Newsletter - Fall 2017
Remembering Those Who Served
Join us on Sunday, November 5, at 2:00 p.m. at Baden Square when we will honor our veterans. Our current exhibit is “Remembering Those Who Served”, and this will also be the after-noon’s theme. A patriotic program will include special music, a guest speaker, and recognition of all veterans in attendance. Those who served in all branches of the military, in both times of war and peace, will be honored. We hope that veterans from the entire county, not just Winfield, will attend.
Please invite your special veterans to this event. Everyone is cordially invited.
The annual membership meeting will be held prior to the program at 1:45 in the conference room at Baden Square. The short agenda will include reports from the board of directors and the museum director, and election of board members.
Vendors on the Grounds
September 9th was a beautiful day for our third annual fund raiser, Vendors on the Grounds. The perfect weather and quality merchandise attracted many customers. Everyone enjoyed the fun, fellowship, and good food provided by the Soroptomist ladies.
We wish to thank everyone who donated items to the CCHS sales booth. A big thank you also goes out to all our friends and volunteers who helped before and during this event. Thank you to Arlan and Wilma Anglemyer for donating Arlan’s Famous Peanut Brittle, and to Rosalyn Barney for providing a raffle item. Everyone’s support is greatly appreciated and is essential in helping us achieve our goals.
A very special thank you goes to board member Cheri Nichols whose hard work made the event possible!
The CCHS Museum Board of Directors
Items Wanted for Museum
Once upon a time, a museum director had an idea. She asked Santa Claus for items which were needed for her museum. While she doesn’t plan on tracking Santa down again, she’d like to make known some donations that we’d gladly accept.
We could use old boys’ toys for display in our toy room. These could include farm implements, trains, or cars.
We have a large collection of Winfield school yearbooks in our archives, but need yearbooks from other Cowley County schools. We could also use city directories from cities other than Winfield. Remember - we don’t have it if it’s not given to us!
PHOTOS, photos, PHOTOS! We love photos (and slides)! You don’t even have to part with your pictures permanently. We can borrow them to scan, and then return them.
We also need your time! Greeters at our front desk are needed on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons. For other ideas of how you can become involved, come to our Museum Friends meetings and discover where you’d like to help. We’d love to have you volunteer to present a program of historical interest to our members and the public.
Cowley County Heritage, Vol. II Book Update by Shawn Marie Stover
We have received 500 story submissions for our book, and are very grateful for your interest. I work on the book on an almost daily basis, but have no idea how long it will take to put it together. Books can be purchased for $55 until the book order is sent to the printer. There will be a very limited number of extra books available for purchase after printing, and these will be sold for $65 each. Now is the time to buy!
Message from the Director by Shawn Marie Stover
Our board members are persistent! We’ve had a little roof problem for the last two monsoon seasons. Actually, the problem was big because water was involved, but the piece of roof was small (compared to the total size of our roof, not to mention how high the roof is from the ground—YIKES). We had the worst time getting roofers to even come look at our roof. Earlier this summer, we thought that our problem was almost solved, but then two bad storms in June made us a “low priority”, and eventually a “no priority”, to that roofing company. Then our luck changed and QUICKLY! We asked the right person to recommend someone, that someone looked at our problem, and took a stab at fixing it that same week.
When we finally got a hard rain, we discovered that the wrong place had been stabbed, possibly fixing part of the problem, but redirecting the water into other places. Mr. Hinson spent several hours that day with the roofer, trying to find where the water was coming in. Whatever they did worked, and water has not been found in that room since!
Back to the persistence of the long-suffering Mr. Hinson. He kept trying until he got our problem fixed. I don’t even want to know how many phone calls he made or how many times he waited at the museum to meet with service providers of some sort or another. The man is a saint! The museum is so lucky to have him!
Now he will have to get someone to fix the inside damage from that aforementioned roof problem. Pat the man on the back the next time that you see him!
History Alive
Board members and volunteers recently hosted the historical society’s annual History Alive event for local third and fourth graders. Stu-dents from all the Winfield elementary schools, Holy Name Catholic School, and Trinity Lutheran School attended. More than 450 children and adults participated.
The children were involved in a variety of hands-on learning experiences which brought history alive in an enjoyable and meaningful way. Activities for third graders included doing laundry, playing old-time toys and games, listening to the story of Winfield’s founding, learning about farm life, and dressing in old-fashioned clothing. Fourth graders enjoyed visiting the country schoolroom, touring a general store and parlor, and doing woodworking with hand tools. They also prepared and sampled a recipe made with the limited food items available to cooks during World War I.
Board member Cindy Goertz’s efforts made this event a reality. Others who helped were John Alquest, Rosalyn Barney, Hal Hinson, Janet Hostetter, Mary Jarvis, Beverly Johnson, Nianne Mohlstrom, Cheri Nichols, Elaine Rankin, Larry Rood, Lloyd Stuckey, Katrina Tamsen, Lynette Thompson, and Lura Unger.
Photos, clockwise from the top left: Hal Hinson portrays a schoolmaster in a one-room rural school. John Alquest instructed students in doing woodworking using hand tools. Cheri Nichols conducted a tour of the museum’s parlor. Students prepared a recipe using the limited food items which would have been available to cooks during World War I. They learned about food conservation during the war.
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.
From the Frankie Cullison Archives by Shawn Marie Stover
Our archives have a large collection of scrapbooks. We have scrapbooks about clubs, schools, families, and even a few businesses.
We have an adorable scrapbook about Pleasant View School, otherwise known as Frog Hollow. Though it might have been a child’s school project with precious drawings and compositions, it also contains lists of teachers dating back to 1873 and pictures of students in the early 1960s. Lots of facts can be found within.
In our Winfield business section, there is a nice scrapbook about the Gott factory. I didn’t even know that we had this Gott scrapbook and missed opportunities to show it to former employees that have inquired. We have a box full of information about Gott, but this scrapbook may have been less intimidating for the person who just wanted to reminisce a little. It has lots of pictures of the factory’s interior, newsletters and newspaper clippings, and some delightful little calendar cards. It really is a fun scrapbook to look through.
The archives have been made more easily accessible by board member Janet Hostetter. She has organized and clearly labeled the scrapbooks in recent years. Visit our archives; we keep them for everyone!
Top: Pleasant View School, drawn by Susan Scott
Bottom: Gotkool advertising calendar card from 1961