Category: Library News

The Sargent newspaper archive has arrived.  It has been added to all 6 of our computers, and provides some interesting reading.

The oldest newspapers probably were not in the best condition when they were microfilmed, and they are hard to read.  Most of the words won’t show up in search results, but they are interesting to browse through.

I searched The Sargent Echo, from July 23, 1897. The interesting news of the day was:

“Jacob Groff, the man who was judged insane, and waiting to be taken to Norfolk, escaped from the jail last night by removing the bars from the window. “  In the editorial that followed, they were not very happy with the competence of the Custer County Sheriff.

You could get a package of coffee for 15 cents, 30#s of dried grapes for $1, and 40#s of oatmeal for $1, and 11 bars of good soap for only 25 cents.

A new drug was advertised called Vatuma.  It was an antiseptic germicide that destroyed all microbes and germs of every kind, name and nature.  People could use it as a permanent cure for whatever ailed them.  Then of course there was Dr Kilmer’s Swamp Root to be taken for back pain.

Come over to the library and search & browse for a while.

The digitized newspaper database is on order. We were able to get all of the funding needed. After including extra donations over the past few weeks, we will now be getting the Sargent Leader from 1900 to 2004, the Sargent New Era from 1899 to 1902, the Sargent Echo from 1897, and the West Union Gazette from 1892 to 1896. It should take around a month to complete. Thank you to all who contributed. 

Thanks to 41 generous donors, we have now collected enough funds to digitize the Sargent Leader from years 1900 to 2000. I plan to start the digitization process later next week, and according to the company, it will take around a month to finish.

Since we started this fundraising campaign, the Nebraska Historical Society has added years 2001 to 2004 of the Sargent Leader to their microfilm collection.  This means that we can add these four years to our digitized database. The extra cost would be $250.

If anyone still wants to donate for additional reels, now is the time. 

It’s most likely illegal now, but in 1939 the city killed 6000 to 7000 crows with dynamite. They didn’t announce ahead of time when the dynamite would be exploded, because they felt that would result in possible accidents. “George Hale believes that at least two crows were killed for every cent actually spent for this first attempt.”

Please donate to help digitize the past issues of the Sargent Leader from years 1900 to 2000. Donations (checks made out to “Sargent Library”) can be sent directly to the library at P.O. Box 476, or you can donate through PayPal on our website. We have $1150 yet to raise.

This is fantastic – December 22, 1938 – “Free electricity for December to all users within the corporate limits of Sargent.” Do you suppose that we could get the city council to agree to this again?

Please donate to help digitize the past issues of the Sargent Leader from years 1900 to 2000. Donations (checks made out to “Sargent Library”) can be sent directly to the library at P.O. Box 476, or you can donate through PayPal on our website. We have $1272 yet to raise.

Back in April 1988, we didn’t have online social media. We relied on our local paper to find out what all of our friends were doing. 
Please donate to help digitize the past issues of the Sargent Leader from years 1900 to 2000. Donations (checks made out to “Sargent Library”) can be sent directly to the library at P.O. Box 476, or you can donate through PayPal on our website.

Here’s a clip from the Sargent Leader in 1954. Click on the picture to read what was happening at the school. Apparently the author didn’t think too highly of the freshman class. There are some pretty funny remarks.

Please donate to help digitize the past issues of the Sargent Leader from years 1900 to 2000. Donations (checks made out to “Sargent Library”) can be sent directly to the library at P.O. Box 476, or you can donate through PayPal on our website.