One morning last week an OBSERVER a headline on Page A7 struck me between the eyes. It read; “US newspapers continue to die at the rated of two each week.” According to a report issued by the Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing 360 newspapers have closed down since the end of 2019 all but 24 of them weeklies.

Between 1817 and 2022 there have been 137 weekly and daily newspapers in Chautauqua County with most being weeklies. Some of these papers published a few issues and disappeared but others published for years.

Local weeklies played important roles in the America of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. Before there was radio, TV or the Internet they collected and disseminated local news in small town America covering local politics, social events, the comings and goings of local citizens, and sports news. Today surviving copies help flesh out local history.

What follows is a sampling of papers published in Silver Creek that are representative of all local papers over the years.

One of the earliest newspapers to publish for any length of time in Silver Creek was the weekly Silver Creek Local published from 1877 until sometime in the early Twentieth Century. In its Aug. 10, 1877, edition it announced that the U.S. public debt had been reduced by $818,904 in the month of July 1877.

In local political news Mr. James Prendergast of Jamestown was in Silver Creek on Thursday “fixing things” to get the nomination for the Assembly. I wonder if this was the James Prendergast who following his death in 1883 left a substantial portion of his wealth to establish Jamestown’s Prendergast Library, one of the first “free” libraries in the United States? Finally engaging in boosterism the paper stated that “It has long been the boast of Silver Creek that there is not an idle man or a man without business in the place.”

Another weekly paper was the Silver Creek Gazette that began publication in 1892 and ceased publication in the 1920s. Much of the front page of its Feb. 11, 1901, edition was devoted to the spiritual life of its readers with a reprint of a sermon by the Rev. Talmage of Boston that stretched for three columns. Next to it was the Women’s Christian Temperance Unions Column that warned of the dangers of alcohol poisoning in Paris.

However, lest the paper was becoming too serious there was a column devoted to the humor of the day. A sample: “Bashful young men ought to practice sparring with dumbbells.” OR “The trouble with men of iron is that they are apt to get rusty without knowing it.” Obviously, humor of one era does not often translate well in another.

Moving further up the time line we come to another weekly, the Silver Creek Times that began publishing in 1923. It 1935 it merged with the Silver Creek News and published as the Silver Creek News and Times until 1946.

From the Times on Aug. 2, 1923 here is a sample of what it covered. Directly below the masthead was a picture of then President Warren G. Harding with the headline “Prexy has just recovered from a severe illness.” Unfortunately, the President had not recovered and would die that evening in San Francisco under circumstances never fully explained.

An important part of the paper was Local Happenings. We find that Roy Moore will be graduating from Cornell University and has accepted a position with Standard Oil. Also, Noman Wooley of Oklahoma is visiting friends in town. In county correspondence we find that Peter Kiefer of West Irving is improving his home with a new porch. On another page an ad for the Silver Creek National Bank assured the community that “our customers are our valued friends.” The Park Grocery guaranteed delivery at any time and Silver Creek Dry Goods advised the men of the village that now was the right time to buy that straw hat “for the balance of the season.”

Finally, we have the Dec. 11, 1941 edition of the Silver Creek News and Times published just four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and our entry into World War II. However, the biggest story on this day concerned discussions by the County Board of Supervisors concerning the Silver Creek bypass described as a project that may be the first section of a “great Superhighway” sweeping from the Pennsylvania state line to Albany. While construction would not begin for another ten years because of the war, this was an early mention of what would become the state Thruway.

Another page 1 story proclaimed that the local chapter of the Red Cross and the Silver Creek Fire Department make Silver Creek one of the best equipped villages in the county to meet wartime emergencies. In other war-related news, it was reported that Private Allen Benkelman, son of Mrs. Hazel Benkelman is serving in the ordinance department at Hickam Field adjacent to Pearl Harbor. It was also reported that Wilfred McAnally, United States Marine Corps, son-in-law of Stanley Swift, has been under Japanese fire on Wake Island.

War or no war there was a story that Christmas lighting had been installed around the park and fountain. Further it was reported that the Home Bureau would be holding its annual Christmas Party on December 19 at the home of Mrs. Mary Coggin.

Finally, despite the story about local papers closing I came across one bit of good news. In my hometown of Fort Plain, New York that lost its local Weekly earlier this year local entrepreneurs are attempting to replace that paper. I wish them luck.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com