I’ve known for several years that The Albion Journal had been saved at the University of Illinois in microfilm format. However, I had not been able to figure out how I could spend enough time in Urbana to scan these old issues for news about our Dixon and Fisher ancestors. The good news is that they have digitized the material and placed it online. How amazing it is to call up on an IPad the local newspaper that was read (or maybe not) by Joseph Freemont Dixon and Grace Shaw and their kids, including Joe Jr., my grandfather’s dad from 1884 to 1900!
The paper was published like clockwork every Thursday. Initially, it had 4 pages with 8 columns per page and later went to 6 pages.
The paper included local news items, which were usually fairly short, with some notable exceptions (like when Browns went to court to try to force the county commission to move the courthouse to Browns instead of rebuilding or shoring up the fragile building in Albion!). Area news from surrounding towns and counties in both southern Illinois and southern Indiana was covered weekly by reprinting items from other newspapers. State and national news was covered using the same method, including reprinting articles from Chicago papers and The New York Times. The paper also liberally quoted and paraphrased items other publications, including something called The Inter-Ocean, which appeared to be a Newsweek type publication (ask your mom or dad!).
Both county and circuit courts were covered in brief but adequate fashion. Local, state and national politics was covered, including the actions of governments at all three levels. Make no mistake about it, The Albion Journal was a solidly Republican paper as was the population of Edwards County. Remember that Birkbeck and Flower, the founders of Albion, were major players in the efforts to make sure that Illinois did not adopt slavery. However, all of the surrounding counties leaned toward The Democracy, as the Democratic Party was known at the time. There was a Democratic paper, but it folded as it was unable to gather enough subscribers.
The news was generally reported in a straight, traditional manner, excepting the Republican slant, but the paper also adopted a tabloid style made famous by the New York Post in modern times. As with many small-town newspapers, “boosterism” is frequently practiced. You can see this particularly at county fair time. Election campaigns and results were covered extensively. Although the paper was continuously critical of the former slave states, there is clearly a soft prejudice in articles pertaining to the negro race.
Stylistically, there were zero spelling errors in the five years I have scanned to date. Grammatical errors are also practically non-existent. The paper does use a shorthand phrasing in local items but it is very readable. The local items are often presented in a very witty fashion, which holds up very well today. That’s something that is missing in many modern newspapers. After hearing for decades about the spelling and grammatical errors of The Anderson Herald-Bulletin, I was surprised by the competence of these small town editors.
The paper used volunteer correspondents for the smaller towns and precincts outside of Albion proper. The correspondents often used pen names like Hamilton, Madison and Jay when they wrote the more important Federalist Paper essays in support of approving the United States constitution. News from Dixon Precinct is sadly missing for months at a time when other areas appear almost weekly. It is possible that this was the result of a feud which broke out when the correspondent accused the nextdoor neighbor of Joe Dixon Sr. of hiding animals from the tax assessor. The last item was a “calling out” by Mr. Tait, our neighbor who challenged the correspondent to accuse him face to face. It may have been the only nasty exchange or controversial information that I have seen thus far from the several neighborhood correspondents.
So far, I have seen only one example of serialization of a novel or book. King Solomon’s Mines was presented using a full page weekly for several months. This may continue in other years. This is how Charles Dickens presented his novels to the public in England. Remember that Albion was known initially as “The English Settlement” as Birkbeck and Flower intentionally bought tracts of land with the idea of settling many English friends and neighbors.
The paper contains many well drawn illustrations, which were not done locally, but imported from other sources. Photographs did not appear. There was an ad announcing a new photographic studio in the late 1880’s and ads in the late 1890’s for new Kodak cameras being sold by the local tech company, the Albion Bicycle Agency.
There were also many historical and scientific articles. I actually believe that a person could accumulate knowledge of the world, current and well as historical, equivalent of a college degree by reading this newspaper over a 20 year period. There were many education related articles, including a weekly column supporting the growth in content and pedagogical (teaching methods) knowledge of local teachers. Teacher Association meetings were frequent and devoted solely to gaining knowledge. There was some, but not much, information about student achievements.
In summary, The Albion Journal from 1884 to 1900 was an excellent newpaper judged even by modern standards. The this could be done in such a small town was amazing. General readers, as well as anyone with a desire to know history, could benefit from reading the paper in more detail today.
But what about our ancestors? I’m sorry to report that the Dixon’s, Fisher’s and other related families were not publicity seekers. They also weren’t wealthy. However, there are occasions were the family is mentioned and even a few “golden nuggets”. These will be the basis for future articles. In each post that I write, I will include a photograph of the actual newspaper so that you can enlarge it simply by clicking on the photograph.
There was a report in the paper that someone had saved and donated to the paper copies from the 20 years previous to 1884 and that these old papers were available for the public to read in the newspaper office, which seemed to be a gathering place. I don’t know if those copies survived in any form so that we can see them today.
The Public Library, the first in Illinois was healthy during these years and announcements about adding volumes were made every few years. Those that wanted to check out books had to pay $0.50 twice per year.
Ownership of the paper seems relatively stable and it appears to be a financially sound concern. Ad content was similar to that we saw in the 1960’s in the Anderson papers, meaning a lot more than newspapers today can count on. There are a few names we would recognize (Sherwin Williams paint) and many ads by local stores. There was also a half-page or so of ads by “snake oil” salesmen of the day. Many of these were actually national companies. These would be similar to many radio ads and overnight tv ads today. Subscriptions were sold for $1.25 per year in the late 1880 period. The paper actually listed it’s subscribers one time so far, and the Dixon name, sadly, did not appear.
An early co-owner and editor announced he was forced to leave since he was quitting the Republican party and joining the new Prohibitionist party. He had concluded that the Republican party was not sufficiently bought in to the idea of prohibition of alcohol. One example of the boosterism mentioned previously is the regular bragging that Edwards County had not had a saloon or bar in over 30 years.
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