After reading the article “Old News, New Life: Decades of the Tribune Go Digital” in the August 20th edition of the Burke County Tribune, I typed ndarchives.historyarchives.online/home into my computers search engine and fell down a rabbit hole that I didn’t emerge from for hours. It’s a treasure trove of memories, and I highly recommend you open it up and see what, or who, you might find.

When you visit the archives you can enter a name and choose a date range and all the editions of the paper in which that name appears will be listed for you to select. Once you select the specific edition of the paper you would like to see a copy of the newspaper page will appear like magic from a time machine. The name you entered will be highlighted on the page, and you can even “clip” and save portions of the page or the entire page for your scrapbook.

I found out many interesting tidbits from days gone by about people long gone. For instance, in the March 5, 1964 Lignite News Mrs. Milford Sernsen reported that “Fritz Ellis has been a patient at the Kenmare hospital the past week being treated for an infected carbuncle.” Good to know. I also learned that my Grandpa Fritz must have been a fine bowler as it was reported that he “had the high men’s game of 242” in December of 1973.

A July of 1980 article has “Ellis recognized for 17 years of police work” above a picture of my grandpa smiling and shaking hands with Lignite Mayor Hill. In August of 1973 I learned that “Mr. and Mrs. Ardell Chrest and Mrs. Arlene Chrest were in Minot on Monday. Arlene ordered new glasses” and that in June of 1977 “Mr. and Mrs. Ardell Chrest drove over to Palermo and had coffee with the Donavon Ellis’s.

I tried to find out if there was any news about Mrs. Arlene Chrest getting new dentures but sadly came up empty. I have her dentures in the drawer of my bedstand, and I was curious what vintage they are. Yes, I have my Great Grandmothers smile.

I’m not sure how long Mrs. Milford Sernson reported the Lignite News, but she was thorough and must have been the equivalent of Google in Johnson’s Café for any and all information regarding the comings and goings of her fellow Lignite residents.

What has always been curious to me about writings and reports from the “old days” is how the first name of the wife is rarely used? “Mrs. Ardell Chrest”…you mean “Rose”? The glue that held the family together, that cooked, that cleaned, that took care of and sewed clothes for six kids. Yes, that Mrs. Ardell Chrest. So it goes.

A Google search, not Mrs. Milford Sernsen, explains that this practice was due to “the doctrine of coverture which was a common law principle in which a married woman’s legal rights and identity were subsumed by her husband’s. This meant a wife could not own property, enter into contracts, or control her own finances independently. This system denied women independent legal personhood and has since been abandoned in jurisdictions that inherited the English common law tradition.”

Well now Mrs. Joshua Ellis, how do you feel about that? Time to dust off Great Grandma Arlene’s teeth.