The Society held its annual Christmas Open House on Saturday, December 4^th from 1:00 to 3:00. The theme was "The Night Before Christmas," in which we again put an emphasis on families and children. The Pickard House was decorated as if it were a family home at Christmas in the 1920s, with family members actually asleep in their beds. There was a tree in the meeting room with antique decorations, while a display in the Archives focused on the Pedrick family at Christmas. The featured exhibits were provided by highly energetic member, Michelle Benson, who loaned us several of her nativity scenes, including one with a Native American setting, as well as a lighted Victorian village that filled nearly a third of our meeting room. Roberta Comfort, Joyce Schanke, and Donna Marquart assisted in setting up these and other exhibits. Billy Hutton again shared his Victorian wooden fire place frame with a mirror over the mantle as the centerpiece in our Children's Room Christmas display. Frank Farvour set up a new exhibit of the Rush Lake area Native American artifacts that he and Jack Steinbring had collected. Music was provided by Ed Beidron, Maurice Morgan, Dino Zei, and the Ceresco Band. Members brought cookies, including "church windows" by Shirley Williams, a treat that proved so popular that we have put the recipe elsewhere in this newsletter. The turnout for the open house may have been the largest ever, with close to a hundred people coming through the doors in what seemed to be a steady stream.

Dr. Barbara McGowan from Ripon College spoke to the Society at its October meeting on major trends in American presidential elections during the past fifty years. Dr McGowan, a specialist in American political history with particular interest in the presidency, pointed out that over the past four decades presidential elections had become more personal and less party oriented, with candidates now forming their own election or reelection committees to run their own campaigns. She noted, at the same time, that identification with parties was diminishing in the United States as more people were classifying themselves as "independents." Her talk was followed by nearly an hour of discussion sparked by questions from the audience regarding the increasing role of television in elections and the impact of the development of the primary system for selecting candidates. Overall, the talk provided a stimulating and rational historical perspective on elections that was highly welcome in the emotionally charged final week of the campaign.

Our Annual Meeting on November 18^th was highlighted by a program featuring recollections about our Historical Society by George Miller, who spoke about the development of the Society from the late 1950s through the 1970s; Mary Brandt, who talked about the development of the museum and artifacts collection program in the Society after we acquired our two houses; and Frank Farvour, who focused on the more recent effort to raise money for and build the addition to the Pickard House. The program was preceded by our traditional potluck dinner and by a brief business meeting in which the officers for next year were elected.

At its December meeting the Board selected the programs for this spring. In March, Frank Farvour and Bill Woolley will present an adaptation of a learning experience entitled "Tools Though the Ages" that have prepared for fourth grade students. In April our two student interns from last summer will present a program regarding Ripon in World War II. In May, Frank will be back with a special program featuring major houses in Ripon that were built by his grandfather.

In looking for new displays for the Christmas Open house, museum curator Mary Brandt came upon an infant bed that could be attached over a regular bed without taking up any floor space. When the Parfitt family donated the item to the Historical Society some years ago, they also provided pictures of a child sitting and lying (not sleeping!) in the enclosure. Mary assembled and displayed this interesting device with a doll (sleeping) inside as part of the "Night Before Christmas" theme of the open house. Bernice and Martha Parfitt were at the open house and posed for a picture with the display. Bernice claims that she never slept in this bed, but Martha identified herself as the child using the bed in the picture.

New Museum Exhibit to Feature Scouts

The next exhibit at Pickard House will feature Ripon Boy and Girl Scout memorabilia. The display will include uniforms, badges, camping equipment, books and scrapbooks. The scrapbooks bring back memories of earlier events and leadership of scouts in the community. The artifacts in the exhibit came from several Ripon area scouts including Jack Steinbring, who belonged to Troop #37 in the early 1940s; John Craig, who was, first, a Cub Scout in 1935 in his mother’s (Ms. Hal Craig) den and later a Scout under Harold Banville; and Tom Gozinske whose 1960s merit badge requirement books and Boy Scout Handbook are the basis of much of our collection. Most of the artifacts in Girl Scout collection on display belonged to Mildred Schierson and dates from 1931. It includes a song book, Sing Together, which has a 1936 copyright date; a scrapbook started by Ms. Fred Kohl, Sr. prior to 1944 and continued by Ms. Mary Doman, who was the Executive Director from 1944-55. The exhibit is being organized by Michelle Benson, with the help of other volunteers.

