Hey there you, need something to do? For yourself, or your kids, or your virtual school? In these times, of the homebound, quarantine rules?

Well then. You might like what Wisconsin BadgerLink has for these limited quarantine times. Or rather, has online—300 million pages worth! Sound interesting to you? Then read on.

During the COVID-19 pandemic house quarantine, Wisconsin Badger-Link, in partnership with Newspaper Archive, has made the Access Newspaper Archive temporarily available for Wisconsin residents through a link at its website, https://badgerlink. dpi.wi.gov/, with 300 million digitized newspaper files to peruse and search through. Got internet of some type or variety and a Wisconsin library card number to gain access? Then you’re in! The online site includes a map to choose from newspapers in all fifty states and several countries overseas, including Algeria, South Africa, and the United Kingdom—along with other options. Those wishing to ingress the archive just click “newspapers” under “browse by format” on the BadgerLink homepage (link above) and then choose the first option at the top of the newspaper databases, “Access Newspaper Archive,” to get into the finer search possibilities, by map, name, or keyword, respectively. Speaking of map location, what might the Access Newspaper Archive tell us about the local scene?

Starting in Chippewa Falls, the Chippewa Herald of April 5, 1881—still around for the record, at least presently—we learn that one “L.C. Stanley” has just become the mayorelect of Chippewa Falls. From the Herald, page four, column two: “Here is what Myron McCord says in the Lincoln County News, about Mayor Stanley: “L.C. Stanley, the mayor-elect of Chippewa Falls, is a gentleman that would reflect credit in that position upon any city in Wisconsin. He is a number one man, just such a one as is needed at the head of a thriving wideawake city like Chippewa Falls.”

This is just one of 777 entries for Mayor Stanley in the Chippewa Herald between 1870 and 1894, out of a total of 2,489 referencing the Stanley family name. As recently as May 10, 1878, Mr. Stanley had been the Third Ward Alderman for Chippewa Falls, also per the Herald. Regarding the Stanley family more generally, many of these same people found by newspaper archive search are buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery on the east side of Chippewa Falls, per findagrave.com, which brings up just one reason to peruse old newspapers: genealogical information to flesh out the ancestors! But we need another entry. What of Gilman?

Believe it or not, there has been more than one publication out of Gilman Wisconsin (we cite for example the Gilman Herald of 1937-1965, once published by H.W. Brochtrup of Boyd Transcript fame and available on microfilm through the Library of Congress—but keeping our search prior to 1923 and for the present as of 99 years ago we must settle for the Gilman Homecrofter. Of particular search interest in the Gilman, Wisconsin area are any clues on an old community named Morehouse/ Polley, once a rival of the village of Gilman and now largely mysterious. What might “Polley” find for us in the search tool?

A single entry as it turns out. An advertisement in the Homecrofter of March 18, 1921 lists “Chas. J. Polley, C.E., Surveying of all Kinds/-All Work Guaranteed- POLLEY *** Wisconsin, Box 2.” Not much perhaps, but something. The jokes are somewhat better. “Woodman, spare that tree,” cried the poet.

“All right. No more wood pulp, no more paper, no more poetry,” the woodsmans says in an ‘Unexpected Reply’ attributed to “-Ex.” says. Also listed in the advertisements however are Carl M. Toft, Anson Green, Jess D. Green, and “Grover T. Pace, Ph. G.” of Stanley. What’s a Ph. G.? There’s a clue (“Prescription Druggist”) underneath the name in the advertisement, while in the middle column we learn that “Concerts by wireless telephone, played every Friday night at the University of Wisconsin radio station, are heard by amateur operators 200 miles away,” allowing for social entertainment across the distance!

Finally, for those who know their local Eau Claire history we look up the Eau Claire Daily Free Press, once owned and edited for a short time in the 1860s by a future business partner to Mr. Moon, Gilbert E. Porter, also elected Eau Claire’s Mayor in 1874. If we search under “Porter,” we learn from the search tool of an announcement in the October 18, 1873 issue of the Daily Free Press that “Porter Moon Co will here after hi knows as the Northwestern Lum O… Porter President D K Moon Vice President ST McKnight Treasurer ME… Porter started hif old mill in byhiuuelfjitttilUiOfi4l of 1866 wh,” much of which looks like a serious computer misread, but on the good stuff, with highlighter to check…or maybe not. It appears the archive has an announcement to make: “Oops! It looks like the highlighter didn't find your search. We're afraid you're going to have to read the page to locate your article this time.” Back to ordinary text reading. Computers only go so far, after all. At any rate, enjoy the Access Newspaper Archive down at Wisconsin BadgerLink, available with a library card number for a limited time!

Score!: Now and through May 15, 2020, Newspaper Archive is offering all Wisconsin residents free access to its 300 million digitized newspaper pages via Wisconsin BadgerLink, The limited time offering helps give those now at home something to do in their boredom, like finish (or else just work on) that family tree! Did you know if you go back just 11 generations that you have “ 4096 gggggggg great grandparents” to track down? We learned it in Boyd Wisconsin, at the 705 Murray Street History Room – another potentially great resource for genealogy come summer and the lift of quarantine measures!