Today’s guest blog post comes from Linda Sausen Ivers:

I should probably start by introducing myself. Hello, my name is Linda, and I’m a genealogy addict! I started researching and recording the genealogy of my family in 1988. Although I was lucky enough to have known my grandparents and to have met one of my great-grandmothers, I really didn’t know many specifics about who they were or where they came from.  All I had to go on were some family stories and a lot of photographs.

Genealogy is Detective Work

Genealogists work backward in time to find out more about ancestors. We diligently search records that document facts—birth, death, marriage, divorce, place of residence, military service, land ownership, immigration, etc.—looking for information about our ancestors. We keep searching, looking for the type of things we don’t find in those records, the daily activities of those ancestors. Where were they between census years? Who did they socialize with? Did they travel for enjoyment? Were they involved in local politics? Did they participate in organizations? Did they have children that didn’t show up on a census?

Information about our ancestor’s daily activities can often be gleaned from newspapers. Newspaper stories can provide a richness and context to a family history beyond the recitation of names and dates. Early newspapers tended to be more locally focused in the type of news items they published. The Historic Oregon Newspapers collection and the Library of Congress Chronicling America Historic American Newspapers are treasure troves of information for genealogists. Both are online and fully text searchable.

I use the Historic Oregon Newspapers collection extensively while researching Oregon ancestors. The Lincoln County Leader is a great resource for my extended family on the coast.  For Douglas County, The Plaindealer, The Douglas Independent, and the Roseburg Review are excellent sources.

Some Examples

To illustrate several of the ways that newspapers can provide information about ancestor’s daily activities, I’ve chosen articles from the Douglas County papers. Using documented facts as background and to create a timeline, the newspapers provide a look at the interactions of my great grandfather, Herbert A. Tompkins, with family members who left Iowa and settled in both Douglas and Coos County, Oregon.

Finding Herbert (“Tompkin, H. A.” [sic]) on the list of unclaimed letters at the Roseburg, Oregon post office published in The Plaindealer (June 19, 1899) helps establish when he arrived.

 

Small mentions of the travels and social activities of area residents were a large part of the content of local papers. A mention in The Plaindealer (July 24, 1899) places T. F. Fisher and H.A. Tompkins in Roseburg on business the previous Saturday.

 

In the 1900 census, Herbert is living with Vianna and William Matthews (his oldest daughter and son-in-law) in South Slough, Coos County, Oregon. By 1903, he was back in Douglas County as documented in the “Olalla News” column in The Plaindealer (December 10, 1903).  Both Herbert and nephew Albert Tompkins (son of Herbert’s brother Elias) are mentioned. T. F. Fisher is also identified as Herbert’s nephew in the column. Fisher is the husband of Margaret Amelia (Millie) Tompkins, Albert’s sister. The use of the word “Uncle” in the context of the clipping may be a respectful reference to Herbert’s age (57).

Have you ever wondered how your ancestors did in school? You may be lucky and find a School Report. This one is for the South Ten Mile School and was published in The Douglas Independent (July 21, 1883). In the list, “Rec” is their record (grade/class standing), and “Dep” stands for deportment.

There are some other interesting relationships and connections among the students in this school.  Some family groups are easy to see; they share a last name.  What is not obvious is that Ada Byron and Millie Tompkins are siblings, the daughters of Elias Tompkins. Previous research confirmed their relationship and that between their mother’s death in 1876 and the 1880 census, they had been fostered by John Byron and his wife. The report lists Ada as using the Byron surname while Millie, her older sister, still maintains the Tompkins surname.

Other names in this list complement facts found through census data. The McCulloch’s are siblings and nieces of John A. Freeman (married to Herbert’s first wife). The Fisher children are all younger siblings of T. F. Fisher who marries Millie Tompkins in September 1890.

Newspaper articles can sometimes surprise us with what they reveal about our ancestors. This article appeared in the Roseburg Review (September 3, 1886) about an altercation involving a gun. I think the editorial question in the last line of the article is worth noting.

These are only five representative articles describing the activities of these ancestors and their families. What else have I found? Obituaries, estate filings, marriage notices, social gatherings, family tragedies, visits to and from family members, law suits, public works assessment notices, and advertisements for the rental and sale of property. I use this type of information to provide depth and context to the other research I’ve done when writing and sharing stories with my family.

