Focus on the present, ever conscious of the past

The Lakeville Journal ends its birthday celebration this week with the rest of publisher emeritus Robert H. Estabrook’s survey (Page A3) of the newspaper’s transition into the modern technical age and its continued commitment to solid news reporting.

While editors and reporters who put together each week’s issue seldom have it at the tops of their minds, they are fully aware the newspaper serves a secondary role as a living history of the community. Accuracy is important to future geneologists and local historians who will scan its pages. Illustrative of the point, to profile the ironmaking Miles family of Salisbury this week, Associate Editor Bernard A. Drew visited five area libraries and sifted through dozens of back issues of weekly papers. The Lakeville Journal provided key information on William A. Miles and his activities, as you will see on Page B4. Karen Dubray, The Journal’s print shop manager, expanded on the coverage with photos (Page B5) she took in 2004 at Copake Iron Works.

You’ll get a further dose of iron this week in reporter Karen Bartomioli’s Page B1 account of the 10th annual Blackberry River Walk at Beckley Furnace in North Canaan — and a train carload of new historical information uncovered by Journal contributor Dick Paddock — old newspapers one of his main sources!