For the past ten years I have been extracting newspaper files from both Montgomery and Polk County newspapers. These files are to be published in book form.
However, I thought I would share a few pages with you and get your comments about the need for a book like this.
I have abstracted every single paper available for Womble/Norman, and many Mount Ida papers. Also I have over 1,000 pages finished for The Mena Star in Polk County. There is a lot of Montgomery County news in this paper, as well as obits. Many of the people along Highway 8, from Big Fork to Glenwood, were transplants from Polk County. Oden and Pine Ridge people also did business in Mena. And, during the cotton growing era, many people took their cotton to Mena to sell. Mena was home to the only railroad, besides the one that came into Womble in 1907. The Kansas City Southern (formerly the Kansas, Pittsburg & Gulf) came into (and founded) the town of Mena in 1896.
The Mena Star has been printed continuously since 1896, and all copies are available on microfilm.
See below for the list of newspapers available for both counties. Unfortunately, the Montgomery County office burned and left a void in this county. Womble papers were absorbed into the Montgomery County papers, and only scattered issues survive. Check the list below.
Shirley Shewmake Manning
