Greater Dover Historical Society

February 17, 2011

 

The regular meeting of the Greater Dover Historical Society was called to order by President Madelyn Shermeyer at 7:00 p.m. at the Calvary Lutheran Church.  Members present were the following:  Lori & Jeff Koch, June Kinsey, Judy & Randy Worley, Bill & Chris Coleman, Kay Stitley, Jo Ott, Madelyn Shermeyer, Lois Slothower, Lucia Hrinyak, Grace Trimmer, Mel Miller, Larry Law, Gayle Heagy, Melanie Green, Walt Crider and Norma Botterbusch.  The members stood for the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

President Shermeyer presented the January 2011 minutes and asked for any additions or corrections to the minutes.  A motion to accept the minutes as presented was made by Lois Slothower and seconded by Judy Worley.  All voted in favor and motion passed.

 

TREASURER’S REPORT

 

The treasurer’s report for January 2011 was presented by Bill Coleman.  There was a motion by Larry Law to approve the treasurer’s report as presented and seconded by Mel Miller.  All voted in favor and motion passed. 

 

Assistant Archivist report – Gayle Heagy reported the clothing donated by Grace Spahr has been placed into proper storage.   Gayle acquired 2 acid free boxes from Dan Cupp and wrapped the clothing in cotton inside the boxes.  Unfortunately some of the shoes have mold, so Gayle checked with the York Heritage Trust (YHT) which advised her to check for moisture, clean the shoe with bleach water and stuff each shoe with tissue paper or cotton. 

 

Gayle reported  the diplomas donated in November by Dr. Gross need to be placed inside a large acid free sleeve which she doesn’t have available in her archive supplies.  Gayle checked with Gaylord’s and Print-O-Stat, but they were either too expensive or could not guarantee the sleeves were acid free.  She called the YHT and their Board agreed to assist our local group with supplies like these sleeves.  Gayle will send a thank you note to the YHT for helping us.

 

Historian report – no report

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

 

Bloodroot – President Shermeyer will report this under New Business.    

 

Adopt-a-Highway – Melanie Green reported litter pickup will start again in April and a tentative date of April 2nd is planned.  She will have a sign-up sheet at the March meeting.  

 

Landscaping Committee – Lucia did not have a report since it is still the dormant season.

 

Board of Directors – no report.   The Board will reorganize. 

 

OLD BUSINESS

 

President Shermeyer reported she reserved the Log Cabin for our July 21 meeting.  President Shermeyer also reserved the Brookside Building #2 for our annual member picnic to be held this year on September 15 and the new Carousel building construction may be done by that time. 

 

President Shermeyer reminded members to submit their volunteer hours to Bill Coleman.  The sign-up sheets for refreshments and Blacksmith Shop open house are on the table also.  The refreshment sign-up sheet disappeared after the last meeting, so if any member had previously signed up for refreshments please do so again. 

 

President Shermeyer reported that the church bell discussed at last month’s meeting was moved into the storage shed by Harry Shermeyer, Bob Byerts and Chad Byerts. 

 

Trash bags – President Shermeyer reported we still have boxes of trash bags in the storage shed.  We should have an inventory of total bags ordered, total bags sold to date and total bags remaining for sale.  A committee of volunteers should be organized to put the trash bags into packs of 25 to be sold at the carnival, Blacksmith Shop, etc.  Randy Worley volunteered to begin counting the inventory of trash bags.  Bill Coleman will do a check of the accounting records to determine the original cost of the trash bags and how many have been sold to date. 

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

President Shermeyer stated the membership must start thinking about organizing a committee for the Dover Fair. 

