More Stephenville Newspapers Available at Portal to Texas History

On July 18, Dr. Ana Krahmer, Director of the Digital Newspaper Program at the University of North Texas Libraries, spoke at the Dick Smith Library on the Texas Digital Newspaper Program, the largest statewide open digital newspaper access and preservation repository in the United States. It includes over 7 million newspaper pages, spanning west to east, from El Paso to Newton, and north to south, from Higgins to Brownsville, starting in 1813 and moving up to the present day.

Dr. Krahmer was here because of the recent addition of more issues of Stephenville newspapers to the Portal to Texas History, thanks to a cooperative effort by the Tarleton Libraries and the Dublin Public Library.  The latter applied for a Tocker Foundation grant to digitize the newspaper issues from 1923 through 1965.


Earlier Stephenville newspapers, from 1882 through 1922, were digitized thanks to a Ladd & Katherine Hancher Library Foundation grant obtained by the Stephenville Public Library, again in cooperation with Tarleton Libraries.

So if your research requires old (or current) Stephenville newspapers, here's a current description of what to find where:

Stephenville Newspaper Availability (Empire, Tribune, and Empire-Tribune)

Everything through 1965 is available online for free at the Portal to Texas History:  https://texashistory.unt.edu/search/?sort=date_a&fq=untl_collection%3ASTET. 
Note however that there are a number of gaps, because original newspapers (that were microfilmed and then later digitized) were lost or destroyed before microfilming.

Currently all of our microfilm for issues from 1966 through 1980 is at UNT (the University of North Texas) for digitization and addition to the Portal.  We do not have backup copies of these reels.  Please contact our Periodicals department at 254-968-9867 or periodicals@tarleton.edu if you need a reel from this date range so we can coordinate retrieval from UNT.  Note that it may take some time to retrieve the reel(s).


The microfilm for 1981 through 2017 is available in the Periodicals department, on the main floor of the library.  We will be sending reels from 1981 through 1999 to UNT periodically for digitization, and the previous paragraph will apply, but earlier reels will be returned as they are digitized.


We have bound volumes of issues for 1993 through 2011 at our offsite location. These would need to be requested in advance from the Periodicals department to allow time for retrieval.

Full text of selected (not all) issues from 1930-1978 is available via open access through Newspaper Archive:   https://newspaperarchive.com/us/texas/stephenville/stephenville-empire-tribune/. Use the "Browse by Date" to choose from digitized issues. 

Full text for 2000 - present is available through Access World News, a subscription database. If you are a Tarleton student, faculty member, or staff member, you can access it with your NTNET user name and password at any time.  If you are not affiliated with Tarleton, you would have to come in after 3 p.m. on weekdays or any time on weekends and request a guest pass to use this database in the library.  It is also possible a library near you has this database, but you'd need to check with them to see if they have access to this newspaper.  Simply having a subscription to this database does not mean they have the same newspapers we do.

Selected articles are also available from the Stephenville Empire-Tribune website:  http://www.yourstephenvilletx.com/.

Issues from the current year and previous year are available in print, and are stored in-house in the Periodicals department until they have been microfilmed. 

You might also want to check the Tarleton student newspaper, the J-TAC, which began in 1919.  In earlier years it covered a lot of local news.  It is available on the Portal to Texas History: https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/JTAC/browse/?sort=date_a

The nearby town of Dublin has newspapers from 1882 through 2014 (but with some gaps) available on the Portal: https://texashistory.unt.edu/search/?sort=date_a&explore=true&fq=str_location_county%3AErath+County%2C+TX&fq=untl_institution%3ADUBPU

Finally, here is a link to all Erath County newspapers available on the Portal:  https://texashistory.unt.edu/search/?fq=dc_type%3Atext_newspaper&explore=true&fq=str_location_county%3AErath+County%2C+TX&sort=date_a

Early Stephenville newspaper online at Portal to Texas History

The Stephenville Empire newspapers from 1882 to 1900 are now online at the Portal to Texas History!  The remaining issues of this early title (through 1917), as well as the early Stephenville Tribune (1905 through 1922) will appear in the future, so keep checking the Portal.  Please keep in mind that there are many gaps in those early years.  All Stephenville newspapers the Dick Smith Library has on microfilm through 1922 are being digitized.

