MOUNT VERNON — I enjoy getting out and doing history talks for various groups because I’m a compulsive storyteller.
When I spoke Monday to members of the Mount Vernon Sorosis Club, I joked with them that over the years I’d refined my introductory bio to the following: “Here’s some guy who reads a lot, then talks about it.”
It’s true. I read books, old newspapers, old documents, old and new maps. I even make it part of my research to read landscapes, for I never feel like I really grasp a story until I stand in the place where it happened, with my feet on the same ground and my eyes on the same horizon as the people I’m talking about.
Of course, much changes over time to local features. But the feel of a place, combined with what you’ve learned in research, can give you an almost magical ability to see a place as it once was. Finding a place from which to observe gives you the perspective of a point of view.
Carol Navin invited me to talk to the club, which is part of the first women’s club that was organized in the U.S., all the way back in the 1860s. The local chapter has been around since 1897, and has included many local members over the last 125 years.
They were an attentive group, listening closely to the story of how I researched and wrote my book, The Ceely Rose Murders at Malabar Farm, and asking great questions afterward.
Many thanks to the Sorosis Women’s Club. (And to any budding comedians out there, their livers are fine: you’re thinking of “cirrhosis,” a similar-sounding word with a very different meaning. “Sorosis” is a Latinization of a Greek word, so that it literally means “gathering of women.”)
While I was there, Carol presented me with parts of a couple of newspapers that a friend of hers had saved over the years. Both were parts of special issues of the Mount Vernon News from 1976, the year of the United States’ bicentennial.
As a former reporter at the News (2007-2010), I was intrigued to view the paper both from the perspective of the time I was involved with it, and now, nearly 50 years after that edition was published.
The first thing that stands out is the startling size of the papers.
Today, when advertising has shifted to mostly online sources, the few newspapers that remain have shrunk in size to something much smaller than what they ran in their glory days. Daily newspapers were once substantial creations that reminded you of the importance of local news with their sheer size.
I don’t know about you, but I miss those hefty tomes!
The first of the two papers is represented by only a front page, but it’s a fascinating one, where the News partially duplicated the front page of the 1876 centennial edition of the one-time rival publication, the Mt. Vernon Democratic Banner, which had later been absorbed into the Mount Vernon Republican News. After unification of the two papers, the political affiliations were officially dropped.
Much of the page is given over to a straight duplication of the 1876 paper, in difficult to read tiny print. Much of it is predictable references to national history, though some of it was the usual news briefs of the day.
There are three modern things, though.
First is a red, white, and blue banner at the top of the page announcing the bicentennial. Second is a color photo of someone dressed as Uncle Sam throwing a “Spirit of 76” birthday party. Third is a brief editorial reminding readers of the importance of an independent press in the operation of a free democracy. That’s even more precious and true today than it was in 1976.
The other paper is part of a general bicentennial issue that the News published in September of that year, and it must have been huge. What I ended up with are sections C, D, E, and F (!) of the newspaper.
Granted, it was a special edition and no doubt extra ads were sold to flesh it out, but it was still a thick packet of pages. The material is a mixture of local history and then-current observation, much like the special Looking Glass magazines the News published when I was there.
It was a good time for our society when material like that could be published on a large scale. I hate to be all nostalgic, looking at the past through rose-colored glasses, but half century ago was, in truth, a golden age for journalism.
Today, it’s so easy to spread information (and, often as not, misinformation), traditional news purveyors have lost their authority. Independent, non-corporate journalism is the last great hope for democracy in this country, and that’s why I’m proud to write this column for the Source Media publications (Richland Source, Knox Pages, and Ashland Source), news sources not dictated to by corporate investors.
It’s my hope that out of the chaos of early digital-era news fragmentation, a movement supporting independent news sources will emerge as an alternative to corporate news and the spineless and, all-too-often, brainless politicians they fund on both sides of the aisle.
Real news forces you, the reader, to think. Processed news product, the Velveeta of information, goes down easy because it lacks any nutritional value. There are a lot of people in the world today who are consuming vast quantities of media, yet are starving for lack of real news.
What does History Knox contribute to your recommended weekly allowance of real news?
Well, I hope to provoke you into taking a closer look at passing details from the past in a way that might make you reflect on the present. There’s always something we can learn from those who have gone before us. I’m just here to point you to the stories that might get lost in the shuffle, and I also take that show on the road.
On Sept. 24 and 25, I’m going to be selling and signing copies of The Ceely Rose Murders at Malabar Farm during the Heritage Days festival at Malabar Farm State Park in Lucas. Make sure to stop by the garage at the end of the Big House, which is where I’ll be stationed, and chat with me for a bit.
After that, I’ll be speaking at the Cleo Redd Fisher Museum, in Loudonville, on Monday, Oct. 17, where I’ll be revisiting the story of Cletus Reese, along with projected pictures related to the case.
Until then, keep the big picture in mind. The arc of the story matters as much as the details, and I’ll keep trying to find those points of view, with the help of new perspectives that you all keep giving me.
Just as the Sorosis Women’s Club takes its name from an ancient Greek word that means “gathering,” we will continue to gather here to enrich our minds and lives with deep dives into local history.
