May 05, 2008

Newspapers used to rely on community correspondents

By O.C. Stonestreet

If you spend any time reading local newspapers on microfilm from the late 1800s and early 1900s, you will be struck by the fact that much of the paper’s news came from amateur rural correspondents. T

This was because the newspapers couldn’t afford to pay a large staff of reporters, and the arrangement also helped with paper sales.

An 11-page booklet, “Helpful Hints to Correspondents,” published by the Statesville Daily Record recently came to hand, date of publication unknown, but probably from the early 1920s. This versatile guidebook was distributed to the Daily’s news gatherers. The Landmark probably had something similar.

An enormous amount of information was gathered that provides clues as to how the typical Iredellian lived a century ago.

Columns centered on local churches and schools, the focal points of rural communities. Events held at churches were fundraising events, “box dinners,” ice cream socials and of course poundings and revivals. School programs, graduations and plays were sure to draw a crowd. Also local politicians stumping about the countryside as they spoke at schoolhouses.

Some of our present-day churches began as Sunday schools meeting on Sundays at schoolhouses. The rural correspondents told who was sick, who had died, who was on the road to recovery, as well as who had recently married or had a baby.

They frequently reported on the condition of the local crops, particularly if there had been a dry spell or a storm. They also reported who produced the first local bale of cotton or how successful the wheat crop had been.

Curiosities were popular topics: so-and-so had found a two-headed snake or an albino squirrel. Even mundane things were likely to be sent in and be printed, such as when someone’s mule died. This sounds like frivolous reporting until one considers how agriculturally oriented the citizenry was at the time. The demise of a good farm animal could have been a significant loss to a family.

A brief glance at newspaper correspondents for the Landmark in the spring of 1908 gives an idea of who was helping to keep the citizenry of Iredell informed. A few correspondents used their full names, many used initials and some made up pen names. The people in the neighborhood, no doubt, knew the identity of their local correspondent. Many of them were the grandparents or great-grandparents of current Iredell residents.

Writing from Harmony, Route 1, was “Felix.” Harmony, Route 2, was covered by “Vashti.” “S.A.P.” wrote from Shinnville, “F” was the Hiddenite reporter, and “Horatio” covered New Hope township, Route 1.
“Ymo” and the writer “Myrtle” kept the Landmark posted on Troutman happenings. Barium Springs, likewise, had two reporters, “L.S.” and “L.P.” The Buck Shoals correspondent was “M.T.”
“R” covered New Sterling; “M” reported from Olin. “F” reported from York Institute and “F” (same person?) reported from Stony Point. Someone signing as “Nero” kept the county informed of the doings in the Jennings neighborhood, as did someone known as “L.V.”
Cool Springs events were posted by “G,” while “Qualrso” sent in items of interest from Mocksville.
Statesville information was gathered by “Rural” and “Benbo” on Route 3, and “LaF” within the city limits.
Mr. J.A.B. Goodman was the correspondent from Amity Hill, and later covered Mooresville after he made his home there.
Homer Keever, dean of Iredell historians, mentioned some of the Landmark correspondents in “Iredell: Piedmont County” (1976). Homer identified “Ymo” as William D. Troutman, who continued as Troutman’s correspondent under his own byline into the 1940s. “LaF” was Statesville’s LaFayette Barringer.
We’ll probably never know the identities of some of the other news gatherers.
Back to the “Helpful Hints” booklet.
There is good advice to be found there for correspondents then as well as now. Under “engagements” we find: “Do not report engagements to marry unless you are sure both parties thereto are willing to have the facts published. It is always safe to mention coming marriages when invitations are out; seldom before.”
Under “Deaths” we read: “Some points on which an obituary should give information are: birthplace of the deceased, wife, sisters and brothers living, service to society as a public officer or a private citizen, character, societies of which a member and family. Do not eulogize unduly; if you cannot truthfully speak well of the dead, say nothing.”
Note how male-oriented that paragraph reads today. The assumption is that the subject of the obituary would be a male, that a woman wouldn’t have belonged to any societies, such as the Masons and the Oddfellows, and would not have made any significant service to society, other than raising good children.
On the final page we find: “Don’t guess, know. Ask direct questions. Never be in a hurry. Carry a notebook and jot down news as you hear it. Be careful to initial and spell every person’s name correctly and plainly. If you take some one’s word for a thing, be sure to state that fact in what you write. Always place responsibility where it belongs.
“Don’t overlook the ‘human interest’ element in the day’s event.”
Our local newspapers of yesteryear, with their corps of correspondents in every corner of the county, developed the human interest element into a fine art form.