The New Hartford Tribune

The New Hartford Tribune was a local newspaper that ran from 1880 to 1911. It was the creation of Henry Jones, of the Jones family of Jones Mountain. The newspaper remains an incredibly valuable treasure trove of historical information. As with all such newspapers, much of its space was given over to very local news and advertisements. State, national, and international news, while covered, wwere not its main concerns. However, for an historian, examining such coverage is often an invaluable resource in figuring out what local opinions about national affairs. Such newspapers also included local advertisements.
The New Hartford Tribune’s local articles detailed incidents that would today go unnoticed, such as this one from January of 1910:
From the local news column of the New Hartford Tribune, the source of perfectly delightful gossip.

“Miss Smith, manager of Esperanza Farm met with an accident Tuesday morning while delivering milk to her neighbors. The sleigh turned over near Miss Kate F. Holcomb’s throwing out the contents. The horse continued on its way to G.C. Kellogg’s where it was caught and placed in the stables. The damages were slight. The cold and high winds were severe with zero weather.”

The information contained in this tiny article is vast, ranging from the weather that year, to local milk delivery, to neighbourly actions such as catching the horse, to the form of address (note how the two women are both ‘Miss’, while G.C. Kellogg, a man is not ‘Mr.’). Esperanza Farm ran as a dairy farm from 1906 into the post WWII era. Esperanza itself still exists, but the only associated agriculture is hay and maple syrup. Its old dairy barn and creamery are now part of the Jerram Winery.