Each chapter of Iron Horse Claim ends with an 1870s newspaper article that is relevant to events unfolding in the story. Except for stories “published” by the Dakota Dispatch (the newspaper I created for my imaginary town of Shady Bluffs), these articles were found in the Library of Congress Newspaper Collections – actual, digitized pages from newspapers.
These 1870s newspaper articles, public notices, and advertisements were like pieces from time capsules that gave a glimpse into how people lived during those times. From political reporting about railroad corruption to “slice of life” snippets of local gossip, newspapers performed a vital function in the 1800s.
One of the most important functions of frontier newspapers was to publish records of land claims. When a homesteader had proved her (or his) claim, the local newspaper would publish a notice to this effect – the legal notices of the day.
Before becoming an accomplished novelist, Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain) paid his dues as a reporter and editor for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada Territory. He described the function of frontier newspapers this way:
“Our duty is to keep the universe thoroughly posted concerning murders and street fights, and balls, and theaters, and pack-trains, and churches, and lectures, and school-houses, and city military affairs, and high way robberies, and Bible societies, and haywagons, and a thousand other things which it is in the province of local reporters to keep track of and magnify into undue importance for the instruction of the readers of this great daily newspaper.”