From 9000 Bemis’ to Hillside Cemetery
About forty people attended the September 15 program, a lively presentation by Clarence and Diane Bemis of their continuing genealogical odyssey as they trace the descendents of Joseph Bemis (over 9000 counted so far) throughout the United States. Their interest and enthusiasm for their research led them to their volunteer work for the Ripon Historical Society. They are documenting and photographing graves in Ripon’s Hillside Cemetery so that other families will have a way to locate their ancestors. While we enjoyed refreshments, we had an opportunity to study a large map of the cemetery, peruse books of documentation and photographs, and engage in more discussion with the Bemis’ about their work.
John Porter to Discuss Renovation and Restoration of Odd Fellows Hall at October Meeting
The October program meeting of the Society will feature a presentation by John Porter on how he has been renovating and restoring the old Odd Fellows Hall that will now be the corporate headquarters for Tracy Porter Co. The Porters were delighted to acquire the Hall and have been careful in its renovation to maintain the historical integrity of the outer structure. The program will include pictures of the work as it was being done. The Porters have already found a box of records of the Odd Fellows organization that they have donated to the Society. The meeting will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday evening, October 20th.
November Program to Focus on Society’s Genealogy Resources
The Bemis’ program in September proved so popular and generated so many telephone calls for more information that the Board decided to ask them to return as part of the program for our Annual Meeting in November. The program for this meeting will focus on how people can get started on doing their own family history and on the resources available at the Society for helping them with such projects.
Christmas Open House Planned
This year’s Christmas Open House will be held from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 3rd at the Pickard House, 524 Watson. As before, we have scheduled our Open House to be part of Ripon’s “Dickens of a Christmas” celebration. The theme at the Open House this year will again be “The Night Before Christmas.” As part of our exhibit plans we are inviting all members to lend us a favorite childhood doll or small stuffed toy to be part of an exhibit of children’s toys from the past. And, again, there will be both festive music and festive refreshments available.
Museum Opens Two Exhibits of Women’s and Children’s clothing
Michelle Benson and Joyce Rudolph have mounted two museum exhibits for this fall. The first, in the front room of Pickard House, is an exhibit of women’s hats and clothing accessories. The exhibit includes several dresses as well as a number of hats and other items representing women’s attire during several different periods in Ripon’s history. Viewing the exhibit one can imagine what people walking through Ripon in our past would have looked like. The second, in the Children’s Room, features children’s undergarments from the past. Society members attending our October and November meetings should greatly enjoy both exhibits.
Books on Wisconsin Women will be Focus of Library Display at Society
The Society is joining the celebration of Archives Week (October 16th through 22nd) with a display of books related to both Ripon women and Wisconsin women from our Society Library. The theme for Archives Week this year is Women in America.
Bonnie Brooks Completes Obituary Project
For nearly three months Bonnie Brooks has been working almost daily photocopying obituaries we have held in our collection to preserve them and make them more accessible to the public. “I probably worked more slowly than I should,” said Bonnie, “because the articles and the people involved were so interesting that I read them all.” The work on creating a computer-based index of all Ripon-related obituaries appearing in either Ripon or Oshkosh papers continues. The index now contains over 6,200 entries. Obituaries are one of the most important sources of information for genealogists.
Financial Advisory Board Created
Your Board of Directors recently decided to create a Financial Advisory Board made up of Society members with some expertise in investments to review our investment program and make suggestions. Members of the Board are Jeff Bumby, Gordon Minch, Frank Farvour, and Ralph Quinney. Currently, our endowment is managed by M&I bank. The Financial Advisory Board will review the program set up by the Bank and offer any suggestions they might have that would alter the program to better fit our needs.
Local History Council Meets at Richfield
The East Central Wisconsin Council for Local History held its annual meeting at Richfield this year on August 6th. George Miller and Mary Brandt attended, representing our Society. The program at the meeting included reports on the efforts of the Richfield Society to restore a local lumber mill and on their educational outreach program. The East Central Wisconsin Council includes forty three local history societies in an area stretching from just north of Milwaukee north to include Berlin. Markesan will be hosting next years meeting.
Lawson House to Get New Roof
The metal roof on the Lawson House has gotten so old that Ralph Quinney, our Buildings Maintenance Supervisor, strongly recommended that it be replaced before it begins to leak or causes a serious accident. Therefore, the Board decided to have the roof replaced this fall. The new roof will have the same ribbed appearance as the old so that the historical integrity of the building will be preserved. Work on the new roof will begin this month and should be finished in November. The cost will be nearly $16,500. Since this cost can not be met out of our annual operating budget, the Board voted to authorize the Treasurer to withdraw funds from the endowment to cover the expense. If any member can help us with the cost of this roof it will be greatly appreciated since we depend on the endowment to cover our operating costs and are reluctant to draw on it for other purposes.
