:::: NEWSLETTER::::: 

STOUGHTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOUNDED 1895

(Regular meetings third Monday at 7:30 PM) 

**************************************

Volume V, Number 9  - October 1974

**************************************

ATTENDANCE at our opening meeting in September was extremely gratifying. A capacity audience was present for John Stiles' showing of slides of Stoughton fires. Also seen were views of the May pilgrimage to the Old Colony Historical Society museum in Taunton. A number of guests were with us at this meeting, some joining us before the evening ended. Hospitality hostesses were Esther Hill and Hazel Kelleher with additional assistance from some of our gentlemen,

THE REACTION to the paneling of the front wall of the auditorium was favorable and was some compensation for members of the twice-weekly work party. The picture molding installed at the top of the panels was shaped with a block plane once used in building the Belcher mansion. Drawing compliments, also, were the displays in both the Clapp and Pierce Rooms where much of the woodwork has received a new coat of varnish this stunner. The displays were arranged by Angie McEachern and Marie Sheehan.

THE WORK PARTY has been diminished greatly with the hospitalization of Ted Graham. Until his complete recovery we will need three ambitious people to replace him. Work parties meet on Thursday evenings at seven and Sunday mornings at ten for two hours. At present the age span of our workers is from the teens into the sixties.

A FINE RESPONSE to our recent reminder concerning dues is reported by Frances Podgurski, Membership Secretary. Your payment, if now overdue, may be made by mail to Frannie at 168 West Street. And, while the subject is money, let us remind you that the money maker sent in June should be returned; and birthday bags are always welcomed. For the information of newer members: the "birthday bags" are those colorful bags which you can pick up at the front desk and are used to hold odd bits of change which you put in whenever the spirit moves you. All money is deposited in our general treasury with amounts from some sources being earmarked for specific purposes.

RECENT GIFTS of artifacts and services; Kimball School class photos from Mrs. Kenneth Churchill; further resource material from Carl Smith; a fine chair came from the estate of Harold Drown through the courtesy of Gus Winroth, who completely refinished it before presentation; Charlie Vermoskie has refinished (restored, actually) the Capen portrait of Lucius Clapp now hanging in the Clapp Room; copies of the "Semaphore", dated 1925 and 1926, a dolls trunk of yesteryear, and two leaded stained glass cathedral-style windows salvaged from the J.W. Wood home on Capen Street have come to us from Leona Teed; Hiram Fuller, a previous donor from Foxboro, has sent along some welcome additions for our use.

"Slips That Pass in the Type": one quite active trustee was omitted from the list of officers last month. He is our newest member of the board, Ed Podgurski. Ye ol1 Ed apologizes.

OUR GUEST SPEAKER at the October meeting on the 21st will ha an officer in the local fire department. This being fire prevention month. The subject will be Our Town Fire Department's history.

THIS MONTH IS APPLE MONTH, too, and this year is Johnny Appleseed's bicentennial. Johnny Appleseed was a real living person. His name was John Chapman and he was a native of Leominster, Massachusetts; born September 26, 1774. In his early twenties he traveled to the frontier country of Pennsylvania and westward through the Ohio valley. For nearly fifty years, John Chapman, a deeply religious man, helped America grow up. He was a nurseryman with a love for apples and he planted and tended thousands of apple trees to be sold, traded, bartered and given away to the frontier fanners throughout that part of the country which is now Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. At the age of 71, Johnny Appleseed died near Fort Wayne, Indiana, after a fifty-year odyssey serving his fellow man. John Chapman had become a living legend in American folklore.

ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON, January 5, we are planning a formal opening, with the public invited, of our museum rooms. A group of ten members is already preparing for the event but more folks are needed for this important day in Our Town. Refreshments will be served (we need hostesses), displays will be explained (we need guides), some items will be sold (we need cashiers), a good time will be had by all (we need YOU). For worry-free planning we need you NOW. Please respond.

BRAIDED RUGS are needed for a few locations in our rooms. Medium sizes are desired: four-by-six-feet (and slightly larger or smaller). Needed, also, is another portable typewriter ... on loan, if you wish ... for the continuing work on our filing and cataloging.

OUR SERVICE to the community includes receiving groups and conducting them on tours of the Society's home in the Lucius Clapp Memorial. We will shortly be hosts to another troop of Girl Scouts and some groups from the middle grades in the public school system.

NEXT MEETING: October 21 at 7:30 in the Lucius Clapp Memorial.

 

                   Search more Stoughton Historical Society Newsletters

Back to the main page of www.StoughtonHistory.com