This project was funded through a grant provided by the Ladd & Katherine Hancher Library Foundation in September 2016, awarded to the Stephenville Public Library, our partner in this project (they were eligible to apply for the grant; we were not!).

Already users are finding items of interest for their family history research:

"I found an article explaining when my 3X great-grandfather came to Texas from Mississippi!"

"I found my great-great-grandfather telling tall tales about his wheat crop."

"My great-great-grandfather was a member of the Morgan Mill Democratic Club in 1898."

An 1890 Missing Person: Using Chronicling America to Learn More

The Dick Smith Library serves as a Regional Historical Resources Depository for original and microfilmed records for a number of Texas counties, including Coleman.  Two years ago, another library transferred to us a fascinating Coleman County Sheriff's ledger from 1887 to 1892 that contained notices about stolen and stray animals, and wanted and missing persons.  I posted about one such missing person then.  Here's another one that caught my eye:

John Fordham's mother apparently hired a Wichita, Kansas, detective agency to look for him when John left home just before turning 15.  Since John had "a fancy for horses" and "may be found around cattle ranches," it makes sense that the detective agency might have sent this notice to sheriffs in Texas counties.

This missing person notice had a good clue about the missing boy - John Fordham was or would be age 15 on May 9, 1890, meaning he was born on May 9, 1875.  I conducted a search in FindAGrave.com for a John Fordham born in 1875, and found a record with a matching date of birth for a burial in a Wichita, Kansas, cemetery for a John Chafin Fordham.  That young man died on June 2, 1896, at just 21 years of age, which made me wonder - what happened between the 1890 missing person notice, and his death just six years later?

A search in the Library of Congress Chronicling America website for "John Fordham" between 1875 and 1896 brought up some results from June 1896 issues of the Wichita Daily Eagle.  The first article was from June 3:

from The Wichita Daily Eagle, June 3, 1896, Page 5, via Chronicling America

John's mangled body had been found near the train tracks in White City, Kansas, which is about 100 miles northeast of Wichita.  He'd been traveling with another young man named T. T. Kell (who does not appear in any later articles) to the Dakotas, and they'd decided to hop the train rather than buy tickets (even though John certainly had the money).  Speculation in the article was that John fell asleep and fell out of the train and was run over.

More detail appeared in a article in the next day's Daily Eagle:

from The Wichita Daily Eagle, June 4, 1896, Page 5, via Chronicling America

John's body had letters addressed to a J. C. Fordham of 522 S. Lawrence Avenue in Wichita, a note for $350 from a Helen Fordham (his mother), and a March 12, 1896, deposit slip for a bank in Wichita, all of which helped identify him.  His father, Charles Fordham, claimed the body.

But just what happened in 1890?  Young John apparently had some wanderlust - the letters found on his body indicated he owned mines in the Cripple Creek, Colorado area, and he was on his way to Dakota when he died.  He appeared to have a mind of his own, even at a young age, and was rather successful financially, based on his clothing, the contents of his pockets, and the references in the articles.  Obviously, he came back home to Wichita sometime between the early 1890 "missing" poster and his death in 1896.  So far I haven't been able to determine what he was doing all those years in between.  Maybe as more newspapers are digitized, I'll find out.

Find Old Newspapers with This Cool Tool!

At the recent Texas State Genealogical Society conference, I attended a presentation by Lisa Louise Cook, who showed us some "cool tools" for finding old newspapers.  I'm just going to talk about one of them in this post, the Stanford Newspaper Data Visualization.

According to its website, "This visualization plots over 140,000 newspapers published over three centuries in the United States. The data comes from the Library of Congress' 'Chronicling America' project, which maintains a regularly updated directory of newspapers."  The site provides some great historical information about the evolution of newspapers in this country.

