East Hampton Public Library has put online a searchable archive of The East Hampton News

[BellToyBoy]

The East Hampton Public Library has put online a searchable archive of The East Hampton News. For anyone researching anything about East Hampton this is a treasure chest of information!  I posted a note on their web site trying to find out who to thank. The librarian there said it was a collaborative effort between the East Hampton Public Library and the Connecticut State Library. I can't say thanks enough.

Being able to unlock this treasure chest from my remote location is a blessing. Being able to search through the documents using keywords makes finding something relevant so much easier, and now, being able to copy and paste text from these documents speeds up the former laborious task of typing everything in.

The East Hampton News archive goes back to 1887 and covers the years up to 1956. This is short of the start of bell toy making in East Hampton by a few decades and shy of the end of bell toy making in East Hampton by a few years. There are numerous articles on the history of the bell toy making firms as well as small snippets of information such as someone getting hurt working the press on her first day of work.

From this source I've added so much to my history of the N. N. Hill Brass Company, Gong Bell Mfg. Company, Watrous Manufacturing Co., the Joel Perkins and John L. Watrous partnership, Bevin Bros., & Starr Bros.. I've also started searching based on the names of the people involved in the bell toy making. Elijah Barton, etc...

Personal information found in the interviews give so much more life to the story of bell toy making long ago. Without the details in these articles the history would be a more boring and less complete story. 

     Here's a link to The East Hampton News search:

http://easthampton.advantage-preservation.com/

     Here's where to go to thank the people that worked on this project:

https://www.facebook.com/100009100063321/activity/1383543998625589?...