My hands are smudged with newsprint.
Some of it is from today’s paper; most, from long ago.
We’re cleaning out the Wellsville Daily Reporter office, see, and every old desk and filing cabinet seems to have some new treasure of yesteryear buried inside. There’s a copy of the special section the Daily Reporter put together in the wake of the Flood of 72. It’s 24 pages of coverage, dozens of photos and dozens more stories documenting an event that, to this day, probably has the largest imprint on the collective memory of the area.
The headlines report the raw impact on Wellsville — “Body found,” “Wing of Jones Hospital falls,” ”$15 million damage in worst flooding in County.” Others capture the human element of people coming together in the wake of the disaster wrought by Hurricane Agnes. “Everyone helped!” exclaims one headline, “Lots of good people” adds another. Some find a measure of levity and a ray of hope amidst tragedy. “Girl born at AU not named ‘Agnes’” tells the story of a child who entered the world “at the height of the three-day storm that virtually isolated the village of Alfred from the nearest hospital 10 miles away.”
The good, the bad, the ugly, and the countless moments in between, those everyday slices of life particular to this corner of the world — the Daily Reporter documented it all since its founding in 1880 by Enos W. Barnes, a native of Bath. Barnes erected the Daily Reporter’s home on Main Street within a year, and ownership of Allegany County’s only daily newspaper remained in the family until 1964.
That last bit of information was gleaned from another special section put together by the Reporter, “Our Times: 100 years of the people and events that made a difference.” It was published on Dec. 30, 1999 and is full of historical notes big and small, from the Sinclair Refinery fire that claimed three lives in 1938 to a dairy farmer who dumped three days worth of production down the drain one September day in 1986 to protest the low price of milk.
The discoveries don’t end with newspapers. There are old sports programs filed away when local teams made the trip to the War Memorial for the Section V championships. Others are from journeys to states, including Angelica’s run to Troy in 1985. There are team photos, programs and statistics from Wellsville football, baseball and basketball seasons from the late 80s and early 90s.
How have these things survived the decades? They were no doubt tucked away by a writer somewhere along the line, perhaps for future reference or simply because it can be difficult to toss a piece of history into the recycling bin. Journalism is the first rough draft of history — particularly the local journalism undertaken by newspapers, who are often the sole source of documentation for small communities, from the big headlines right down to the winner of the spelling bee and the local man who bowled a 300 after years of coming oh so close.
The floods and the fires, the community campaigns and protests, the changing fortunes of local industries, they’ve all brought us to where we are today.
About a year ago at this time, some reporters from a city market stopped by the Daily Reporter offices. They were in town because news had recently broken that the Dresser-Rand manufacturing operation would be shut down in a major blow to the area’s economic picture.
This little town generates all that news?
Wellsville and Allegany County may seem inconsequential to some in the grand scheme of New York state and the nation, but it was the world to the reporters who walked through these doors at 159 North Main Street for nearly 140 years. It was all big news. It all warranted coverage and the best possible photos and stories.
We’ve done our best to preserve the history uncovered over the last few days. Thank you’s go to the David A. Howe Public Library and the Thelma Rogers Genealogical & Historical Society for their assistance.
The doors are closed, the phone has stopped ringing. Trends beyond the control of anyone in our newsroom have brought us here, the end of the sole purpose this building has ever known. Home delivery in the Wellsville market ceases with this edition, and The Spectator will operate out of our Hornell office at 32 Broadway. Print editions will be available on select newsstands and through mail subscriptions, and our digital footprint at wellsvilledaily.com and on social media will continue.
The stories still deserve, demand to be told.
Chris Potter is the Regional Editor of The Spectator
