Returned Home To Die

From the Roanoke Beacon – December 15, 1898
Returned Home to Die – As the morning brightened into day on Wednesday last the messenger of death entered the home of Mr.  Louis P. Hornthal, on Third street, and wafted to the great beyond the spirit of Mrs. Hornthal’s grandfather, S.H. McRae, Esqr., aged 81 years.
Mr. McRae, [...]

Feature Friday – A Bond Dispute?

Feature Friday posts will feature relevant information from a chosen online resource. This month, the database is Google Books.
Wow.  As I was searching Google Books for blog fodder, I found something so extremely relevant it is just plain cool.   No less than 15 minute prior to going over to Google Books, I added this following [...]

Groves Tonic

I’ve been looking at this ad in the paper for many, many, issues.  Some how, I’m not so sure it would be so popular in these days.  It seems the tagline for Groves Chill Tonic was that it “makes children fat as pigs.”  The ad is illustrated with a pig with a child’s head?

I love [...]

Death of Mrs. Kittie Carter

Roanoke Beacon – December 9, 1898
Died – Again the messenger of death has invaded one of the quiet homes of Plymouth and claimed its own, leaving the home shrouded in deepest mourning.  On Thursday night, at her home on Main street, Mrs. Kittie Carter, beloved wife of E.A. Carter, Esq., departed this life, after a [...]

Pastors Moving Around

I am learning as I read through the papers, that pastors back in the day, apparently moved around a lot! In late 1898, a conference was held to determine where various preachers would end up preaching for the upcoming year.
As reported in the December 2, 1898 issue, here were the assignments from that year’s conference:

R.C. [...]

Cascarets for Constipation

Half of the fun of reading the old newspapers are the ads and the style of writing the editors would employ in the paper.   Makes for some highly enteratining reading.  I am going to try and include more of that in the blog.  I also love the ads for the various medicinal items.
For example, here [...]

Bruer’s Grocery Store

The December 9, 1898 issue of the beacon included this ad from J.I. Bruer about his new line of groceries.  He explains that he is situated between W.C. Ayers and the Plymouth Grocery Company.  His products must have certainly been “fancy” as he describes in order to compete with a grocery store that is right [...]