Old newspapers are fun to browse. Read the front page of one and you’ll find “Twittering” is not just a present day phenomenon. The local news back then included reports of who went where and when, fell down their front steps or broke a bone, put in a cement sidewalk, painted their house the same color as their brother’s, bought a new team of horses, or seemed a little corpulent at their birthday party.
Twitter, indeed.
Important issues of the day were also covered in these old publications and remind us that what goes around comes around.
Consider the following letter to the editor: “...The subject of the High School building is of vital interest to all citizens, because it affects the welfare of the children, and also because of the large appropriation of the money of the taxpayers of the town. It is a public matter.”
Another writer challenged, “I say, let the committee alone...any man seeking to make himself popular by meddling with other people’s business will surely come to grief.”
Sound familiar? Many similar letters were sent to the editor of the Daily News Transcript in recent months debating the need for a new high school building. However, the letters I quoted actually appeared in the Advertiser and Review in July of 1889. At that time, the citizens of Norwood were embroiled in a debate over whether to spend $10,000 or $14,000 or more for a new high school.
The need for the new school was emphasized in an article that complained, “The present High School House is often mistaken for a dwelling-house, and the teacher is bothered with drivers of beef-carts, fish-carts, vegetable carts, and vendors of saucepans, besides some who have expected to pay their water rates to our assistant teacher.”
There was no question; they wanted a new building. There were, however, strong differences as to how much money the town should spend.
When the question came before the July 1889 Town Meeting, it was vigorously debated. After a heated discussion, the chair ruled that the vote on the larger sum must be taken first and when he said, “As many as are in favor of raising the sum of $14,000, etc., the hall rang with the Ay! Ay! Ays! The motion prevailed and men grew wild for a moment with excitement. They shouted, clapped their hands, yelled, stood up and waved their hats; old men trembled at the sight.”
For those citizens of 1889, this vote for $14,000 was as momentous as the vote taken on March 23, 2009, when Town Meeting approved the “appropriation of $64,742,776 for the construction of a new high school.”
Of course, the vote to build in 1889 was only the beginning. Constant criticism of the “Committee of Five” began in the form of front-page blurbs with pointed jabs at the five men who were accused of delaying the start of the building. One such comment reported the delay was in order to cut the hay on the chosen building site, later, that the high school would not be started until the second crop was cut.
Another tongue-in-cheek entry stated, “Jumbo was considered to be the largest elephant on earth until within a few weeks. The High School committee seems to have on its hands one that ‘takes the cake.’ If the committee only had a good clown we might have a circus in town.”
Editors of the paper made a decision to refrain from publishing some of these, stating, “Several opinions (criticisms) have been sent in this week for publication, but it seems to us best that the committee should decide in this matter without the interference of outside parties.”
Every paper published over several weeks contained quips, both pro and con, regarding the building of the new school. I imagine we’ll we reading a few about the construction underway on Nichols Street.
Exploring Norwood’s history can be an enjoyable experience. Morrill Memorial Library has a small but rich collection in which to do your digging. One part of this collection is a microfilm library of local newspapers dating from the late 1880s to the present. The Andrew and Ernest J. Boch Memorial Fund grant has made possible the ongoing project of indexing some of these early papers.
Indexing is the process of making the information stored on the film accessible to our patrons. We create records in a database for articles pertinent to Norwood history listing subject headings, headlines, dates, etc. This index can be searched using a keyword and consists of over 70,000 entries. Along with annual reports, street lists, histories of the town, county and surrounding communities, the newspaper index is a valuable resource for genealogy projects and historical research.
Reference librarians are glad to assist you in using this tool, as well as other resources in the Norwood Collection. So, as Ernie Boch would say, “Come on down.” Give it a try. You’ll find it both entertaining and informative.
Shelby Warner is a retired Technical Services librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood. She works on special projects and in reference.
