As today's newspapers race into the Internet age, many folks might be fascinated with the look and feel of newspapers from the 1800s and early 1900s.

Newspapers from that era looked a great deal different than today's papers. Jay Graybeal, in a column he wrote for the Historical Society of Carroll County almost 20 years ago, observed that for many papers, the "front page contained business advertisements and selections of literature.

"Regional news, deaths and marriage notices and additional advertisements are found on page two. Local news under the headline of 'Local Affairs' was carried on page three."

Local indeed.

As an example, an August 1891 issue of the now-defunct Democratic Advocate informs us that "Mrs. William Miller, of Sandyville, has a turkey hen that is energetic indeed. She laid 21 eggs and hatched 19 turkeys ..."

And another August 1891 article kept up with the elected officials' travels: The "Honorable Frank Brown telegraphed to his private secretary on Wednesday from Weisbaden as follows: 'We leave for Paris today. ... Will sail ... for America middle of August.' "

But newspapers of that age weren't solely about hens and political travels. After all, there was hard news.

But even that had a homey touch, often listing every local resident affected by tragedy.

For instance, in August 1898, the same paper reported that in Mount Airy, "A fire occurred at Mt. Airy about 11 o'clock Tuesday night, causing a loss of $17,000.

"A block of buildings belonging to J. B. Runkles was destroyed. They were occupied by Dr. Wm. Hopkins, dentist; Messenger printing office; Fritz Luba, shoe shop; L. B. Norwood, confectioneer; A. H. Runkles, general merchandise; and R. Browning, barber.

"The brick bank building of Jones & Co. ... was destroyed, but the contents were saved. C. E. Mullinix's agricultural store and office, owned by E. M. Molesworth, with stock, was also burned."

Hopefully the hens made it out.

What did Brown do for you?

Speaking of the Honorable Frank Brown, several people knew that he was the answer to last week's trivia question, which asked readers to identify the only Maryland governor to have come from Carroll County -- actually from Sykesville.

Don Huber of Manchester; Ruth Anderson of Westminster; R. Wall and Scott Creutzer (of an undisclosed location); and Valerie Schultz and Michael Sears, both of Eldersburg, all knew that Gov. Frank Brown was the man in question.

Schultz is this week's winner of the famed Sunday Carroll Eagle mug.

Now, for this week's question, let's stick with newspapers from days gone by ... and politicians.

On Aug. 10, 1923, an article reported that at a meeting of the Westminster Mayor and Common Council, "a resolution was offered and adopted that the offices of the Mayor and other City Departments be closed all day today, as a mark of honor and respect to our late President ... whose funeral, will be held at Marion, Ohio, on the afternoon of this day.

"A number of our merchants expect to close also in the afternoon from 4 to 6 o'clock. The churches have been requested to toll their bells at 4 o'clock."

The president for whom the mayor and council were referring was a newspaper publisher, and perhaps our most enigmatic president.

And despite being a newspaperman, his speaking style was one of horrendous gaffes and mangled malaprops.

Apparently he could not write well either, and was the subject of constant excoriation by the journalist H. L. Mencken.

In a 1980 book "The Book of Heroic Failures," Stephen Pile notes that the poet e. e. cummings, eulogized this president by saying: "The only man, woman or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors is dead."

What president, who died in office, was the Westminster government recognizing?

Think you know? Send me an e-mail at kdayhoff@carr.org with Sunday Carroll Eagle in the subject line and you might win the coveted Sunday Carroll Eagle mug -- dubbed the "Stanley Cup of Carroll County Historical Trivia" by Dr. Pat Turnes.

When he is not helping to hatch turkeys, Kevin Dayhoff can be reached at kdayhoff@carr.org.

user comments (0)