STOUGHTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOUNDED 1895

Volume II, Number -  10 - November 1971

TWO DATES TO REMEMBER:. . .Our own regular meeting to be held on November 15th. At this meeting the feature will be "Antique Highlights", presented by our Curator-Historian Gus Winroth assisted ably by Mr. Arthur Lewis of the Easton Historical Society. AND. . .our entire body has been extended an invitation to join with the Easton Historical Society on November 17 to hear our President, Mrs. Phyllis Batchelder, present her program titled "Prehistoric Indians of This Area". There will be refreshments at both meetings; so please make an attempt to attend and receive sustenance for both mind and body. Note that these meetings fall in the same week.

CORRECTION. . .ye ol' Ed is no kid and clearly recalls GREEN'S Fruit Store in the square. The donation from the Ceruti family, though incorrectly identified in the last Newsletter, is no less appreciated. It was gratifying to some extent to learn through the quick response in regard to the error that our members are really reading the Newsletter. 'Tis an ill wind. . .

DONATIONS in October came from Miss Ruth Burnham who presented us with copies of the 1963 Reception Program for Rev. Fr. Gunn, John Flynn's 1956 chronology of our Town, a picture of the 1901 Knights of Pythias picnic, and a picture of Stoughton's 1916 National Guard Unit; also given as a 1908 Souvenir Program complete with dinner menu. Mrs. Bernice Handy gave a 1909 Primer on Abraham Lincoln; and from Mrs. Eldora Hinds gave a gift of the invitation to an exhibition of F. Mortimer Lamb's and Mr. Charles Vermoskie's paintings.

GREAT APPRECIATION is due Chet Cohenno, .".coal photographer with a fine talent, for the very interesting illustrated program filled with nostalgia and beauty which we enjoyed so much in October. He has offered to return and his offer is gratefully accepted.

OUR HOSPITALITY HOSTESSES, Katherine Leahy, Frances Podgurski and Eva Graham served a grand assortment of delicious refreshments from an attractive table decorated in the Hallowe'en motif. Left-overs (because there was such an abundance of goodies) were sold alter the meeting, with the proceeds, going into the Birthday Kitty which had already been swelled by the addition of the contents of Birthday Bags. (Editor's note: keep refilling and bringing THE bags.)

GUESTS present were Howard Hansen and Rose Proule. We hope to welcome them again as members.

AN AMENDMENT to the By-Laws was presented by Gus Winroth, seconded and passed unanimously, to change Section 2 of Article IV, As amended, this section will now read "Regular meetings of the Society shall be held on the first Monday in the month except the months of June, July and August." "^his, in effect, will make our first meeting of each season come in September rather than October.

SOME DOUBT and debate arose at the last meeting as to the location of Chemung Hall. It was only a stone's throw away...in the vestry of the Universalist Church. In 1848, at a cost of $1,500, the upper portion of the Church was remodeled as a sanctuary while the lower floor became the public hall. Our thanks to Frank W. Reynolds for researching the above information. This is one way in which facts in our Town's history are ferreted out.

WHAT IS HISTORY? What is history and where is it found?? Not in books only, written for classrooms, to be plowed through for homework. History is everywhere, the record of life, the record of men and women who were dreamers and scoundrels, heroes and wretches, the lazy and earnest, the dejected and laughing. It is written in diaries and newspapers, now yellowed and dry. It was drawn onto maps by surveyors and sent back as dispatches by scouts to the settlements. History is stories told by old men as they whittle and songs as their women folk sing them. It is found in a horseshoe nailed over the door of a barn, long since rotted and lost. Then, too, in a graveyard where the little stones tell their stories of hard winters, epidemics, fevers and wilderness childbirth.

The record is endless - but eyes must be sharpened to read it: to read in the columns of one of our houses a love of the Greeks and the Romans, or in a crumbling milestone the long panorama of travel, an Indian runner on a woods path to a thruway for six lanes of traffic at 7 0 miles an hour. There is history in chimneys and ox yokes, in grange halls and trolley cars, in the sharp sayings of old folks and in shoes tied to the car of the bride and groom. There is history in baseballs and goal posts, in holly and old Boston rockers, in fish hooks and the blue and white quilt hidden away in the attic.

History is everyman's story, the road along which man came. Seek it where ever you are, striking down roots that will strengthen and nourish you. For only then do we keep perspective, only then can we steady our aim. (Louis C. Jones, in the "American Farm and Home Almanac", 1971.)

                   Search more Stoughton Historical Society Newsletters

Back to the main page of www.StoughtonHistory.com