10/01/2026
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Putnam Town Crier - Aspinock Memories
Aspinock Memories
What ‘News’ Was Like 100 Years Ago
By: Terri Pearsall, AHS Museum Curator
Putnam used to have two newspapers in town, The Putnam Patriot and the Windham County Observer. There are bound copies of these newspapers in the archives of the Aspinock Historical Society. The Putnam Patriot issues from the late 1800s to 1961 and the Observer issues 1890s to 1997. Some of these issues can be found on Chronicling America also.
So today, I pulled out the Putnam Patriot from 100 years ago just to get a glimpse of what was considered news then. It is fun to look at these newspapers and read the ads placed them and read what was considered news at the time. The newspaper was printed once a week, so I turned to September 24, 1926, and began to read.
I found an article that caught my eye. The title was: “Brief News Items about Putnam People, Their Friends and Activities”. The article took up most of the page. It started by recording that Arthur L. Duvert was in Springfield Tuesday, Mr. and Mrs. Alesix St. Jean were in Fiskdale Sunday, Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Leclair were in Providence Thursday, Mr. and Mrs. Armand Lachance spent Saturday in Providence, Ovila Gosselin of Middle Street spent Monday with relatives in Derby, Philip Maynard of Meadow Street spent Wednesday with friends in Jewett City, Armand Gagne of Woodstock Avenue spent Friday with Danielson friends, another man who lived on Main spent the weekend with Worcester relatives and on and on. It told of a man here on business from Hartford; people from out-of-town visiting friends or family here in Putnam; who went back to college; who was vacationing with family and where; who got married, etc. There were more than 60 entries in this article.
How things have changed in 100 years. We no longer use the newspaper to share our personal everyday life. Today, if I want people to know things about me, I post it on Facebook or Twitter (X) or some other form of social media.
There was also a lengthy article about a man who had lived in Putnam and left mysteriously for Florida without any explanation. Apparently, he came back to Putnam for a couple of days and wouldn’t say why he was here. It reported where he stayed, every time he called for a cab, who the cab driver was, where he went, that he asked the driver not to tell anyone he was here, and that he didn’t bring any luggage with him, only a satchel with very little in it so he must have left Florida in a hurry. He stayed mostly to himself while he was in Putnam. It reported that he left on a train to Boston without explaining why he was going to Boston and said he would contact friends here in Putnam when he arrived in Boston but never contacted them. The news article said that this was most curious and wondered if he was up to no good. So, not much has changed in 100 years. People will always talk about everything and get suspicious especially if you don’t tell them everything there is to know.
Some of the advertisements were very interesting. An ad for a Chevrolet dealer promised pure enjoyment and ease of shifting gears and the joy of many cylinders powering the motor. Putnam Bank boasted of 4 ½ percent dividends encouraging people to open a savings account. Hand Stop Filling station gave 6 good reasons to buy gas from them: 1. Texaco gas was new and better, 2. Visible pumps – you are sure you get what you pay for, you can see the measure, 3. Covered pumps – no possible chance of water or dirt in your gas, 4. Handy stop – off the street, 5. Free crankcase service & 6. Free air. Lizotte’s Smart Shop slogan was “Look at your clothes, everybody else does” Your clothes tell the world what you think of yourself. If you don’t value yourself very highly, you can depend upon it that nobody else will. Clothes that are correct in style and fine in quality, not only create a good impression – they give good satisfaction as well. That would be great advice for us today.
I just covered what was on one page of the weekly paper. The rest of the paper of that week was fun to read.
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