For over fifty years, Frank Farvour and John Steinbring collected ancient Indian artifacts in the Rush Lake area. They carefully documented them as they removed them from the soil, logging the information with pen and ink. The collection has been donated to the Ripon Historical Society. A long-term goal of putting the information into a computer database is now in sight. Frank and John have developed the categories. Frank, with volunteers Andy Lyke, Norm Loomer, and Jean Woolley, brainstormed a design for an Access database. Andy, who so ably built the Access database for our obituary index, has taken up this new challenge and is well along in creating the database for the archeology collection. He has already entered data for the 7000 artifacts, which Frank is currently proofing. Once the existing data is finalized, more volunteers will be needed to help Frank to enter new information, such as weight and color (especially color, since Frank is color impaired). If you would like information on how to become involved in this interesting project, contact Frank Farvour at (920) 748-3523.

After consideration and approval by its Board of Directors, the Society has given its collection of shells and parts of marine animal skeletons to the Ripon College Biology Department where they will be of great use to Professor Robert Wallace in his courses. Nothing in the collection was of local origin or pertained to the history of Ripon.

We are finally getting around to cataloguing the Society’s Library. It is not very large and is made up almost entirely of books that have been given to us. Hence it has not been the result of any planning. Nevertheless, it has surprising strength in several areas. About half of it related to the history of Ripon, Fond du Lac County, Green Lake, the State of Wisconsin, or the Middle West. The other half is made up of 19^th and 20^th Century books on various subjects of interest to the people of Ripon during these years. The collection includes etiquette books, home-making guides, cook books, religious tracts, elementary school books, and juvenile literature. If you would like to know how to behave at a Victorian Age garden party, what a mother should have been telling her daughter in the 1890s, or how the young hero of Horatio Alger’s latest novel overcame adversity, we can help. Many of the books are extremely fragile, so we can not allow them to leave the Society, but they can be read at the Society Library under a certain amount of supervision—supervision according to the rules of the 1850s, of course. In charge of the project are Diane Christenson and Charlotte Burr, both of whom are former librarians; Nedra Martz, our Associate Archivist and master of the computer; and George Miller who claims he is old enough to have read most of the books when they first came out. We expect to have the job done before summer.

At the Annual Meeting held on November 18, 2004, the Society elected the following officers for 2005

The Endowment Fund Campaign begun by the Society in November of 2003 was completed this December of 2004. The total amount raised was $88,764.10. Everyone in the Society is greatly pleased with the generosity of donors, many of whom now live outside of Wisconsin but still have fond memories of Ripon. As a result of this campaign, as well as of gains made in our investments, the Society’s endowment has grown by over 50% in the past two years so that by the end of 2004 it stood at $463,123.60. We wish to thank again all the kind contributors to this campaign.

It is with considerable sadness that we report the passing of long-time Society members Lorraine Kimble and Betty Blodgett. Betty Blodgett was a former president of this Society.

We are happy to announce the addition of two new members, Joyce Rudolph, who is volunteering to work in archives and the museum, and Gary Wetzel.

While members brought a tantalizing collection of cookies and other treats for the Christmas Open House, Shirley Williams’ highly colorful "Church Window" cookies drew rave reviews and numerous calls for the recipe. Therefore, we are printing it below.

½ cup butter

1 12 oz. package of chocolate chips

1 cup chopped nuts

1 10 oz. package of colored miniature marshmallows

1 14 oz. package of flaked coconut

Melt butter and chocolate chips over very low heat. Allow to cool slightly. Stir in nuts and marshmallows. Spread coconut on wax paper. Divide mixture into four pieces and shape into logs. Roll each log in coconut, wrap in wax paper and refrigerate for 24 hours until solid. Cut logs into ½ inch slices. Makes four dozen cookies.

Ripon Historical Society

508 Watson Street

Ripon, WI 54971