Remember The St. Albans Leader & Swanton Courier

Some of you older people may remember the weekly newspapers, The St. Albans Leader and The Swanton Courier, which later became what is now The Franklin County Courier. Back in those days, local people, women usually, wrote a column for the town. Now, this usually wasn't big news, but it sure kept you up to date on what your friends and neighbors were doing. Travel in those early years wasn't like it is today and you might see where someone took a shopping trip to Burlington or someone was visiting someone in town. Funerals, well that usually covered the names of all the people from out of town that attended. The Swanton Courier is the one that I remember the most, but can't remember who may have written for it. I do know that both my mother-in-law Kay Hoben and my wife Maryann both wrote for the Suburban List out of Essex, which was another weekly newspaper.

I am pretty sure that The Swanton Courier is on Microfiche at the Vermont State Library in Montpelier as well as The St. Albans Messenger - Don't know about the others, so if you have an idea of the timeline you are looking for, you can actually look through some of these old newspapers.

Well, now, The Franklin County's County Courier up for sale. Its a real nice little weekly newspaper and I have met Jed Kettler who has been to Fairfax a number of time to write articles for the paper as well as take photos. He came over quite a few times during the 100th anniversary celebration. He actually shared quite a few of the photos he took.

Below is an article from yesterday's St. Albans Messenger about the paper being up for sale:

ENOSBURG FALLS — A.M. DubHier, publisher and owner of The County Courier, a weekly Franklin County newspaper, has announced the publication is for sale
Dubilier has owned and operated the Enosburg Falls-based paper for nearly 16 years.

"It's just time," she said in an announcement placed on the front page of the newspaper last week. "I've been at this for a while now, and I just feel that it's time to move into another chapter of my life."

According to the newspaper article, The County Courier has been in existence since 1878, and printed in a variety of incarnations. At one point, the paper existed as The Richford Journal Gazette, The Enosburg Standard, The St. Albans Leader, and The Swanton Courier, before merging into The Franklin County Courier.

In an editorial published in the same issue, Dubilier wrote, "Looking at this finite piece of time, I know there are parts of me I need to reclaim, things I still need to explore and try to do while I still can. It's time to pass the baton."

Courier Editor Ethan Dezotelle, also writing in the newspaper, did not speculate on the weekly's future. He praised Dubilier for her dedication to the paper and its commitment to its readers, adding, "So what happens once the baton is passed? Who knows?... we'll have to wait and see. Between now and then, though, it's business as usual."