TURNING BACK The pages of history
Leominster woman finds 168-year-old newspaper
LEOMINSTER » As she searched through her late father’s belongings, Sue Rivard found something ordinary enough: an old newspaper.
Found with a number of other clippings, Rivard thought nothing of it. What she stumbled upon, however, turned out to be anything but an ordinary old newspaper.
What she found was a copy of the Fitchburg Sentinel, a publication founded in 1838 that would go on to become the Fitchburg-Leominster Sentinel & Enterprise, dated Feb. 3, 1854.
“I was just shocked when I saw the date,” Rivard said. “It’s amazing, to be able to hold a piece of history like this.”
“It gets more interesting every time I look at it,” she said.
At first, Rivard mistook the paper for an edition printed in 1954. Upon closer inspection, however, it became a window into the past, she said.
“It looks modern enough at a glance,” Rivard said. “But when you dig into it, the actual language, the content — it’s almost like a different world.”
A different world, indeed. Antiquated advertisements littered the pages, as did snake oil treatments such as “Dr. Ordway’s Blood Purifier.” An ad for “premium teeth” can be seen, accompanied by an eerie rendering.
One story referenced the “notorious ruffian” and bare-knuckle boxer, Yakeen Sullivan, who failed to appear in court after an illegal bout at Boston Corner, a former hamlet of Berkshire County now part of New York.
Another mentioned an “Anti-slavery Fair” to be held at Fitchburg Town Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 8 — Abraham Lincoln, then a lawyer in Illinois, would not issue the Emancipa
tion Proclamation for another 10 years.
Despite its age, the paper had a fair share of modern items and philosophical interpretations as well, something Rivard called “uncanny.”
A schedule for the Fitchburg Railroad was posted, while there was coverage of a fire at the “Worcester Dramatic Museum” and the arrest of “two extensive lottery swindlers” who had stolen money from patrons while promising “great prizes in imaginary lotteries.”
One story, titled “Progress,” referenced the impossibility of a “complete change in public opinion upon a subject of importance” in a single generation, a sentiment that would seemingly hold true today.
“It’s weird how some of this can be so ‘out there,’ while you might see other parts in the paper today,” Rivard said.
Rivard said she was unsure how her father came into possession of the paper or why he might have held onto it. Aside from the fact that they lived in Fitchburg, Rivard said neither her father nor her stepmother had a connection to the paper, nor could she find any reference to her family in the edition.
Whatever her father’s reasoning, Rivard said she was happy that he kept it so that she stumbled upon it.
“Whatever reason he had it, I’m glad he held onto it and I’m happy to have found it,” she said. “It’s a piece of history I want to do what I can to make sure it’s preserved.”
While Rivard said she was undecided on what the do with the paper, she said she wanted to get it to someone that could properly care for it and suggested that she might donate it to the Fitchburg Historical Society.
“I would love to get it to someone that knows how to take care of it,” she said. “Otherwise, it’s just going to sit here in a bag, which I don’t want.”
“I want someone to do the right thing with it, so other people can appreciate it and the history it represents,” she said.