A Newspaperman in the Family

I have been researching other branches of the family and found a newspaperman.  I also have information on the Hartwick Reporter for historians. 

In April 1915 Charles S. Hitchcock and his brother A. D. Hitchcock started the Hartwick Reporter in Hartwick, N.Y.  A. D. Hitchcock died in 1918, leaving his brother to carry on with the newspaper.  Five years later Charles sold the paper to Edward E. Carpenter, editor of the Morris Chronicle, in October 1920.  Hitchcock planned to retire 1 January 1921.  However, the paper must have reverted back to him at some point because in the summer of 1925 he sold the Hartwick Reporter to Loren A. Mann of Susquehanna, PA, who was taking over the week of 4 September 1925.  It was further noted in the newspaper article that “Mr. Hitchcock retires on account of the condition of his health which has not been good of late but expects to devote his spare time to the interests of the paper,”  sounding like he intended to stay involved with the paper.  A year later Mann installed a new typing machine in the printing office.

It appears the Hartwick newspaper reverted back to Charles Hitchcock once again.  On 22 April 1930 he passed away.  His obituary referred to Hitchcock as the editor of the Hartwick Reporter, explaining that he "had continued with his work in the office until December 24, when he was taken ill and confined to his bed most of the time."  On 13 June 1930 The Otsego Farmer announced that newspaper employee Frank E. Boyce, who went to work at the paper in September 1929, had bought it.

Frank E. Boyce was born 3 May 1869 in Housatonic, Mass., to William F. Boyes and Rachel A. Winchell.  He attended high school in Oneonta, N.Y., and learned to be a printer in the office of the Oneonta Herald.  Boyce pursued his trade in the surrounding area.  After his daughter Ethel graduated from high school in Sidney, N.Y., in 1922, “she became associated with her father in his work as editor of the Hartwick Reporter.  Boyce died 4 December 1941. After his death, she continued to publish the paper as long as health permitted.”  That was less than a year, for on 20 November 1942 The Otsego Farmer announced that Mrs. Grace E. Boyce was discontinuing the paper.  She and her stepdaughter moved back to Oneonta where Ethel died from a heart ailment on 11 Mar 1943.

Information Accumulates

Although I have been finding information on my Winchell relatives and entering it, I haven't created a report with the program for a while.  I just did so to send to a cousin.  It was 144 pages!  144 page and 120 pages were information!   For what it's worth, I've accomplished something.  I have an older version of Rootsmagic and it doesn't allow me to create a report just for one family line. This information includes all the collateral lines.  The information is sketchy for some people and I haven't followed all the information, but still....

Some of the interesting tidbits about cousins I've learned recently:

• Frederick M. Snyder served the U.S. Olympics Committee from 1916 to at least 1976 and participated in the effort to restore Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family.
• Frederick's father George Franklin Snyder became a Methodist minister who served mainly in the Hudson Valley region.  His last church was Fordham Methodist Church.  Frederick's brothers Clifford, Donald and Rolland moved to the greater New York City area.
•  Frank E. Boyce was an Otsego County farmer in upstate New York, who began working in the office of a newspaper when he was 60 years old.  He later bought the paper, the Hartwick Reporter.  He seemed to be well liked because there were 3 minister participating in his funeral.
• William Henry Winchell and his son Clarence C. Winchell were both Methodist ministers in the Hudson and  Mohawk Valleys. 

When I originally set the fonts for this blog, the type didn't come out so small.  I find I have to set it to large so that people don't have to fiddle with it. 

What Happened to Georgiana Winchell?

I've been working on a family mystery tonight, what happened to Georgiana Winchell.  She was  born 21 September 1849 in the Town of Great Barrington, Berkshire Co., Mass.  Her parents were George Winchell and Sarah Livingston.  Sarah died 24 September 1864.  On the 1865 Massachusetts census, Georgiana was living with her sister Rachel and her husband William F. Boyes, along with her father, in the Town of Great Barrington.  George died 17 August of typhoid fever.  In 1870 Georgiana is not living with Rachel and William, although they have a daughter 4 years old named Georgiana. 

I recently found a census record that lists Georgiana Winchell of the right age and birthplace living with I.N. and Mary Pardee in Susquehanna Co., Penn.  According to Clark Pardee's marriage record, Mary's maiden name was Winchel and her middle initial was L.  She is the right age to be Georgiana's sister who has been listed as Lucinda.  I've never found a trace of Lucinda either. 

Ira N. Pardee was a clergyman.  According to the 1855 New York census, he lived as a child in Kingston, Ulster Co., NY.  In 1880 he and his family were living in Webster Co., Iowa.  Georgiana is not living with them.  By 1893 the family is living in the Cortland area where their daughter Eva became engaged to Harold Chester Peters.

Now I have an additional question to answer as well.  Was Mary L. Winchell the same person as Lucinda Winchell? 

Photos for the Future

I recently came across an interesting blog by Heidi Glenn of All Tech Considered on NPR, In The Digital Age, The Family Photo Album Fades Away.  I am in-between when it comes to preserving and presenting photos.  I have used technology to scan in old photos to save, share and in some cases improve them, as well as printing them out.  I have been sent computer files of old family photos.  I have found a few old family photos online.  However, I'd like to have a physical scrapbook of the photos to be able to look at when I want.  Part of it is because I want to savor these photos that took many years of persistence to obtain. Sometimes my aging eyes wants to get away from the computer screen. 

I like the fact that Glenn addresses the fact that outside, digital repositories on the web are not infallible.  For a number of reasons, someday you may go to the web site to see that the site and the photos are no longer there.  Or your computer may one day just die. When my desktop computer had been turned into a zombie and I didn't have it for two weeks, I realized that I never printed out any reports of my genealogy. 

I would never rely completely on an outside source to keep my information.  It's just not good practice.  If you wouldn't trust an outside company to keep your family medical records and legal documents, then you shouldn't trust them with the genealogy that you've collected through the years.  However, in light of almost losing my computer and the 500-year flood that my area experienced, it's a good idea to store copies of your complete information somewhere else, as printed out reports, with relatives in a different area, on an external hard drive, on CDs, even in Google Documents. 

Since I hadn't had a camera for a long time, my photos are somewhat organized.  I haven't had time or the money to post many online so I've saved myself some trouble in that respect.  I can't say the same for my research papers.  Keeping those in mind, it's never too early, nor too late, to develop an organizational plan and put it into action.