Talk:Windsor Locks, Connecticut

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The profile for The Hartford Courant Newspaper claims to be the oldest newspaper in America. ' The Connecticut Courant began as a weekly on October 29, 1764. The word "courant" was a popular name for English-language newspapers, borrowed from the Dutch. The daily Hartford Courant traces its existence back to the weekly, thereby claiming the title "America's oldest continuously published newspaper"

The profile of Windsor Locks, Ct. claims that the Windsor Locks Journal is the oldest newspaper in Connecticut.

"Connecticuts oldest newspaper resides in Windsor Locks, The Windsor Locks Journal."

Since Windsor Locks is a town in Conneticut this claim can't be correct.

Kitcatt 19:22, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Thank you Kitcatt. I grew up in Windsor Locks and know a great deal of both documented and anecdotal local history. I have never heard the claim that the Windsor Locks Journal is the oldest paper in the state. In fact, since Windsor Locks was not incorporated until 1854, it's highly unlikely that this claim could be true. Before incorporating as Windsor Locks, the town was known as the Pine Meadow section of Windsor. Now, Windsor, being the oldest town in the state, could possibly be home to the oldest community newspaper in the state. But as you've noted, the Hartford Courant has established a pretty solid claim as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the country. Its existence was considered so vital to the Revolutionary cause that when the paper mill that provided the paper for printing the Courant was burned down, it was actually printed on wrapping paper for a brief period of time before the state's legislature authorized a lottery to raise funds to rebuild the paper mill. A truly remarkable action undertaken in one of the most Puritan of the original colonies. I will look into the question of which community newspaper is the oldest in Connecticut so that we can edit the reference accordingly in the article.

hdonagher 11:02, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Further research reveals that the Windsor Locks Journal does appear to be the oldest -- what the classification might be escapes me, community newspaper? -- still in publication in the state. The source for this is a web page detailing the results of an effort to microfilm all existing back issues of local Connecticut newspapers. [Newspaper Project]. The project report is concerned with documenting the effort to capture these periodicals to microfilm, and not to discuss history or record-setting. No explicit statement is made in this report to settle this question for us. However, my anaylsis of the underlying data presented in the report suggests that the Windsor Locks Journal, having commenced publication in 1870, continuing through present day, is the oldest, continuously published local newspaper in the state. Others commenced publication earlier, but have ceased to exist. It's possible that some that commenced earlier ceased to exist and then were resurrected at some point, but none seems to have the continuous history of the WLJ indicated in thie report. A query to the editors of the WLJ remains unanswered and I am not optimistic about hearing back from them, since the unfortunate reality is that this paper is now published by an out-of-town firm with little concern about anything other than advertising revenue. A query to the WL Historical Society and/or Mickey Danyluk may be in order. For now, I"m going change the language to read "local weekly". hdonagher 23:28, 25 August 2007 (UTC)