The regular meeting of the society was held on Saturday July 21, with nearly thirty present.
Vice President Greg Monette presided in the absence of President Doyle.
Announcement was made of the $3,000 grant we will receive from the Greater Pulaski Community fund towards the replacement of our heating system.
Review of the County Fair exhibition was given along with reports from the eleven represented towns.
Our facility has seen steady traffic with visits from people in the area as well as across the nation. We are particularly pleased with the spike in membership this year that is bringing us close to 500 paid members! We are the largest historical society in Oswego County by membership, and we credit our genealogical research focus for bringing in so many new members. Our $12 rate is also a great deal!
Sharon Turo, our librarian, has been busy scanning additional photos into our digital collection.
Three nice albums showing candids taken 100 years ago along the Salmon River by Dorothy Moody Barclay are on top of the pile to scan this week.
Thanks to Ambassador and Sara “Dee Dee” Barclay for their continued support with additions to our collection.
Mrs. Barclay has been working for several years at transcribing the family diaries, and is now closing out on the year 1897.
One recent gem she reported is the delivery of lumber from Douglaston Manor to Bethel Corners north of Port Ontario for the construction of a new school.
This matches up precisely with our records that the Bethel School was built in August 1897.
Diaries and journals are so very important to unlocking knowledge of the past and Half-Shire encourages our readers to search their family archives and attics to see what they have.
On the other end of the Shire, former Redfield School students are gearing up for the annual reunion to be held at Half-Shire on Saturday August 18. Fay Ann Colvin has sent out over 200 invitations for the luncheon and reunion open to anyone who ever attended the rural or village schools in Redfield Township. The village school once went K-12 and graduated some 35 students.
Four of the six known living graduates have indicated they may be able to attend along with numerous other students who learned their ABCs in the other rural schools of Redfield.
The Salmon River was raised over the past weekend to support kayak and raft trips. This drained the upper reservoir down to a lower level. If drought conditions persist the trees and foundations of the lost hamlet of Stillwater will be visible again just above the upper dam.
Half-Shire has obtained a few more photos this summer of the farms and lands now under water since 1913.
We’ll be posting some of these, as well as many other interesting photos on our facebook page “Half Shire.”
Half-Shire can be reached at [email protected]
Check out our website at www.halfshire.com, our phone in Richland is 298-2986 and we are open Thursdays through Sundays each week 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
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