The Great 'Old Settler' Debate of 1898
Ritzville's town paper picks a fight over who actually earns the title of 'pioneer' in Adams County.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The idea seems to have gotten into the heads of some of our readers that this paper is opposed to the organization of the old settlers of Adams county. Our publication of a letter from a 'Tenderfoot of '68' raised the simple question: who are pioneers? Now, a 'Pioneer of the '80s' has taken offense, claiming the organization did not originate in the 'sluggish brain of a two-year-old resident.' We maintain that we are not opposed to the organization, but we do object to people posing as old settlers who haven't been away from Missouri long enough to get the chinch bugs out of their socks. It makes a mockery of what is supposed to be a venerable organization to call an eight-year-old resident a pioneer.
“We were opposed to people posing as old settlers who have not been away from Missouri long enough to get the chinch bugs out of their socks.”
Conflicts over 'who belongs' and 'who is a local' are as old as the town itself. Just as the 1898 settlers debated the threshold for pioneer status, modern Ritzville residents continue to grapple with the shifting identity of a town shaped by both multi-generational families and newcomers.
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