Newsletter - Fall 2015

Museum Memoirs
Volume 3, Issue 3
Fall 2015

The Cowley County Historical Society

Happenings
Our Vendors on the Grounds event was a success! Cheri & Walt Nichols spent countless hours making this event wonderful! We want to thank everyone who attended and everyone who donated items for the museum to sell, raffle or auction. Thank you, vendors, for coming out with a wide variety of awesome items! And the volunteers…we couldn’t have done it without you: CCHS board members and spouses, our Friends of the Museum, and the Southwestern College Women’s Soccer Team. It truly takes an army to make something like this work.
During Winfield Main Street's Annual Music Crawl and Hamburger Feed, Beverley Olson Buller signed books in Graves Drug. We appreciate Graves allowing us the space and Beverley for making the museum a place to get autographed books.
On October 3rd, CCHS board member and artist, Jill Ball, demonstrated sculpting at our booth at Art in the Park!

Upcoming Events
Our annual meeting will be held here at the museum on Sunday, October 25th. There will be a brief business meeting at 1:15 PM. At 1:30, our Salute to Main Street Cowley County begins! There will be memories shared, pictures to see and live music! Please join us!
Thursday, November 19, 2015, at 7:00 PM we will host a book launch for co-authors Jerry Wallace and Pamela Thompson. Their new book on the history of Southwestern College promises to be of interest to many.

Membership Drive
Our annual membership drive is currently underway. If you already returned your membership cards and payment to the museum or plan to, THANKS!!! You will receive a receipt and thank you gifts in the mail in the upcoming weeks.
On our new membership cards, you can indicate your interest in becoming a Friend of the Museum. We do things throughout the year, such as events or exhibits, that we could use some extra help with. We also would like to create a list of workers to help with the upkeep on our 135 year old building. Please let us know if you can help.

From the Frankie Cullison Archives by Shawn Marie Stover
One of the most fabulous things about new exhibits is getting more information for our archives. Sometimes we may only use one picture in an exhibit but gain ten more that we don’t use right then. We save them for the future; for future exhibits, future researchers or future reminiscing.
In conjunction with celebrating Cowley County’s Main Streets, we were recently given seven scrapbooks from the Cam-bridge Community Club. Most of the information in the scrapbooks is about an annual event called, “The Possum Run.”
Some of the fun at the Possum Run celebration included a Possum queen, parade, hay stacking contest, greased pig races, horseshoes, a dunkin’ booth and lots of good food.
When I read a newspaper article about the first Possum Run in 1969, I was struck by how many politicians were on hand: Gov. Docking, Rep. Joe Skubitz, Sen. Bob Dole, Sen. Joe Warren and Rep. Pete McGill. They were all there on short notice, according to the newspaper article. I wonder if a campaign was looming.
These scrapbooks are a wonderful testament to good old Cowley County small town America. If you grew up in the Cambridge area, you’ll love looking through these! I’m sure that you’ll see many faces that you know.
Visit our archives; we keep them for everyone!

Sen. Dole & Rep. Skubitz crowning the 1st Possum Queen, Gaylene Harrison!

Hay Stacking Contest in 1985!

Celebrate Cowley County History
Mark your calendars now and plan to join us for this event on January 30, 2016. We think the topics to be presented will be of interest to everyone. Jane Sandbulte will speak on the Kickapoo Corral, Foss Ferrar's topic will be the archaelogical dig currently in progress near Arkansas City, and Ina Gray will provide information about the College Hill area in Winfield. Arlan and Wilma Anglemyer, Ned Graham, Roger Moon, and JoAnn Parsons will relate their experiences as students in the rural schools of Cowley County.
Since the rural schools will be a topic in January, this is the ideal time to collect your photos and stories. Many of you shared photos for our exhibit in 2008, but we'd like to rescan them because of different scanning procedures. After Mildred Brazle Snyder learned that we wanted these, she got busy and put her memories on paper. We were delighted when she brought in photos, a memory book, a teacher's grade book, and her story of Star Valley School.

Please share your stories as well. They're priceless!

Volunteer Spotlight by Shawn Marie Stover
The very first time I took a day off from the museum, David Hudson came in and asked to be a volunteer. I cannot claim that I found or recruited him. Maybe Jane Reeve’s winning smile convinced him that the museum was the place to be.
Dave has spent a tremendous amount of time at the museum over the past five and a half years. He has taught me everything I know about scanning (a truly priceless gift to me). Dave is the reason that we have three working computers--he donated two of them and advised on the purchase of another--and digital archives worth boasting about. There is not a room in this building that he hasn’t fixed something in, carried something heavy through or acted as a tour guide in.
As Dave’s life takes him on a direction away from the museum, we want to say the biggest “THANK YOU” that we can, knowing how pitifully short it falls. The museum has been made better because of Dave’s dedication.

David Hudson with the kids at History Alive in 2012

Scenes from Vendors on the Grounds
September 12, 2015

Southwestern College’s Woman’s Soccer Team and Coach Joe Wood

CCHS Board Member Rick Hathaway as at his trapper’s booth

The Cowley County Historical Society dates from 1931 with a major reorganization and move to our present location in 1967. The CCHS's mission is to preserve and make available the colorful history of the county. We also support and encourage activities pertaining to local history throughout the county. Our bookstore makes available an assortment of items dealing with local history. The historical society also maintains a fine collection of historical records and vintage photographs.

Message from the Director by Shawn Marie Stover
Both last summer and this, we’ve had computer troubles. In the midst of these annoying times, I marvel at how much we depend on the computers here at the museum. When I began at the museum, I did very little on the computer. A little word processing and answering email was about the extent of it.
Over the years, our digital archives have exploded. We have been scanning our photos, newspaper clippings, etc… You have no idea how proud that I am when someone needs something and I’ve already scanned it.
When at least a month of my summers has been mired down with computer trouble, I feel pretty hopeless. Really, though, part of our problems are just growing pains. We’ve grown so much so fast on such a small budget; pains are just par for the course. I always tell my volunteers that slow progress is better than no progress. I guess that I just need to remember that when the computers are driving me nuts.
In other related news (it’s related because I was struggling with my computer while on this project), I’ve completed another Winfield calendar from our awesome pictures from our photo archives! I spent more time that I would have thought imaginable researching the pictures but am extremely proud of the finished product.
I want to thank Jerry Wallace for inspiring the November 2016 page. He also wrote the caption as my brain was completely slammed by that point.

The calendars cost $10 and can be purchased here at the museum or The Winfield Daily Courier. If you cannot make it to one of those locations, I can mail you one for an additional $2.

2016 Winfield Calendar