I was excited recently to discover, online, the really old issues of the Osmond Republican that are not available here at the newspaper office. The bound copies of the Republican go back to early 1900s, and the earliest ones don’t have all issues available.
The Osmond Republican was, as we’ve said before, “born with the town” in 1890, but all the newspapers from 1890 through 1904 were lost. The big fire that wiped out the west side of State Street, from Third through Fourth streets, in 1904 might be the reason, although it was never stated.
The newspaper office was on the east side of the street at that time, but according to the Osmond centennial book, that building caught fire at several times during the night, and the flames were quickly extinguished.
I was never big into history when I was younger, in fact, that was one of my worst subjects in school. But at some point, maybe when I started writing the Bygone Years column more than 30 years ago, I got interested - specifi cally in Osmond’s history.
This goes along with the column I wrote about the Osmond centennial book. There are many fascinating stories in that book. But there are just as many in these old bound copies of the Osmond Republican.
Many times, especially in the oldest books, I’ll read something and then go to the centennial book to see if there’s more information about a person or event there.
So when I found these old issues of the paper online, I was pretty excited. I was a little disappointed to see that there was usually only one page in a four or six-page paper that had news of Osmond people.
But the news that was there was pretty interesting — I mean, this was 130 years ago! There were some names I’d never heard of, but also ones that I’ve read in the older papers, and even a couple that are still around even now.
And even the national news was fascinating. Things we might have read about in history books, but here were the actual news stories from when they actually were happening.
I’ll be sharing some of the local news from the 1890s when I can — including this week. Some may be just day-to-day happenings from that time, but there have been a few VERY interesting stories that I’ve found, including one about my husband’s family’s ancestral home.
Stay tuned!
