Thank you Katheen McCook for sharing the history and some of the adventures of "Liberty Boys of '76". As one who spent a career in newspapers, this shapes for me just one more example for why as a nation we must save for generations to come the endless file draws of newspaper clippings and, from the mid 20th century forward the reels of microfilm holding decades of photo copies of America's community newspapers when vitually every town had at least one weekly and mid-size cities to major urban areas could claim two, three to more than a half-dozen dailies chronicling the sentiments, news, styles, prices and pulse of their day as a nation's history.
Whether or not our best days are ahead of or behind us we may never fully understand unless we remain diligent chroniclers and keepers of the record of those days as our living history and lessons.
I loved newspapers so much. I had subs to my two local papers (Tampa Tribune and St. Pete Times), the NY Times and Washington Post. And before that the Baton Rouge Advocate, the Times-Picayune, the Champaign News Gazette, The Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times, The Chicago American and the Chicago Daily News. I remember every one! The columnists were my first read.
One of the saddest memories I have living in Florida was going out to fetch the paper on the driveway and glancing up and down the street at all the papers on peoples' driveways. Then I noted over the years the papers were starting to disappear from other driveways. Until mine was the only one. The publishers stopped delivering real papers and told subscribers to go digital.
Many libraries preserve local papers. If anyone wants to donate to a local library to keep these initiatives going I hope they will. The Villanova University project I link to here has most of the dime novels digitized or at least on microfilm. LIBERTY BOYS was actually more like a newspaper. I started my library career as a microfilm librarian keeping backfiles of newspapers. I agree with you that the loss of local news and the people who wrote it is one of the greatest sadness's of our time.
Thank you for sharing the information for contributing to that preservation effort. And thank you as well for sharing what had piqued your early interest in newspapers. I recall as a sophomore in high school growing up in the Chicago burbs, working after school at a "news agency" store that, besides countless magazines, carried some nationally circulated newspapers and all six or seven of the Chicago's then dailies. Old men (actually probably younger than I am today) would mill about inside, waiting for the next hourly suburban commuter train to arrive carrying passengers and bundles of newspapers. If their choice of newspaper missed that train, these guys would wait an hour or often more for the next train out, hoping it would be carrying their newspaper of choice.
That was one the earlier of a few profoundly memorable experiences that made so lasting an impression for me to pursue a few years later journalism degree in college and a career in the field until my retirement more than 10 years ago. Lots of treasured stories about that career, as I am certain you experienced as well.
The chicago suburbs (they were really more rural then) was where I grew up in DuPage county (next to a farm). I was the stringer for the Chicago News Service (maybe not name) for my h.s. paper and called in sports scores. I would get a check for $8.00 a week. That was my first check and I was 14.
Small world. I was born and raised in Geneva ... Kane County ... we rode that same commuter train back when Geneva was the last stop. As a middle schooler (junior high) I would take the old Chicago & Northeestern into Union Station, hop on the "L" over to Wrigley Field to catch a Cub game back before that became a life-threatening. mission.
Years later, home from college for the summers and working for the Elgin Daily Courier-News, i recall being sent to the Village of Schaumburg back when the Chicago papers were opening bureaus in that unincorporated town of I believe fewer than 1,000 people. Had I known then the boom that was to follow, I would have invested my college tuition into a few acres of land there and retired by the time I was 40.
Retired to Northern Alabama and seeing the early stages if this explosive growth in nearby Huntsville.
Thank you Katheen McCook for sharing the history and some of the adventures of "Liberty Boys of '76". As one who spent a career in newspapers, this shapes for me just one more example for why as a nation we must save for generations to come the endless file draws of newspaper clippings and, from the mid 20th century forward the reels of microfilm holding decades of photo copies of America's community newspapers when vitually every town had at least one weekly and mid-size cities to major urban areas could claim two, three to more than a half-dozen dailies chronicling the sentiments, news, styles, prices and pulse of their day as a nation's history.
Whether or not our best days are ahead of or behind us we may never fully understand unless we remain diligent chroniclers and keepers of the record of those days as our living history and lessons.
I loved newspapers so much. I had subs to my two local papers (Tampa Tribune and St. Pete Times), the NY Times and Washington Post. And before that the Baton Rouge Advocate, the Times-Picayune, the Champaign News Gazette, The Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times, The Chicago American and the Chicago Daily News. I remember every one! The columnists were my first read.
One of the saddest memories I have living in Florida was going out to fetch the paper on the driveway and glancing up and down the street at all the papers on peoples' driveways. Then I noted over the years the papers were starting to disappear from other driveways. Until mine was the only one. The publishers stopped delivering real papers and told subscribers to go digital.
Many libraries preserve local papers. If anyone wants to donate to a local library to keep these initiatives going I hope they will. The Villanova University project I link to here has most of the dime novels digitized or at least on microfilm. LIBERTY BOYS was actually more like a newspaper. I started my library career as a microfilm librarian keeping backfiles of newspapers. I agree with you that the loss of local news and the people who wrote it is one of the greatest sadness's of our time.
Thank you for sharing the information for contributing to that preservation effort. And thank you as well for sharing what had piqued your early interest in newspapers. I recall as a sophomore in high school growing up in the Chicago burbs, working after school at a "news agency" store that, besides countless magazines, carried some nationally circulated newspapers and all six or seven of the Chicago's then dailies. Old men (actually probably younger than I am today) would mill about inside, waiting for the next hourly suburban commuter train to arrive carrying passengers and bundles of newspapers. If their choice of newspaper missed that train, these guys would wait an hour or often more for the next train out, hoping it would be carrying their newspaper of choice.
That was one the earlier of a few profoundly memorable experiences that made so lasting an impression for me to pursue a few years later journalism degree in college and a career in the field until my retirement more than 10 years ago. Lots of treasured stories about that career, as I am certain you experienced as well.
The chicago suburbs (they were really more rural then) was where I grew up in DuPage county (next to a farm). I was the stringer for the Chicago News Service (maybe not name) for my h.s. paper and called in sports scores. I would get a check for $8.00 a week. That was my first check and I was 14.
Small world. I was born and raised in Geneva ... Kane County ... we rode that same commuter train back when Geneva was the last stop. As a middle schooler (junior high) I would take the old Chicago & Northeestern into Union Station, hop on the "L" over to Wrigley Field to catch a Cub game back before that became a life-threatening. mission.
Years later, home from college for the summers and working for the Elgin Daily Courier-News, i recall being sent to the Village of Schaumburg back when the Chicago papers were opening bureaus in that unincorporated town of I believe fewer than 1,000 people. Had I known then the boom that was to follow, I would have invested my college tuition into a few acres of land there and retired by the time I was 40.
Retired to Northern Alabama and seeing the early stages if this explosive growth in nearby Huntsville.
Enjoy yhe reminiscing.