It was determined that renovations on the house were more costly than the value of the house so it was to be torn down, a task we would do ourselves.
So we started at the very top by taking off roofing materials. At that point we had no idea exactly how old the house was but one indication was the number of layers of shingles, tar paper and rolled roofing. I recall removing up to 10 layers of such materials on some areas of the roof.
But the surprise was what was under all the roofing: layers of newspapers! Most of the paper was brittle and crumbled at the touch. The paper was made even more difficult to save as one doesn't remove roofing gently, a heavy shovel is wedged under the material and use to pry the nails from the boards so not much of the newspaper was salvaged.
But we were able to collect large portions of some pages containing interesting tidbits of news from 1913 and 1914! We saved what we could although newspaper print that was over 60 years old at the time and full of nail holes doesn't lend itself for unlimited handling. A few years later, my younger brother, Johnny, would use the salvaged newsprint in a high school history project, placing some of the material in a photo album, thus preserving it for the future and our current use. Please understand that this also makes for a tough job in copying or photographing them for their use in this writing so I apologize in advance for the faded images and difficulty in reading them.
The newspapers were dated in 1913 and 1914. Many articles were from The Evening Post, a newspaper in Mobile, Alabama. Some material was from another Mobile paper, The Register. The Register is still around today (kinda) as a part of AL.com, an on-line news source that publishes the Mobile Press Register three-times weekly.
Although I can not find any reference to The Evening Post at any on-line sources, including the Library of Congress, it carried the below banner:
It was surely a newcomer to the area as this banner comes from Volume 1, Issue 9. It may not have survived very long but 1 cent per copy might explain that.
The Register touts itself as the only paper in the area authorized to print news from the Associated Press wire service:
Bright school boys are solicited to become carriers of the Post with an opportunity to enrich themselves!
One thing about "news as history" is that news is reported by those living in that particular time with the biases and attitudes contemporary to the era. That is very evident in the stories we found as they were told during a time of change in the role of women in society.
The picture at the left is titled She Manages her Garage and Does Not Need Any mere Man to Help Her, Either. The story comes from the mid-teens of the 20th century.
The next picture and article tell of a Parisian fashion designer touring the US in 1913 or 14 and alerting readers that Women Will Soon Wear Trousers! Compare to the story on the right from the news this week! You can own a pair of these "trousers" for only $695!
At the time these newspapers were published, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was still 6 years away from ratification by the states and giving women in the US the right to vote. But some states and localities were allowing women to vote. However, this article suggests they needed help! The article, which could not be copied sufficiently to be read here, states that suffrage organizers in Chicago were holding classes to teach women the registration and voting process.
My readers from my hometown of Citronelle, Alabama may find it interesting that the county school board was considering bids to build a new school Could this be the three-story building that was recently demolished?
Modern news has been filled recently with stories of hazardous materials being sent through the mail with the intent to cause harm to the receiver. According to this article, that's nothing new except this time it was physician doing the mailing and the state health department being shut down after the workers were exposed to diphtheria! The physicians only wanted to confirm diagnoses.
What newspaper could survive without advertisement? This grocery market ad gives then-current prices for all the groceries you would want, and some you don't: Tripe or Smoked Tongue! Who would have thought that Smoked Tongue was more expensive than Tenderloin! Of course, Brains and Liver are cheaper!
I don't know what grade Johnny got when he presented this as a history project some 40-plus years ago but I think the effort deserves an "A"!
