Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1919-04-07
81 - II
A NEnSPA PER
WAR HISTORY d
Scrap Books Compiled at Lii
brary Represent Almost
Complete Local
History.
ARE FOUR VOLUMES.
Cover all Activities of Sold
iers and War Work !
OF County.
ARE FOUR VOLUMES

:
newspaper clippings in the process OF
compilation The books cover the fol
lowing subjects:
Two volumes covering the ac-
ivities of all Hamilton county sol
diers and their units from the time
Of the return from the Mexican Dor
der.
One volume covering the war ac-
tivities of Webster City.
One volume of local history
dating back to the time Webster
City was known as New Castle.
These volumes are exceedingly. inter
esting and represent an immense
amount of work. Miss Crosley began
this work a year ago and has gone to a
good deal OF trouble and pains to get
back numbers of newspapers contain
ing news stories suitable for one or
more of these volumes. She has pasted
all the clippings in loose leaf scrap
books and, upon their completion, or
before, she will index them. This lat
ter will be a big task in itself.
Limited to Clippings.
The contents of these volumes is linz
tied entirely to newspaper clippings.
The general public, at the present time,
would probably be more interested in
the two volumes on soldier activities
and the war activities Of the city than
those in the local history volume. And
it is revelation to realize just how
much matter has been published III
Webster City newspapers since the date
that the United States entered the war;
Many soldier letters have been clipped
and every article covering the leaving
of select men, the enlistment Of men,
the moving of troops, etc, has been
clipped and pasted i'm chronological or
der. This volume is practically a com
plete history of the activities of Ham
ilton county soldiers and its value will
grow with the years until it will be-
come practically priceless to the COM
! + = i
munity.
The volume on Webster City and
/, Hamilton county war activities is al
most as interesting. 1t contains news
paper write-ups of all events in connec-
ton with the war--peace celebrations,
banauets to select men, Red Cross work,
and all community activities. This vol
ume. in the years to come, will become
almost us valuable to the library and
the people of this community as the
first two volumes
Done by Request.
Curator Harlan of the Iowa histor-
ical department at Des MoiHes and the
Iowa State Library association asked
that each library in the state make an
effort to preserve the war history Of its
county 1t was in response to this
request that Miss Crosley began her
campaign of newspaper Clipping, She
has really done magnificent work
a work that the people of the conmuni-
ty will thank her for in the years to
come. But even now il is appreciated.
Soldier boys will go to the library and
actually spend hours pouring over the
volumes. While an effort was made to
send newspapers to every unit in which
Hamilton county soldier was serving,
the mails, especially overseas, were so
Irregular that many papers were never
delivered. The Freeman-Journal at
tempted To mail, free of charge, n pack
age Of papers to all units in which 1t
was known there were Hamilton county
men serving, but with Indifferent sue
cess. Consequently, when the boys ar
rive home aud pour over the volumes
Miss Croslcy has in the making at the
library, they find columns and columns
of interesting reading matter-matter
witch will become vastly more inter
tsting as the years go by.
Pioneer History.
The volume on local history has, Of
course. nothing to do with the war. The
early history of this community has
ben secured by. Miss Crosley with the
/1elp of pioneers who have opened their
z scrap books. to her. Her mother, Mrs.
G. w. CrOsley, contributed from her
personal scrap book many very inter-
esting clippings concerning early set
tiers aud the pioneer history of the
county. Others to whom Miss Crosley
is indebted are Mrs. David Beach, Mrs.
i. f. Wilson and Mrs. +. +. King. Of
course, newspaper files contain all this
information. but to have the articles
clipped, pasted in book and indexed is
vastly more interesting and far easier
to get at.
ME and Mrs. Hans Brock of Jewell