Elgin Museum and Historical Society’s board of directors has received $4,910 in grant funding from Oregon Heritage to digitize their historic newspaper collection. Museum volunteers Betty Knapp, left, and Phyllis Bechtel on May 31, 2025, display examples of the Elgin Recorder with museum board members and volunteers standing behind them. (Dave Yerges/Contributed Photo)

ELGIN — The Elgin Museum and Historical Society of Elgin has received a $4,910 grant to digitize its collection of the Summerville Annotator, the Elgin Recorder and the Union County Review, covering local news from 1889 through 1981.

The grant was received from Oregon Heritage’s 2025 Oregon Museum Grant Program. Oregon Heritage is the State Historic Preservation Office and part of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

Debra Leslie, Elgin Museum and Historical Society president, said the organization was thrilled to move its “fragile newspaper collection into a digital format that will have search capabilities and be available free to the public, researchers and genealogists through an online database that will be accessible through the museum’s website.”

The process of digitizing the papers will take about six months to complete, she said, and the museum is expecting the digitized newspapers will be accessible to the public by the end of December.

The weekly Summerville Annotator was started on July 19, 1889, by managers J.E. Divine and Mr. Huffman. Its last issue was on Nov. 7, 1890, at which point it was renamed the Summerville Press under new managers, C.D. McDowell and attorney Alexander Meachen. The last issue of the Summerville Press was Feb. 13, 1891.

Mr. G. B. Swinehart and A.R. Tuttle, both of Elgin, purchased the plant and subscription list of the Summerville Press and published their first issue of the Elgin Recorder on Feb. 19, 1891. It was Elgin’s first newspaper, and it was published each Thursday.

The paper passed through several other owners’ hands until finally merging with Eastern Oregon Review to form Union County Review-Recorder.

These early newspapers captured detailed city news, profiles, society news, obituaries and business news not found in other newspapers. The style of journalism found in these publications was often candid, personal and very detailed — everything a researcher seeks to read.

The Elgin Museum and Historical Society will be hiring Advantage Archives of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to do the digitization of the newspapers. The University of Oregon will donate its time to make copies of its microfilm reels to send to Advantage Archives.

“The Elgin Museum and Historical Society would like to thank Oregon Heritage for funding this important preservation project and the University of Oregon for making the copies needed for scanning,” Leslie said.

Upon completion, Advantage Archives will make disks available for both the University of Oregon and the Elgin Museum. The newspapers will then be accessible to the public on the museum’s website as well as the University of Oregon’s website.

“The honor of receiving this grant reaffirms the commitment and mission of the museum to advance in historic preservation of local history through digitization of their collection,” Leslie said.

The museum’s vision includes designing new interactive exhibits, developing special exhibits for children to learn history through hands-on exploration and creating a museum where the public can enjoy regular events and workshops.

To accomplish these goals, the museum needed more space, and now it has an opportunity to purchase the historic US Bank building at 800 Alder St. in Elgin. This building became available for sale in March, and since then, the museum has been running a capital campaign fundraiser for community donations.

For more details about how to become a donor, visit www.elginmuseum.org.