I use Chronicling America a lot, but was not aware of this great aid for finding newspapers in a particular time and locations (and language).  There's a timeline slider bar at the top that you can use to slide to the era that interests you.  For example, here's how the map looks for 1887:

You can then pan and zoom in to a particular area, and when you click on one of the dots, you can see what newspaper(s) were published in that city or town at that time.  Here's an example for Stephenville, Texas, in 1887:

If I click on that dot, a red triangle points to it, and then I can click on (any one of) the title(s) that appear for that location and date:

When I click on "The Stephenville empire," I get the corresponding page from Chronicling America:

If electronic copies of the newspaper are available in the Library of Congress collection, this page will tell you (scroll down), and provide a link.  If it's not available electronically here (keep in mind it may be available elsewhere), you can then click on the "Libraries that Have It" link to find out some (not necessarily all) of the libraries that may have that title in some format:

I'd caution users of this feature to also use WorldCat (for additional libraries that might have the newspaper), as well as to contact the library in question, to make sure they truly have the newspaper and the years you want.  Note just above that for Tarleton State University, the holdings were last updated in January 1988.  We actually have the newspaper on microfilm beyond 1917, albeit with numerous gaps in the early years.  I also recommend checking our Archive of Americana database to see if it includes digital images from the newspaper and date in question.

Periodicals & Reference in a new location!

If you haven't had a chance to stop by the Dick Smith Library in the past week you might be in for a little bit of a shock. We've been clearing out the main floor in preparation for the upcoming Learning Commons renovation but never fear! Our collections and computers that were in the area have been moved to different parts of the library. If you're looking for journals, newspapers, magazines, and reference books you'll now find them just past Suave Café at the end of the hallway (the former student lounge). You'll also find a sitting area and copy machine in the corner.

Our Periodicals Service desk and Periodicals Specialist Sandy are located just outside the room to assist with questions, provide directions, and help with the microform machines which are now in Room 106.

We're very excited about the new Learning Commons and are eager to see the renovation get started. If you have any questions at all about where things are or have moved to temporarily please ask! You can contact us by phone, email, in person, or through our social media links.

Phone: 254-968-9249
Email: reference@tarleton.edu
Tarleton Libraries on Facebook
Tarleton Libraries on Twitter

An 1891 Missing Person - Using Library Resources to Learn More

The Dick Smith Library serves as a Regional Historical Resources Depository for original and microfilmed records for a number of Texas counties, including Coleman.  Recently, another library transferred to us a fascinating Coleman County Sheriff's ledger from 1887 to 1892 that contained notices about stolen and stray animals, and wanted and missing persons.  This one caught my eye:

I decided to use library resources to try to find out what happened.  First, I used the Archive of Americana database to search old newspapers for articles on Hanchette from 1891 or later. 

Mr. Hanchette arrived in Chicago from Los Angeles by March 31, 1891, to organize an exhibit of California fruit in the Windy City.  After the exposition closed in May, Hanchette was supposed to return home via train, but instead disappeared.  About the time the missing person notice went out, articles started appearing in Chicago and other newspapers:

from The Chicago Herald, May 19, 1891, page 3, via Archive of Americana database 

This was followed by speculation and supposed sightings. Hanchette was spotted at the end of May 1891 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on a "big spree;" and near Flandreau, South Dakota, in June 1891, "selling organs for a Chicago firm." Speculations included that he'd sailed for South America in late June 1891, and that he'd been located with another woman (not his wife) in July 1891.

The story resurfaced in August 1897 in Chicago, when Los Angeles newspaperman Robert J. Farrell "said Hanchette told him he [Hanchette] had concluded to drop out of sight and cautioned him [Farrell] to say nothing of having met him [Hanchette]."

Thirteen months later, Hanchette's wife Emma died, and nine months after that, his son Earl, and newspaper articles on those deaths mentioned Hanchette's disappearance.  He still had not turned up.

