By When I was growing up, the Larned Tiller and Toiler was delivered to our house, folded and stuck in the screen door each afternoon, Monday through Friday.
One of the things I liked to read as I sat on the front porch steps was the Pawnee Rock News. Once a week, Ella Foster (I think that was her name) wrote a column about the goings-on in our community. Other towns also had correspondents. There was the Zook News, for example.
Anyway, Pawnee Rock folks called Ella with their news and she wrote it up and forwarded it to the Tiller. The tidbits of news were simple things, like who had company over the weekend, who baked a pie and delivered it to a friend, whose kid won a college scholarship.
Those were the names of people I knew, friends and neighbors.
Small town papers still have that personal touch. And the Effingham Leaf is a progressive newspaper – they’re online, with photos. Effingham (pop. 582) is in Atchison County.
So today I share with you the Effingham Newsleaf. Even if you don’t know the people, it’s fun to read about real lives in a small Kansas town.
This week’s paper (Aug. 12) includes a story and photo of the largest scotch pine in Kansas – a Champion Tree – which stands in the Effingham Cemetery.
For future reference, you can find a permanent link to the Effingham Newsleaf over on the right-hand side of this Daily News page under NEWSPAPERS.
Other Kansas newspapers can be found at the Kansas Press Association website.
My brother, Jim, is holding the 15.5 pound fish.
I think that is truly commendable that these small towns manage to keep a paper going. That’s one of the things that impressed me about Courtland when I visited there in June. The Douglass newspaper stopped printing in 1984 and we have about 5 or 6 times as many people.
That’s a big fish, I’ll bet max Wendell would like to know where he caught that.
Ah…. Delaware River at Muscotah. I feel a road trip coming on.
Thanks for bringing the Newsleaf to our attention. That’s a great champion tree!