Before FB there was "Local Items"

One of my favorite things to read in old newspapers is the “Local Items”.  Over the years, the feature name changes from “Local Mentions” to other various titles.  There is everything listed in this section of the newspaper.  Who is sick, visits, vacations, fishing trips, new houses, who passed away, who got married, what various clubs in town were doing, and even when the Barracks were being painted in 1906.

The information in this section is not only fascinating, but it is valuable historic information of contagious diseases to community and social customs.

I have learned so much from the “Local Items” including Hugh “Chappie” Roberts(26)  had  the first “War Baby” (Gilbert Roberts-54) in Rock Springs and his wife, Susan Fay”Lempi” Jacobson(27)  traveled with the new baby to meet Hugh while he was stationed in Washington at Camp Lewis before Hugh went overseas to France. 


Rock Springs Rocket, 1 March 1918


Rock Springs Rocket, 10 April 1918.

The following are some other fun finds from the local newspapers before there was FB. 

Rock Springs Rocket, 21 March 1919


I am glad they found the 3 year old!  I had to look up Sleeping Sickness as I have never heard of the illness.  Here is what I found:

“Just after the end of World War I, a bizarre disease known as the sleepy sickness, or lethargic encephalitis, devastated millions of people across the world and left doctors puzzled for decades afterward...

Some of the finest scientific minds of the past 100 years have tried to provide the answers to what exactly caused the horrifying disease, or how to treat it, but, to date, nothing has been definitively proven and the sleepy virus remains one of the biggest medical mysteries of history.”  

Source:

(Blazeski, Goran, “The forgotten ‘sleepy sickness’ epidemic. . .” The Vintage News, online at https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/02/03/sleepy-sickness/.  accessed 3 June 2021.)



Rock Springs Rocket, 27 June 1919

Rock Springs must have been very hot that June of 1919 to have two people suffer from heat related problems.  Isaac, Sr.(10) was 55 years old in 1919.
Percy Roberts(28) is the son of Isaac Roberts, Sr.(10) and Janet Howie(16).  Percy worked for the Union Pacific Railroad in Rawlins, Wyoming.


The Kemmerer Camera, 1 August 1916


From this fun little note from the Kemmerer Camera, we learn John Richard Roberts(8) and his son John Roberts(168) went fishing with some friends.  

You may browse through and read newspapers from Wyoming, including Rock Springs and Kemmerer, through 1920 at the Wyoming Newspaper Project.  The "search" on this site works well and I have been able to locate some fun finds for our family and for the communities where they resided.

Wyoming Newspaper Project at Wyoming Digital Newspaper Collection.

(updated the link, sorry it did not work when I first posted the article)


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