I wondered if anyone else had tried to solve this mystery, so I also searched another library database, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Full-Text for "Hanchette."  A promising result out of 116 was Charles Dwight Willard: Los Angeles City Booster and Professional Reformer, 1888-1914, written by Donald Ray Culton at the University of Southern California in 1971. The Los Angeles city booster part made me think Willard might have a connection with Hanchette, and I was right (pages 44-47).

Willard was on the staff of the Los Angeles Herald while Hanchette was its city editor in 1888, and he later joined Hanchette on the staff of the Chamber of Commerce.  The two were good friends. When Hanchette disappeared, Willard took over his duties as Chamber secretary, and was later elected to the post.  According to Culton, Willard had to deal with snarled financial records, careless meeting minutes, an overdrawn bank account, uncollected membership dues, and a debt of $2,300.

Although publicly Willard spoke positively of Hanchette, in private (a letter to his father in June 1891), he said, "He was not a bad man, but he was hopelessly weak," and that some of Hanchette's actions had been "dishonorable."

My research mentioned another book about Willard that mentioned Hanchette, Suffering in the Land of Sunshine, by Emily Abel.  I requested this 2006 book through interlibrary loan and found it supported Culton's findings.  Another letter Willard wrote to his father in July 1891 stated that Hanchette had been "in secret a spend thrift, and a fool about money matters...When he went away things were in a hopeless snarl with him and he had not the courage to come back and face them" (page 49).

By the way - Hanchette was on the board of directors for the Los Angeles Public Library from 1889 until his disappearance.

Texas Miner Now Online

The Dick Smith Library was awarded a Texas Cultures Online grant through The Portal to Texas History to digitize the Texas Miner newspaper. The project has been completed and the newspaper is now available online. The Portal to Texas History is a project of the University of North Texas Libraries to provide a gateway to Texas history materials. The Portal features unique collections from Texas libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, genealogical societies, and private family collections.  

The Texas Miner was the company newspaper of the Texas & Pacific Coal Company located in Thurber, Texas. The newspaper began publication in 1894 as The Texas Miner in 1897 the title changed to The Texas Mining and Trade Journal. The Dick Smith Library’s collection of the newspaper consists of 99 issues that run from 1894 to 1900. This is the only online collection of the newspaper and is also one of the largest and most complete collections of the paper. The Texas Newspaper Collection at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at UT-Austin does have a collection of its successor the Thurber Journal.

Thurber was a community of 10,000 residents at its peak and was the site of a coalmine and a brick plant. The majority of the miners were from Europe. Ethnic groups represented in Thurber were Italians, Poles, Hispanics, African Americans, and Anglos. These newspapers recount life in the company town of Thurber. The papers featured a section in Italian and occasionally public notices published in Spanish, Italian, and Polish. While the majority of the newspaper is in English, they clearly illustrate how life was in a town as diverse as Thurber. Published weekly the papers detail events such as meetings of fraternal organizations, donations to African American schools, and company promotions.

Order was maintained in the town at times by keeping the different groups apart at celebrations. This is illustrated by on article in the July 7, 1894 issue recounting a Fourth of July celebration. The article states that a good time was had by all with minimal conflicts. The article makes it clear that each ethnic group held its own celebration, instead of a community wide celebration. The September 1, 1894 issue has an account of a shooting that took place in Thurber and an account of the capture of the assailant. While reading the newspapers it should be remembered that this was the company paper of the coal company and the paper often reflected political views of the company. The paper did report on international and national news as well as the events in Thurber and Erath County. These newspapers provide a wealth of information about what was happening in this area. The newspaper also featured several pages of ads for goods that could be purchased at the company store.

The Texas Miner can be found on the Portal to Texas History at: http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/partners/TSU/browse/?fq=str_title_serial%3AThe+Texas+Miner

The Texas Mining and Trade Journal can be found at: http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/partners/TSU/browse/?fq=str_title_serial%3ATexas+Mining+and+Trade+Journal

Both newspapers are full text searchable to aid researchers. If you would like to know more about Thurber, The Texas & Pacific Coal Company, and the brick plant visit the W. K.Gordon Center for  Industrial History of Texas located in Thurber, Texas.

