collections we often find clues of a particular interest.

This week I am copying one of the clippings that was found in a recent book. This collection was in a ledger book that kept records of purchases made from Marshall Field’s Store in Chicago. The pages have been covered with newspaper clippings of a variety of topics but there were a number that tell something of the history of Edwardsburg.

The headline of this article is “Edwardsburg had a daily.”

“Probably many of our older residents have forgotten that this village once had a daily newspaper — the Edwardsburg Daily Revolution published by the late J.R. Reese. A copy received by Mrs. Reese from John F. Randolph of Canandaigua, New York is on our desk and is dated April 18, 1874. The publisher was assisted by the following persons: Mrs. Mertie Reese, cashier, J. F. Randolph, printer’s devil, D. S. Minier, general manager, E.B. Morris, newsboy, C. W. Smith, general assistant, W.M. Walter, tall contributor, C. E. Curtis, night reporter.

The market report shows that red wheat was worth $1.35, corn 54 cents, oats 45 cents, butter 30 cents, eggs 11cents, lard 10 cents and potatoes $1.

The announcement was made that Mrs. E. Vaughn ‘“which for delicacy and beauty is seldom surpassed.”

Mr. Randolph received the first bill of freight that arrived in this village after the completion of the Peninsular railway, and owned and operated the first printing press in town on which was printed the above named daily. Ever since he left this place the Argus has kept him posted on local affairs and he has always shown a great interest in his old hometown.

This reference to an Edwardsburg daily newspaper has never been found in any other source to my knowledge. There is no notation as to what paper this appeared in or the date published. There is no evidence that the people named as a part of the daily newspaper ever lived in the area with the exception of W.M. Walter and Mrs. Vaughn.

Some other interesting subjects that will be published in coming weeks accompanied the clipping where this was found.

 

JoAnn Boepple works with the Edwardsburg Area History Museum.