I plan on going to the New York Public Library Research Library. They have many old area newspapers that aren't readily accessible anywhere else. I want to peek at a bunch of these and see if any might have had a prolific golf writer. Maybe we'll get lucky and discover a golf architect or two from that area also wrote for a paper, similar to Tilly and Findlay here in some Philadelphia papers.
P.S. I'm more than willing to show any newbies the ropes concerning the digging, at least how I go about it. So, if you've been thinking about researching an early club, maybe your club (!), come join me. Right now the most likely day is Tuesday.