From the Archives: Gander Corner Bugle
A Rare, Early Twentieth Century Handwritten Newspaper
Goose Eye No. 5 (2025)
From the Archives
Gander Corner Bugle
A Rare, Early Twentieth Century Handwritten Newspaper
In her essay “The Ladies Came to the Rescue” (Goose Eye No. 4, 2024) and book, Wit and Wisdom: The Forgotten Literary Life of New England Villages, Joan Newlon Radner wrote about the handwritten newspapers produced by small village lyceums throughout New England. Radner’s work discusses two such lyceum papers, that of the South Bethel Debating Society, and another produced in East Bethel. Recently, another such paper, relating to the village of West Bethel or, as it was once known, “Gander Corner,” was found among the papers of Libbie Kneeland, a longtime Bethel Historical Society member who spent years researching the locality.
Contextual clues suggest the paper was produced around the fall of 1904 and was written by a member of the Mills family. The volume number is indicated as “I” but the digit that follows, indicating the issue number, is too smudged to be certain of, and this is the sole issue known to survive. Like all such papers, the “Gander Corner Bugle” seems nearly incomprehensible at first glance, written in vernacular language, with nonstandard spelling, and full of inside jokes, nicknames, and unclear lines between fact and fiction. However, the paper rewards careful readers with a rich, colorful, if only partial window into the social life of the village around the turn of the twentieth century.
Our Gibbie1 sells fish every two weeks. Gib is a good hand at that job. Gibbie is not lazy, he just dallies a little about his work. Gib says he has some hay out yet, and is waiting patiently for the sun to shine and Gib is a patient waiter.
Our celebrated physician2 was in Gander Corner one day last week. Doc has invented a new kind of pills for humans and horses. Doc says he is going to try them first on horses and if they don’t kill ’em, he will try them on humans. Mrs. Doc helps him make his medicines, but she won’t take none of it, which shows her good cense. Doc says that he has scarce earned his salt lately being as no body is sick.
Our popular Station Agent Myles O’Reilly says that Harl Dennisons kerocene ain’t worth a “tupence” to build fires with on cold mornings, and we guess he knows. Spottie likes to pull on his suspenders every morning to sharpen her nails.
