Editor’s note:

In conjunction with our new weekend edition of The Baldwin Times, we are introducing “Baldwin Times Flashback.” Each week in this new feature we will present glimpses of what Baldwin County readers perused in the publication’s early days, which date back to the late 19th century.

We hope you enjoy this new addition to The Times, and we look forward to receiving your feedback.

This week in 1895, The Baldwin Times was published in Daphne. A subscription to the weekly paper was $1 per year or 50 cents for six months.

   Advertising in The Times consisted mostly of merchants from Mobile. Among them were A.M. Bright’s Groceries, the Mobile Furniture Commission, Reed the Photographer, Dreaper and Burns Clothier and Ryan’s Mammoth Variety Store.

   However, national companies also hawked their wares in the four-page publication. They included Quaker City Baking Powder, New Home Sewing Machine, Brown Iron Bitters cure all, Marlin Repeating Rifles, Winchester Rifles and the Purry Manufacturing Company buggy maker.

According to the Times Market Report, eggs sold for 10 cents a dozen, butter went for 10 cents a pound, and garlic was available for 75 cents a string. Potatoes could be purchased for $2.25 a barrel, and for $5.25 you could get a barrel of apples. How about some sauerkraut, which went for $6.50 a barrel? Or cabbage, which sold for $3.25 per barrel?

Headlines on the front page of The Baldwin Times for this week 115 years ago combined reporting with opining. The main article appeared to be a letter to the editor from Tar Heel, who commented on the 53rd Congress.

“The action of the 53rd Congress was like Nero fiddling while his capital burned,” Tar Heel wrote. “If I should find a man in the wilds of Africa bowing down to a stuffed toad or a dried snake, I would raise my hat as a tribute of respect, not to his judgment, but to his honesty.”

Also on the front page, the Southern Agriculturist touted the merits of the potato as the crop of choice in the South.

“The average value of the sweet and Irish potato crops for the past 12 years in Alabama has been $61 per acre,” the Southern Agriculturist penned. “This fact proves that potatoes pay four to eight times more than cotton.”

It seems that birding was big in Baldwin County in the late 19th century as the column “Ornithology, an Interesting Study” by R.K. Slosson also graced the front page of The Baldwin Times. The article listed the characteristics of such winged creatures as the buzzard, sand hill crane, pelican, wild turkey and the mocking bird.

“Of singing birds of good repute we have the celebrated mocking bird that rises with the European lark in the sweetness of its notes,” Slosson wrote.

The remainder of the 1895 publication followed that same formula of combining news and editorializing. An example is an article that negated a previous report stating that gold had been discovered in Mobile earlier that month.

“The finding of that pot of gold in Mobile last week seems to have been a fake,” the article stated. “Any theatrical troupes or circus in need of an enterprising advance agent would do well to employ this young man who originated that joke.”

Local goings on were peppered throughout The Times. An example was the report of a Daphne social event.

“An ice cream supper was given in honor of the Montgomery Hill doctors — Feist, Holmes and Lambert,” the article stated. “Several of the Stockton young ladies graced the occasion by being present.”

The state of the locals in Bay Minette was also reported.

“Kenneth Bague had the good fortune to receive a small bottle of Chambelains Colic, Cholera and Diarrhea Remedy when three members of his family were sick with dysentery,” the article stated.

What is now First Baptist Church of Bay Minette also made the August 1895 edition.

“In Bay Minette, work on the new Baptist church progresses, although it won’t be ready for the Associational Meeting,” an article stated.

Of course, national and international concerns were also reported. Just as today, the hot button issue revolved around the national economy as The Times reported that the U.S. Treasury was drawing gold from its reserves, which had bonds issued against them. Additionally, a national debate was reported over whether to implement the use of silver in American currency.

Immigration was also an issue in the 19th century. But in Baldwin County it seemed to have been appreciated as an article in The Times credits immigration with the county’s population increase.

“The few croakers who oppose immigration might just as well take a back seat,” the article stated. “This is an age of progress. The world moves, and we must move with it.”

The fate of Cuba was much different than it is today, as The Times reported the country to be fighting for independence from Spain.

“Opinion has to be general that it is now only a matter of time when Cuba will again be independent,” the August 1895 publication stated.

Check back next week for another glimpse at The Baldwin Times of yesteryear.