Welcome to my addiction. I wish you good hunting and a great adventure!

 

Guest blog post by University of Oregon School of Planning, Public Policy and Management graduate student Jes Sokolowski:

For the last few semesters I have been assisting a professor with a research project on inequality and taxes. Most of my involvement with this project has been with data collection— analyzing tax forms to uncover charitable giving information, and eventually extrapolating enough information to design visuals.

During the project, our team would occasionally talk about the rhetoric involved with a partisan issue, such as taxes. These thoughts on taxes, inequality, and rhetoric, lead me to ask the question “I wonder how tax talk has transformed over time”? Shortly after I posed this question, the new Historic Oregon Newspapers website was released, and historic newspapers seemed like the perfect place to search to discover how tax talk had evolved over the years. Not only would Historic Oregon Newspapers allow me to learn more about the history of taxes in Oregon, but it would allow me to search for tax-related keywords and phrases.

Thus, I proceeded to search through Oregon Digital Newspapers using terms such as “taxation”, “tax policy”, and “tax reform”. This was an exciting search process! I had never read about early 20th century tax reform before this Digital Newspaper search, so it was particularly exciting to read early opinion articles, editorials, and local advertisements either for or against a tax measure. Fun fact: it was common for the list of local tax evaders to be published on the front page of the newspaper— that way everyone knew who wasn’t paying their fair share.

The most important find for my newspaper search project, showed up in the January 24th, 1909 Sunday Oregonian. From this newspaper, it was clear that, for more than 100 years, there has been concern with issues of inequality and taxes in Oregon. The article, titled Procedure for Tax Reform in Oregon, was written by F.G. Young, Professor of Economics and Sociology at the University of Oregon. According to Young, “An equitable system of taxation is necessary not only for social health and mutual good will, but also for internal peace and general prosperity.” Young’s call for equitable taxes is as timeless as his comment on tax evasion: “Classes or interests, who under existing practices are escaping their rightful share of the public burdens, see to it that all the confusion possible is created…”.

Thanks to the Historic Oregon Newspapers website, I began to better understand the history of taxes, and Oregonian’s attitudes towards taxation. Though the people discussing taxes change, people’s polarizing views and writing on taxes seem to be ageless.

Scott Stursa, author of the recently published book Distilled in Oregon, shares his interests and processes for researching with local historic resources, including Historic Oregon Newspapers online!

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Can you tell us a little about your publication and yourself?

Distilled in Oregon  details the history of spirits distillation in the state, beginning with the “Blue Ruin” being manufactured by fur traders during the 1830s and 1840s. It traces the development of commercial distilling during the nineteenth century as well as the prohibition movement that ended alcohol production in 1916. The Prohibition period was rife with moonshining, and the operations of a couple of practitioners is described. A history of Hood River Distillers (opened 1934) is followed by one of Clear Creek Distillery (1985). The final portion of the book covers the rise of the craft distilling movement in Oregon, with a number of notable distilleries described in detail.

During a 40 year career in Information Technology, writing was a hobby until my retirement in early 2016. I’m now able to devote more time to it.

What interested you in this topic?

I’ve had an interest in gourmet food and drink since my late twenties (early 1980s) and the interest in craft distilling is a facet of that. After arriving in Oregon in 2007 I became acquainted with a local craft distiller and decided to write a book on the topic.

What resources did you use for your research?

The World Wide Web was instrumental in not only finding the content of primary source accounts (digitized books [both old and new], newspaper articles, online media reports, etc.), but also provided the names of out-of-print books (which I could find and buy via Amazon), and catalogs of the contents of historical archives. These last allowed me to visit historical archives (from Medford to Seattle to The Dalles) with a list of requested resources.

What did you use in Historic Oregon Newspapers online? How did you use the site and which newspaper titles were useful to you?

Old articles describing the construction, operation, and fate of various distilleries around the state, along with advertisements placed by distillers and liquor retailers. Google Advanced Search was used, restricting the domain to oregonnews.uoregon.edu and inputting various relevant keywords such as distillery, moonshine, whiskey, etc.* Probably the one most useful title was The Oregonian.

Where can we purchase/access your book?

It was available at a number of retail outlets around the state (ranging from Powells to Costco). Most of these have sold out, but it can be ordered from Amazon or from the publisher (Arcadia/History Press).

