… WHAT you’re going to find in these old town history books.  I mean, just LOOK at this stuff:

And this is just one page from the General Index of one volume!  So many topics, so little time… What’s a cartoonist to do?
Let’s put a little check mark next to all the items that might have some stories attached:

Actually, ALL of them look pretty interesting… I mean, the “spotted fever” epidemic was HUGE news back in the early 1800s…

And then… there it was, right between the TORTOISE and the TOWEL-RACKS:

Who says history is dull?