It has been just about a year since I started scouring the online Alto Herald for interesting stories to share with Cherokeean readers. The search process is not fool-proof, but it is easy and fun.
For instance, for my first column on the Titanic, I just put the word “titanic” in the Search box and included all the collection – from 1908-1966. I got 20 hits. Several were using the word titanic as an adjective, some even before the ship was built. Then the big front-page story in 1912, with several follow-up articles. The movie references began, surprisingly, in 1913 with a 3-reel moving picture at the Empire Theater, and continued through the 1953 version, starring Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck. An unusual number of columnists or news stories used a reference to the fact that “the unsinkable ship that sank” to prove a point.
From 1908-1966 there are 1984 copies of the Herald online. Just for fun, I decided to see whether I could find any name or business that was mentioned in every copy. Naturally I started with Holcomb, thinking there was bound to be at least one Holcomb mentioned every week. They came pretty close with 1669 hits. Singletary got 1352. The Methodists beat the Baptists by a slim margin of 2, with 1726 for Methodist and 1724 for Baptist.
Sometimes by following the businesses that advertise you can see when the company started and maybe when it closed. There were only a couple of Pearmans in 1910-1920, individuals from other places, but Tracie Pearman announced opening of a service station in 1927 and from then on there were lots of hits. In the 1960’s Pearman appeared in every issue.
For those who would like to do their own searches, here are a few tips on how to go about it.
First, go to the Cherokeean archives page
When that page comes up scroll to the bottom of the list and click on Stella Hill Library Collection. Click on COLLECTION. Then at right on Alto Herald.
Editor’s note: Or you can use the “Alto Herald Archives” link at the bottom of this page
Now you are ready to choose what years you want to cover in your search. If you want to to include all the issues like I did with the Titanic, just type your search word into the blank. If you want a certain year, use the decade and year options in the list on the right before inserting your word. After you type in the word, click on Submit. All issues that contain that word, highlighted in yellow, will come up but not necessarily in chronological order.
This procedure definitely works best using just one word. Even if you use quotation marks around a phrase, the search engine will sometimes find and mark single words from the phrase.
Warning: this can be addictive! Happy hunting.
Originally published May 22, 2013
Editors note: Since this column was written, the Herald archives have been updated with issues from 9 more years, 1978-1988, minus 1980 and 1983. While reporting on my graduation in 1980 is still lost to history, this does give us 432 more issues to search for Holcombs and Singletarys. When I reran the queries from the column, both families continued to garner lots of attention, with the Holcombs receiving 2060 hits to 1704 for the Singletarys. The Methodists doubled their lead over the Baptists from 2 to 4, with 2153 mentions to 2149.