In a message dated 3/16/04 12:03:21 PM, VTBENNIN-D-request@rootsweb.com writes: << The first page of the paper (not copied, nor going to be) is dated September 16th, 1886. I cannot for the life of me figure out why it was kept. There does not seem to be anything particularly noteworthy about it. >> It may have been kept as a souvenir, being the day's newspaper for the day of a family event NOT reported on. For example, I've kept the daily paper from the 1980s and 1990s from each of my kids' days of birth. Frannie