Lackawanna County News

Judging from editorial comments, he seems to have been a man of clear opinions and strong beliefs.  He was for progress and believed in it strongly.  He promoted the addition of a clock to the bell tower of the local public school, civic cleanliness and order, responsibility among public officials and all citizens.  He reprimanded parents for not knowing where their children were and what they were doing when it seemed the children were endangering themselves or harming others in ways small and large. He particularly targeted boys, denouncing hooliganism of all kinds, including the theft of ripe fruit from back yard trees.

He thought horses should have a trough in the Square as a matter of humane treatment of the animals; he was indignant that stray dogs constituted a danger to citizens; he was indignant as well when citizens did not keep their cows penned.

As the owner of a printing company that did business with the coal mines, and, it seems, as a social peer of mine owners, he must have walked a fine line between caring for the plight of the miners and not alienating customers.  Certainly, he spared no details in cases of grisly accidents in the mines, yet he was unapologetic about his anti-union sentiments.

He was booster on the side of city growth and improvement as well as individual improvement.  He understood the connection between cleanliness and health, and in those days of medical helplessness in the face of communicable disease epidemics, he campaigned tirelessly for the prompt disposal of trash and the cleanliness of streets, the latter a tall order on unpaved streets
with heavy horse traffic.

What's most appealing about him, to me, in spite of his occasional starchiness, is his optimism.  He seems an embodiment of a Victorian and an American "can-do" ethic and did not shrink from tirelessly campaigning for the common good in the North End he seemed to care about so much.

All the issues are on microfilm and available from the State Library of Pennsylvania.  I made copies only of the pages containing some reference to a family name.  So anyone wanting to read more has only to go to the library or order the film via interlibrary loan.

Anne Tullar, whose Flynn, Grady, and McMullan ancestors were many in the Providence of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Page 1 The Providence Register, Saturday July 23, 1881 to July 7, 1888

Page 2 The Providence Register, Saturday January 12, 1889 to July 20, 1895

Page 3 The Providence Register, Saturday February 29, 1896 to December 28, 1901

Page 4 The Providence Register, Saturday January 4, 1902 to December 20, 1911

Page 5 The Providence Register, Saturday June 23, 1912 to October 24, 1914