Need a News Video for a Presentation?

Dick Smith Library can help!

1. Choose Newsbank from the library's database page.
• If you're off-campus, log in with your NTNET username and password.
2. Click "Access World News."
3. Click the "Source Types" tab.
4. Mark the checkbox for video (uncheck other types if desired).
5. Enter your search terms and choose search fields (headline, caption, etc.).
6. Click "Search."
7. Choose video links that interest you.
• A free Flash plug-in is required to play these videos.
• Try a different browser if the video doesn't appear.
• Be patient during the short ads before the news videos.

Questions? Comments? Contact the Dick Smith Library staff: 254-968-9249 or Ask a Librarian.

JTACs

Most old issues of the J-TAC student newspaper, through 2007 and going back 90 years to 1919, are now available on microfilm in the Periodicals section on the main floor of the library. The Periodicals department is open anytime the library is open, and the friendly student workers, led by Periodicals Specialist Sandy Dennis, will help you use the microfilm reader-printers. You can print a copy of the page for ten cents cash (or use your Texan card to reduce the cost to eight cents per copy).

These J-TACs are also available as paper copies in the Tarleton Room in the library's Special Collections Suite on the lower level. The Suite is open Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM, and the newspapers must be used in house - but we do have a copy machine available for your use at ten cents a page (eight cents with your Texan card). Some of the older issues are quite fragile, and we encourage you to use the microfilm instead.

Issues from August 2007 on are available online and also in the Tarleton Room in the Special Collections Suite. The Grassburr yearbooks are also available; read this post to learn more. The Special Collections Suite will be open this Saturday, October 24, for Homecoming, after the parade at 10 AM and before the football game at 6 PM.

Top Ten Tuesday – 10 top news sources

The beetles sang – 'I read the news today oh boy'… We have all heard that print news and newspapers are slowly dying. That made me wonder, where are we getting our news from? I found this online from "editor and publisher". Below are the top 10 current events and global news online destinations for the month of June. So print may be ending, but online news seems to on an upswing.

1. Yahoo! News – 45.638 million - Traffic rose 30% from May.
   
2. CNN Digital Network – 38,792 million - Traffic rose 14%.
   
3. MSNBC Digital Network – 36.262 million - Traffic fell 4%.
   
4. AOL News – 24.716 million - Traffic rose 12%.
   
5. NYTimes.com – 17.423 million - Down 1%.
   
6. Tribune Newspapers – 17.044 million - Rose 13%.
   
7. Fox News Digital Network – 16.808 million - Increased 61%.
   
8. ABC News Digital Network – 13.408 million - Increased 16%.
   
9. Google News – 12.831 million - Increased 22%.
   
10. McClatchy Newspaper Network – 12.681 million - Increased 29%.
    

Remember that the library provides you access to newspapers and news organizations. You can search several news sources at once by using the Metalib: quick search for newspapers. We have a list of online newspapers and news website in our internet links. The online databases pages has links to many news databases, including Newsbank, Newspaper Sources, Access World News, InfoTrac Custom Newspapers, Dallas Morning News, and the New York Times

I hope you find these links helpful. Please remember, Dick Smith Library is here to help. We have lots of resources available for you. The reference desk of the Library is staffed with professional librarians who provide personalized service to assist with learning and research needs. You may get help and ask questions in person at the library, by phone at 254-968-9249, by email, or via the web at http://www.tarleton.edu/~library/askaref.html.

We hope to see you in the library soon!

Print Periodicals

A couple months ago you read about how books and audiovisual items are added to the collection (selected, ordered, received, cataloged, and processed). What about periodicals: newspapers, magazines, scholarly and professional journals? This post will talk about those that come in a physical format (in print or on microform: microfiche, microfilm, or microcard), as opposed to electronic journals accessible through the library’s databases.

