Society columns offer wealth of information

I traveled east of Marion this week to re-visit the town of Lebanon. Lebanon’s society writer was prolific in his (or her) coverage of the goings on. Reading though the weekly column, one would be fully informed of who, what, when and where of the town residents.

Perhaps I have used this piece before, but every time I read it, I have to chuckle so bear with me if you’ve seen it already: “There will be school, Thanksgiving day, at Lebanon. The school board holds that $8.00 is too much to pay for nothing. The pupils, we presume, will forget all about roast turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie in their gladness to save $8.00.” McCook Tribune, November 4, 1904.

The next two notes are from the same paper: “John Pool has rented the Shippe farm for the coming year: Henry Pool will live on the old Blackman place, and John Fletcher will move to Mrs. Maud Nichols’ farm. Mrs. Nichols expects to buy close to her daughter, Mrs. L. Fiechter, in Lebanon.”

“J. W. Hupp’s mules were driven up from the Kinne farm into the stock yard Saturday and sheared. Some of the husky mules took a man at each ear to make them stand. The shearing so added to their appearance that George Tillett bought 4 of them.”

While the death notices and obituaries held at the SWNGS library is extensive, sometimes you have to search old newspapers if an obituary was never written, which for children, was not. Quite often the Lebanon column noted the passing of near by residents as I found in the October 17, 1902 issue of the McCook Tribune: “Death played havoc at the home of Charles Ryan, last week, three of his children dying, two of them but two days apart. Harry passed away on the 24th of September, Ula on October 7th and Marchie on the 9th of October. The stricken father has the deepest sympathy of all in this great sorrow.”

The November 25, 1904 column in the McCook Tribune seemed to cover a lot of miscellaneous information: “Clarence Dotts has a new mailbox. Roy Clark

is husking corn for B. A. Johnson. John Adams has moved in with the blacksmith. James Horton and William Huntzinger have new stock tanks. Ora Rodwell has bought in with Howard Ruby in the meat market and confectionary. Pearl Cartwright and Platte Cumming attended the turkey shoot at Danbury, Saturday. Rudolph Quador has bought a rubber-tired buggy for the baby.”

Continued from the same paper as North of Lebanon news came this tidbit: “Three young men from the Ask Creek neighborhood are husking corn in this vicinity. Corn huskers are about as scarce as hen’s teeth, here and near Lebanon. About all this writer hears from the farmers is, that they need corn huskers.”

If you were curious what churches existed along the creek, the McCook Tribune, April 9, 1909, listed the Sunday Schools of the county divided into districts. Noted as the Danbury district the Sunday schools included were Lebanon churches; Methodist and Presbyterian. Danbury churches; Methodist and Christian. Marion church; Union. Tyrone church; Methodist.

County-wide eighth grade graduation ceremonies were a big deal in the past when some schools didn’t go beyond eighth grade. From the June 8th edition of the McCook Tribune, 1911 comes this list of Lebanon students receiving their diplomas from County Commissioner, F. S. Lofton: Floyd Abbott, Florence Blair, Frances Bostrom, Erla Burgess, Ebba Carlson, Amy Cumming, Geraldine Daffer, Iri and Ivan DeVoe, Leo Farrell, Nellie Halsey, Velma Hummel, Lisle Hoskins, Ferris Hupp, Roy Johnson, Ben Mallery, Lelia and Neva Moore, Robert Murphey, Nellie Orr, Russell Pennington and Delos Waterman.

Society columns, gossip columns, whichever you prefer to call them, offer a wealth of information concerning the daily lives of their particular communities. It’s tricky to search for them sometimes because they may use a different name for their column than the community’s name. Try searching using your ancestor’s last name and a community name at the same time to try an eliminate areas that don’t interest you.