What’s your next project?

Currently working on a book about the history of wine making in Oregon.

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Thank you for sharing, Scott! We are looking forward to your next publication.

*The Historic Oregon Newspapers website also features advanced search functionality!

Available at the University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) is a collection of correspondences, scrapbooks, newspapers, and miscellaneous papers pertaining to Colonel John “Watermelon” Redington (1851-1935). An Oregon scout turned newspaper man, this eccentric character was editor of the Heppner Weekly Gazette in Heppner, Oregon during its frontier days. The Colonel published quite an unusual periodical for such a small western town, and University of Oregon alumnus Brant Ducey used Redington’s editorial career with the Heppner Weekly Gazette as the focus of his master’s thesis (John Watermelon Redington: “Hell on Hogthieves and Hypocrites” 1963). To add to the bulk of resources available on John “Watermelon” Redington, the Oregon Digital Newspaper Program (ODNP) has also made digital issues of the Heppner Weekly Gazette available online from the period of his editorial management. Drawing upon the research already completed by Brant Ducey, and the resources made available by SCUA and ODNP, this post takes a quick look at the editorial career of Redington, which Ducey remarked as perhaps one of the most unique moments in the history of Oregon’s periodical publications.

As Brant Ducey explains in his research, Colonel Redington was propositioned with an offer to run the Heppner Weekly Gazette following his service in both the Nez Perce and Bannock Indian wars. He was hesitant to accept the job, as an editorial position didn’t quite match the excitement of his nomadic life as an Oregon scout. After hearing that the previous publisher of the paper had been run out of Heppner by the town “baddies,” Redington felt that the proposition might provide enough of a challenge to stay entertained.

In the 1880’s, the city of Heppner, Oregon was much like the majority of early frontier towns scattered throughout the west: chaotic. Redington embraced the challenges accompanying his role as editor and sought to establish a paper that prioritized the best interests of the fledgling town, despite the often raucous environment he was surrounded by. Tensions between law-abiding citizens, gamblers, saloon-keepers, and horse thieves ran high, with each constituency having their own ideas as to what the political position of the paper should be. The small, but vibrant town of Heppner was anxious to see what their new editor was made of, and Redington did not disappoint. In his introductory address, the Colonel made clear the position of the Heppner Weekly Gazette:

The hardy and strong-willed homesteaders, which composed the Gazette’s readership, resonated with their new editor’s straightforward approach to journalism, and the publication quickly garnered support. But the paper’s eventual infamy and nationwide readership cannot be solely credited to Redington’s blunt tone of authorship. A dry sense of humor, which he let infiltrate all aspects of his paper, proved to be the defining source of the periodicals success.

The Colonel knew that homesteading was a grueling task that left little time for reading newspapers. The comedic tone he chose to adopt for the Heppner Gazette gave the news a readable quality to worn out pioneers and a popularity unusual for periodicals of its time. The Colonel was a natural comedian and found a special talent in giving the routine or mundane a comedic spin:

More often than not left without much news to tell, Redington also wrote comedic shorts to fill his columns:

The Heppner Weekly Gazette and its “comedic journalism” achieved a moderate amount of fame, and Redington’s office was often flooded with letters from all across the country. This would have been normal for a newspaper published in Chicago or New York, as during the last quarter of the 19^th century papers included a high level of correspondence, but for a town the size of Heppner it was strange indeed! Readers were delighted that as the Colonel published some of the correspondences he received, it only increased the Gazette’s comedic quality:

Throughout the rest of Redington’s life, he continued to publish newspapers, but none of them ever achieved the same comedic quality as the Heppner Weekly Gazette. Something about the small town of Heppner inspired the Colonel; perhaps it was the rural isolation or the vivacious assortment of town folk. Only a small sampling of Redington’s humor has been able to be featured in this blog post; to read more of his entertaining anecdotes, check out the digitized issues of the Heppner Weekly Gazette at ODNP.

Written in reference to:

Ducey, Brant. “John W. Redington- Hell on Hogthieves and Hypocrites,” MA Thesis. University of Oregon, 1963.

Stewart Redington, Elizabeth. “Col. John Watermelon Redington, my Papa.” The Pacific Northwest Forum, vol. 5, no.1, 1979, pp. 12-22.