“We have individual subscriptions to 740 titles, although some are print, some are online, and some are print+online, just to keep it interesting,“ said Janie Jones, Assistant Director for Serials and Electronic Resources. For both print and microform newspapers and journals, Periodicals Specialist Sandy Dennis checks them in to our SIRSI database, to make the issues show up as part of our holdings in the online public access catalog.

The 15 newspapers the Dick Smith Library subscribes to are processed first, and put out on the shelf ASAP, due to their often-daily nature. The latest issue is on display in the eastern side of the Periodicals area (at the back of the main floor of the library), with slightly older issues on the shelf just below it. Even older issues are kept in a back room for a certain length of time, usually until a microform version of the periodical arrives.

Magazines and journals come out weekly, monthly, or even less frequently. The volume number and issue number are written in the top left corner of the cover with a colon between them (for example, 28:4 for volume 28, issue 4). The volume refers to all the issues published during a given publishing period (usually a calendar year, but not always).

Like newspapers, the latest issue of a periodical is displayed face-out, with a few older issues on the shelf just below. Older issues are kept either until a microform copy arrives, or until one or more volumes can be bound together with a hardback cover.

“We have five rows of cabinets full of microfilm and microfiche,” said Sandy. When the microforms arrive, they are checked in like paper copies and filed.

What happens if an issue of a newspaper or journal does NOT come in on time? How do we get it? “They may be claimed after a designated period of time through [the vendor’s] claims process,” explained Sandy. “Usually we receive a replacement. If we are unable to get a replacement we then add that title to our Gaps list,” and those missing issues are requested through Duplicate Exchange, a national listserv through which libraries offer unneeded titles to other libraries.

Binding helps preserve the journals by keeping individual issues from falling apart or being lost. The Dick Smith Library contracts with a bindery service. The number of issues bound together depends on the thickness of an individual issue. “Some journals are thick and you may only be able to bind two or three of the journals at a time,” said Sandy. “The bound thickness cannot be over 2.75 inches.” Very thin journals might have two or more years’ worth put together. They are bound inside a solid-colored hardbound cover which is printed with the name of the journal and the volume number(s) and year(s) it includes.

Bound journals are stored on the northwest side of the Library, going back to 1986. Journals from 1985 and earlier are stored Offsite. Sandy stated, “We have Offsite request forms for patrons [also available online] and we check email [periodicals@tarleton.edu] for requests” as well as for interlibrary loan. “Trips to Offsite are scheduled twice a day,” explained Janie, “but we will try to work with patrons.”

Faculty and grad assistants may check out periodicals for a week. Students are not allowed to remove periodicals from the library, but may make copies as needed. Periodicals requested from Offsite are held at the Circulation Desk for a week for use by the student, and are subsequently returned Offsite. “We do note usage of onsite periodicals, so patrons do not need to refile periodicals; they may be left on tables, or placed in the bins available,” said Janie. “And so it goes!”

Top Ten Tuesday - Newspapers!

Did you read the newspapers that were available around campus? I know we sure had a lot of papers scattered around the library, so lots of folks were enjoying them.

If you miss seeing the news…the Library can help. Our top ten list for today:

Top 10 USA Newspapers by Circulation (Newspapers.com):

1. USA Today – 2,281,831
   
2. Wall Street Journal – 2,070,498
   
3. New York Times – 1,121,623
   
4. Los Angeles Times – 907,997
   
5. Washington Post – 740,947
   
6. New York Daily News – 708,773
   
7. Chicago Tribune – 643,086
   
8. New York Post – 565,679
   
9. Long Island Newsday – 527,744
10. Houston Chronicle - 477,493
    

The Library can help you read and enjoy all of these newspapers!

Our database, Access World News from Newsbank, provides access to all of these titles as well as 1,748 others from all over the world! It also includes 45 Texas newspapers – Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, etc.

If you have a question about newspapers and how to access them, please call the library's reference desk @ 254-968-9249.