Meet Our Volunteers: Karin Hanisch
Middle school student Karin Hanisch donated many hours of her summer vacation toward moving the Historical Society’s archeology project forward. She met with both Frank Farvour and Andy Lyke to learn the history and scope of the project. Her first task was to edit over 7000 preliminary entries in the Access database that Andy developed earlier this year. An article in the Historical Society’s February newsletter described the creation of the database and outlined work still to be done. Using archeological tools and nomenclature, Karin and Frank have classified over 1500 of the 7000 Rush Lake artifacts in the collection according to weight, measurements, and color, and Karin has worked at home to enter the data into the Access database.
Though she was born in Lansing, Michigan, Karin has lived in Ripon since she was a year old. Her family has been here for several generations. She’s the daughter of Julie Mielka. Her grandparents were Florence and Nelson Meilka. Nelson was the purchasing agent at Rippin Good Cookies for many years. Her great-grandfather, Charlie Meilka, was a carpenter in the Ripon area.
Now that Karin is back in school, she’ll have less time to spend on the Historical Society project. She is involved in cross country this fall and will be in track in the spring. She’s in forensics, plays French horn in the school band and guitar outside of school, swims competitively for the Ripon Community Swim Club, and loves reading and participating in physical activities. Since science is a favorite subject, the archeology project has a lot of appeal for Karin, and she plans to continue with it as free time becomes available.
Membership
Please join us in welcoming the following new members to our Society:
Don and Oleen Amsden
Larry Crane
Karin Hanisch
Kyoko Schatzke
Kathryn Wild
We are saddened to report the passing of long-time member Edward Beuthin. Edward’s memory is represented by his watercolor painting of the Northwest Railroad Station that hangs on the north wall of the meeting room.
Officers Nominated for Next Year
Elections of officers for next year will take place at the Annual Meeting of the Society on Thursday, November 17th, at 7:00 p.m. at the Pickard House, 524 Watson. The Nominating Committee is recommending the following slate of officers:
|
President |
Todd Berens |
|
Vice President |
Michelle Benson |
|
Secretary |
Shirley Williams |
|
Treasurer |
Bill Woolley |
Our present Treasurer, Harry Heileman, will be leaving office and service on the Board at the end of this year. Harry has been an outstanding Treasurer. He has been a meticulous accountant and he reorganized the budgeting system and the Treasurer’s reports in ways that have helped the Board understand our financial situation at all times. He will be very much missed.
A Correction and an Apology
In our last edition, in the story of our Summer Open House, we incorrectly stated that music was provided by the Ceresco Prairie Band. In fact, music was provided by a band made up of Dino Zei, Ed Biedron, and Maurice Morgan. The latter group has performed at most of our open houses and we apologize for the confusion over names.
President’s Corner
This will be the last issue of the Newsletter to be published while I have been President of this Society. While I understand that all organizations need to refresh their leadership from time to time, I will still be leaving the office with some sadness. The Society has been a wonderful organization to work with and the Presidency has given me a box seat from which to view it at work. I will be a bit sorry to give up that seat.
Looking back over the past three years one can not help but be impressed at the accomplishments of this Society. There are too many of them to list in this short column. If, instead, I were to try to provide a general characterization of this past three years, I would say that it was a time of “dynamic consolidation” for the society. The two most important factors pushing us forward have been the addition to the Pickard House, now over five years old, that finally gave us the room to do the jobs needed to be done and the gradual introduction of the computer into the way we do our jobs. The new facility has not only given us a generous-sized meeting room, but has provided space for our library, our archives, our archeology collection, and—most important—space for our volunteers to work. That work has generally been the ongoing one of organizing and cataloguing holdings of artifacts, archival records, library books, and genealogic sources. Much of this cataloguing is now being made part of computer databases that will make our holdings far more accessible to researchers. We are also now present with a website on the Internet and through it are serving an audience that is nationwide.
Along with all this, there have been other achievements as well. With the generous support of donors and some help from the stock market, we have nearly doubled our endowment. Most important, we have significantly increased the size of our corps of active volunteers. Activities that were once carried out in great loneliness by one person are now increasingly undertaken by small staffs of congenial volunteers. Beyond that, we have nearly two dozen members in the community willing to serve as on-call docents when needed.
It would be tempting for a president to claim credit for all of this, but, in truth, most of this would have happened no matter who was president. The Ripon Historical Society is a smoothly functioning anarchy where, with almost no direction from above, volunteers see projects that interest them and are of value to the society and then carry them out with diligence. As a result, progress takes place along a broad front. In all this, the president is left with the happy tasks of encouraging, recognizing, and applauding. I have been able to do a lot of that from my privileged box seat in the past three years and expect to do more as a regular member in the future. Bill Woolley
Ripon Historical Society
508 Watson Street
Ripon, WI 54971
(920) 748-5354