Thanks to the generosity of the Dallas Public Library we have been able to add more issues from the Polk County Observer to our digitized collection! This new content ranges from April 7, 1888, when the Polk County Observer printed its very first paper for distribution to the general population, to February 15, 1889. The addition of this new content completes our collection of newspapers for this title.
https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088088/1888-04-07/ed-1/seq-1/
https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn96088088/1888-04-07/ed-1/seq-3/
The Polk County Observer served all of Polk County and its main recipients resided in Monmouth, Dallas and Independence, Oregon. However, the newspaper covered international, national, statewide, and local news.
International news covered by the Polk County Observer varied greatly. From an interesting law in Russia outlawing the use of exclamation points in newspapers, to news about beet sugar factories in Europe!
National news covered by this newspaper was just as interesting. As evidenced in the snippet from the newspaper located to the left, which reports of a one pound, one year old baby living healthily in Minnesota. A child of such size living for so long during this time period is remarkable!
Statewide news captured by the Polk County Observer was just as fascinating. For example, there is a report of a man from Douglas County, Oregon who killed an eagle with a seven foot span! Located just a few lines down is an announcement that patents for a car heater and for an apparatus to heat cars were awarded to two Oregonian men.
Finally, the local news reported by the Polk County Observer highlighted what life was like in the area, as well as any excitement that happened in the community, such as a runaway train.
To learn more about Polk County and see more from Polk County Observer, please feel free to browse other issues from this title found on our website. Thanks to optical character recognition, this title along with all other titles located on our website, can easily be browsed or searched using keywords. In addition to this, all of our content can be downloaded as a PDF or JPEG and saved for future reference or research.