Charlie Snygg's Genealogy Web Project © - Magnet, Nebraska

Selected Local News Items from
"The Magnet Mail" (Aug. 1909 ... Oct. 1914)
Magnet, Cedar Co., Nebraska

This web site is under construction

Table of Contents:
  1. Issues on Microfilm
  2. Issues on this Web Site
  3. Current Work
  4. Copyright Notice

  1. Births and Birthdays
  2. Marriages and Anniversaries
  3. Deaths
  4. Surnames
  5. Place Names
  1. Web Site Purpose
  2. Spelling and Missing Words
  3. More Notes
  4. References and Credits
  5. HTML "Frames" option ... pros & cons
  6. Your Input

September 11, 2001

The place for us, each of us is right where we are now. That is our battlefield. That is where we must fight it out and make good. We must not ask to be transplanted to some other salubrious time or to be surrounded by ideal conditions, we must take things as they are, right now around us, and get our happiness from them.
[Magnet Mail, April 28, 1910 ... one word changed]

How items were selected and transcribed:

The primary purpose of this web site is to make news from THE MAGNET MAIL about the comings and goings of the citizens of Magnet and other communities in northeastern Nebraska available to genealogists. The selected items will include notes of birth, marriage, travel, education, accident, injury, illness, death and social events as well as real estate transfers. A secondary purpose will be to provide other researchers with the market prices of corn and hogs, etc.

In the first edition of these web pages I will try to include all of the "players" and a little bit more. In particular, I will provide:

  • "full text" from items about my relatives in the Bailey, Snygg and Woolston families,
  • from "partial" to "full text" from items about births, marriages, moves, illnesses, and deaths, and
  • from "just names" to "full text" from all other local items. (These items mention people who have gone visiting or had visitors, sent hogs to market, bought land, etc.)
  • any other item that strikes my fancy.

In later editions I will try to provide complete text for all of the above items.

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Spellings and Missing Words:

The reader needs to be cautioned that J. C. Moore, the editor of the early issues in this collection, used several spellings for a given family name. Examples include Crinklaw/Krinklaw and Hathaway/Hatheway. In each such case I have tried to remain faithful to the paper's spelling.

In rendering proper names, Moore often introduced a blank after "La", "Mc" or "Mac" which I have taken the liberty of removing.

In some cases I have had trouble distinguishing between "C" and "G". As a consequence, "Corton" appears here where the editor may have actually rendered "Gorton", etc.

In some cases a "u" appears where an "n" should be. Maybe the character was inserted upside down. I confess that I have not treated such cases consistently.

The quality of the microfilm copy is not uniform. Near the edges of many pages, the copy is overexposed. In the case of extended wedding items, I replaced obscured text with phraseology which always appeared in other wedding descriptions.

Items, such as the Real Estate Transfers, are printed in smaller font and some entries are very difficult to decipher. It would be an overwhelming task to enumerate the dubious spellings I rendered in the Real Estate Transfers sections.

There are cases in which I believe there are missing words or missing letters. In such cases, I have supplied, what I believe to be, corrections between the square brackets "[" and "]".

In other cases, where I believe that there are too many letters or the wrong letters, I have inserted a small asterix (*) immediately after the word. I hope the reader will find * less distracting than the usual "sic". In place of the word "baby", I believe the editor is intentionally using a warm hearted "bebe". I have chosen not to indicate such cases with a *.

I any case, I try to assure the reader that the transcribed word is not my "typo" and yet the reader can still make out what actually appeared in the paper. (See the Release Notes to track my progress on this effort.)

A extensive list of spelling variations seen in the MAGNET MAIL has been prepared.

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More Notes:

Additional material about Magnet by J. C. Moore appears, beginning on page 6, in the: CENTENNIAL HISTORY BOOK (see references).

For people who want to look at The Magnet Mail:

  • the Mail is usually published on Thursdays,
  • the pages are unnumbered,
  • local news (usually):
    • appears in larger font size,
    • starts on pages 1, 2, or 3, and
    • continues on an "overflow" page one or more pages later.
  • on these web pages:
    • page "1" will refer to the first page of local news
    • page "2" will refer to the second ("overflow") page of local news

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Copyright Notice and Acceptable Use Policy:

© 2001, Charles Snygg

All materials contained on these Magnet Mail transcription pages are furnished for the free use of individuals researching their family origins. While care has been taken in transcribing text from the Magnet Mail to this web site, accuracy and completeness are not guaranteed. Any commercial use, print or electronic publication, or posting of this material on any other website without the prior written consent of Charles Snygg is prohibited. Copies of any of these Magnet Mail transcription pages must contain this copyright and disclaimer notice.

Information on copyrights from USGenWeb.

Information on our host's acceptable use policies, from Yahoo!/GeoCities.

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References and Credits:

(each link in this section will open a new window)

  • Reference: issues of The Magnet Mail from August 19, 1909 to October 8, 1914 appear on microfilm available for loan from the

    Nebraska State Historical Society
    P.O. Box 82554
    Lincoln, NE 68501-2554
    1-800-833-6747

  • Reference: counties associated with place names mentioned in The Magnet Mail were located at the following web sites:
  • References: geneology sites
  • Reference: Shirley Dawson's brief history of Magnet.
  • Reference: CENTENNIAL HISTORY BOOK, Published by the Magnet Centennial Committee. Copyright Pending @ 1992. Printed ... by The Crofton Journal, Kevin J. and Leona M. Henseler, Crofton, Nebraska and Walsworth Publishing Co., Inc., Marceline, Missouri. To Order a Copy of this Book, contact Maxine Thierolf, Box 44, Magnet, NE 68749.

  • Credit: to Justin Masters, whose Burt County Oakland Independent example motivated me to get involved in this project. (Justin has not only transcribed portions of the Oakland Independent, but he has also coded the entries for ease of use in genealogical research. This is more than I intend to do.)

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HTML "Frames" option:

For my personal amusement and education, I have implemented a "frames" version of this web site. I hesitate to invite you to try it. Please consider the following:

  • PROS:
    • it is easier to get to items published on a given date;
    • it has color; and
    • if you follow the right link, it will launch a new window dumping you out of the "frames" window.
  • CONS:
    • your browser may not be set to handle frames;
    • this is my first effort and you might get frustrated using it;
    • you cannot use the windows toolbar search/find option to locate (say) a family name in the text files;
    • if you follow the wrong link, it will launch a new window dumping you out of the "frames" window.

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Your Input:

Please e-mail me at the address below if you find typos, have suggestions, want a particular item fleshed out, or just want to say hi.

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