 

Bloodroot – President Shermeyer reported she scanned Bloodroot #1 and #2 and hand-delivered to Print-O-Stat to have a sample copy made in 8 ½ x 11” size.  Carla at Print-O-Stat was able to copy the books and make the photographs much clearer.  There are two options for printing these volumes together and the price includes a set-up fee and a $10 disc fee:

 

1.      50 books @$4.85 each = $242.68 (8 ½ x 11” size – scanned, cut and tape bound)

2.      50 books @$4.31 each = $215.55 (original size – scanned, cut and tape bound)

 

Judy Worley stated if the smaller original size provides better photos we should have the books printed in that size instead of the larger 8 ½ x 11” size.  President Shermeyer also said that Bloodroot #3 is very thick and it may be best to have it printed in the original size since it cannot be combined with #4.  Gayle Heagy asked about using the plastic spiral binding instead of tape bound and President Shermeyer will check on the price for spiral.  Jo Ott asked if the original negatives for the photos are still available to use but no one is sure that we have all of them.  Mel Miller said he worked on the original committee with Dr. Drawbaugh and Sheila Harkins and shared information on the work the committee did on the Bloodroot books.  A motion was made by Lori Koch and seconded by Judy Worley to print 50 copies of Bloodroot #1 and #2 together in the original size, tape bound at a cost of $215.55.  All voted in favor and motion passed.  Judy Worley asked how long it will take to receive delivery of the books and President Shermeyer said she will find out when she places the order at Print-O-Stat.  President Shermeyer will also ask for a price for plastic spiral binding. 

 

Mel Miller asked about the notation in the minutes regarding the July meeting being held at the Log Cabin.  President Shermeyer said the membership decided to move the annual picnic to September since the weather has been very hot in the past couple of years.   We cannot hold the July meeting at Calvary since it will conflict with Bible School.  The July meeting will be at the Log Cabin and the picnic will be in September at Brookside Park.  

 

President Shermeyer reported there is an open charge account for the GDHS at Spangler ACE Hardware.  A young lady from ACE called Lori Koch asking if we wanted to keep the account open since no activity has occurred on the account since 2007.  It was most likely opened during the time of the rebuilding of the Blacksmith Shop.  The Board of Directors took a vote and it was decided to close this account.  There were no objections from the membership.   Lori Koch will call ACE Hardware to advise them to close the account.

 

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS

 

Melanie Green asked Jo Ott if she had any additional updates on the upcoming traveling Civil War event.  Jo reported she brought in a brief report in January for the YHT’s quarterly meeting that was held on November 22.  The next meeting will be in a couple of weeks.  Jo stated the YHT is encouraging all local historical societies to participate in this Civil War celebration.  President Shermeyer had contacted Don Keener for suggestions on how the GDHS can participate in this event but she has not heard from him to date.  Jo Ott stated it would nice if we could do something with the Blacksmith Shop during this event and make sure it is advertised.  Perhaps we can find some old maps to display as well as the history books for Dover Borough and Dover Township.  The York Heritage Trust has a large inventory of maps and Jo Ott will visit the YHT for map information.   Gayle Heagy said she has a Borough lot map circa 1860 and Lot 8 is Dr. Herrold’s house.  It was agreed that the GDHS should do what we can to get more exposure in the newspaper for our meetings with guest speakers and other events to encourage more people to participate in our society.   June Kinsey asked Vice President Stitley if Calvary Lutheran Church has any archive material about the Civil War and she said Helen Weigel would be the person to ask since she was in charge of the archives at the church.

 

President Shermeyer asked if any member knew what church in Dover Township has a stained glass window that was donated by the KKK in the 1930’s.  Randy Worley said it is Mount Royal Church.  The Dover area had a large compliment of KKK in the 1930’s and Paul Boring was Grand Wizard according to Vice President Stitley.  Gayle Heagy said she attended a KKK rally held in Maytown in the 1970’s and it was very disgusting. 

 

Walt Crider, who lives in the Rohler’s Church area, had a copy of a poem about Rohler’s School by an anonymous writer from Philadelphia.  He also has several newspaper photos of the Mount Royal School and Rohler’s School built in the 1870’s for the archives. 

 

There being no further questions or suggestions from the membership, the meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Lori Koch

GDHS secretary