This Rabbit Hole got pretty deep because of a personal connection and may not be of interest to some folks but I'll park it here since I spent more time than I care to admit on it. LoL

It started when I stumbled on a pdf of two months of a 1864 newspaper.
I took notice because it was from Palmer, MA, just over the hill from where I grew up.
Palmer is small, made up of 4 villages, so I was expecting small town gossip and was shocked when the stories read more like the New York Times.
There was a front page 3 column story about life in Russia.
Then I saw this snippet and dove into the rabbit hole.


Googled Palmer to find out the Population back in 1864, but being so small the
closest I could come is the 1860 census. The government wanted to know everything.
Population of every town in the state AND where they were born, AND where they work,
and, and, and. 


They list 418 occupations what surprised me was 6 electricians? In 1860? But they were using electric arc lights outdoors.
Only 2 Gold Pen makers. Almost 2,000 preachers.
Insurance agents and Occultists were both 2... I think there’s a message there.




I think of early Massachusetts as primarily farmers. Granted Boston was a pretty big deal in those days, and with the south rattling sabers the Springfield Armory was important. They produced 9,601 rifles in 1860, rising to 276,200 by 1864.
A deep rabbit hole for sure, I learned much more but I've bored you enough.
Oh, and the quality of the newspaper...
Railroad station, at one time 5 railroads passed through town.