Greater Dover Historical Society

September 20, 2007

 

 

The regular meeting of the Greater Dover Historical Society was called to order by President Madelyn Shermeyer at 7:01 p.m.  Members present were Mel Miller, Lori Koch, Madelyn Shermeyer, Phyllis Wolgamuth, Joyce Law, Larry Law, Lois Slothower, Jeffrey Koch, Doris Burger, Jo Ott, Dr. Charles Drawbaugh, Judy Worley, Randy Worley, Norma Botterbusch, Ron Botterbusch, Gayle Heagy, Jay Stouch, Ted Ziegler, Zita Smith, Grace Trimmer, and Kay Stitley. The meeting was held in the basement at the Dover UCC due to a continuing construction project underway at Calvary Lutheran Church. 

 

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

 

TREASURER’S REPORT

 

The treasurer’s report for August was presented by Joyce Law:

 

Balance as of July 31, 2007                        $8,711.23

Deposits for August                                      103.94

Expenses for August                                         641.07

Balance as of August 30, 2007       $8,149.82

 

Joyce stated she has the budget sheets available for all the committee chairpersons or other members to fill out if they will need supplies for 2008.  Joyce requested the completed budget sheets be returned to her at the October meeting so preparations for the November 1 budget meeting can be done.  Joyce reported that revenues from the Dover Fair were given to her Kay Stitley and she will report those totals next month.  President Shermeyer asked if there was a total amount of profit we made from the fair and Kay reported it was approximately $361.30.  Kay stated we took in over $1,000 but some of amount was for the crocks, township replicas and the lanterns. 

 

There was a motion by Doris Burger to approve the Treasurer’s report as presented and seconded by Larry Law.  All voted in favor and motion passed. 

 

 

 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ REPORT

 

President Shermeyer asked if anyone was present to give a report from the Board of Directors’ meeting which was held after the August 16 regular meeting.  President Shermeyer reported that the Board decided to appoint a photography/video committee to replace the media committee. President Shermeyer stated that Norma Botterbusch had suggested the Society have more than one person handle photography and video.  Joyce Law, who will be chair of the video committee, will be doing the videotaping and it was suggested that Norma be our #2 person on this committee.

 

It has been suggested that the GDHS approach Jo Ott asking her to be the still photographer.  Everyone agreed she does excellent photography and President Shermeyer said she will be in contact with Jo to discuss this issue. President Shermeyer stated she contacted Jo who very graciously said this is happening at a good time and agreed to be our still photographer.  Jo takes digital photos and President Shermeyer instructed her to purchase 2 memory cards to use for Society photos.  This purchase will be reimbursed from our office supply budget.

 

President Shermeyer explained that Jo Ott had forwarded the interview text to Joyce Law and Lucia Hrinyak to review.  Joyce sent it to Brett Pfleiger to post to the GDHS website.  Given the decision by the Board of Directors that all projects by members must be submitted to the committee chair, President Shermeyer asked that this be sent to Kay Stitley, chair of the interview committee.  There were some changes made by Fahs and his daughter which were very minor.  Therefore, it did not need to be resubmitted to Lucia for editing.  Kay stated there was one correction to be made concerning a name.  In the interview, Mr. March talked about a schoolteacher, Grace Spangler.  Kay said this is incorrect and it was her sister, Helen Spangler.  Joyce Law stated they were going “by his words” and we really should not change what he told us in the interview.  Joyce suggested we place the correct name in parentheses or as an addendum at the end of the interview.

 

Archivist Report -- Dr. Drawbaugh was recognized to speak.  He appreciated the opportunity to speak and informed the membership that he has stopped taking the medication which caused his memory problems.  He is now taking a memory enhancer and is sharper than he was before!  President Shermeyer said it was good to see him back at our meeting.  Gayle Heagy asked Dr. Drawbaugh to describe the items he brought tonight.  He stated that a box was left at his door by Ethel Weigel and he went through the items to cut it down to information on the history of Dover Township.  Zita Smith said Ethel is probably Art Weigel’s sister.

 

Gayle Heagy reported that Kay Stitley brought tonight a Girl Scout uniform which was donated during the Dover Fair by Esther Nell.  Mrs. Nell’s daughter, Shirley, used the uniform from 1957-59 and Phyllis Mummert was her scout leader.  Randy Worley donated a barrel for the blacksmith shop which Ted is using for water storage by putting a bucket inside the barrel.  Gayle held up a mush ball bat donated by Ronald “Fritz” Crone.  President Shermeyer stated they played mush ball as kids using these bats and mush ball which were larger and softer than today’s softballs.

 

Webpage Report – Brett Pfleiger was not present at the meeting.  President Shermeyer stated the changes/updates have not been made yet. 

 

Historian Report – Cindy Snyder was not present at the meeting. 

 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

 

President Shermeyer stated she received more copies from Joe about 2 weeks ago.  President Shermeyer and Ron Botterbusch will be working on these after the beginning of the year. 

 

President Shermeyer reported that Norma Botterbusch asked if we could get a stand for the GDHS at the Fall Fest to sell replicas, t-shirts, trash bags and other items.  President Shermeyer reserved a table inside the doors of the community building from 11am to 4pm.  President Shermeyer asked for 1 or 2 volunteers to man the table.  Doris Burger and Norma Botterbusch graciously volunteered. 

 

Joyce Law reported that Lucia Hrinyak could not be here tonight and she has the sign-up sheet for the next Adopt-a-Highway litter clean up.  The date has been scheduled for Saturday, October 20 and the meeting place is GDS Controls at 5301 Carlisle Road, 8:00am.  She will send a reminder notice to volunteers the day before and if the weather does not cooperate, Lucia will call everyone early on 20th.  The rain date will be Saturday, October 27. 

 

OLD BUSINESS

 

Blacksmith shop replica – President Shermeyer reported we have sold 70 replicas to date, plus 1 presented as a gift.  As an approximate, President Shermeyer stated we will need to sell 137 more replicas to begin realizing a profit.  Norma Botterbusch asked if we could place an article in the newspaper stating we have the blacksmith shop replicas for sale at the Fall Fest.  The secretary can submit an article about the replicas and one for the guest speaker for our October meeting. 

 

Jailhouse marker – President Shermeyer reported that she told Ted Ziegler he can install the fence at any time.  President Shermeyer talked to Mrs. Abreght and asked Ted to let her know when he plans to put the fence in so she can do some maintenance to the site.  She does not believe Baughmans will get around to installing the marker until closer to winter since they are so busy right now.

 

Placement of date/name stone donated by Vince Rice – President Shermeyer talked to Vince Rice and we will have two of his men deliver and place the stone, along with the stand, in the blacksmith shop.  It will be set in the corner to the left as you enter the double doors of the blacksmith shop.   

 

Joyce Law reported that to date we have sold over $500 worth of the t-shirts so any more that are sold will be for a profit. 

 

Gayle Heagy stated that Jay Stouch had brought a letter from his attorney who states in his personal will that the diaries are donated to the GDHS and not to the York Heritage Trust.  President Shermeyer pointed out to Jay that our Articles of Incorporation state if the GDHS ever dissolves, all our archive items go to the York Heritage Trust. 

 

Gayle Heagy reported that the Landmark Committee has met and completed their tour of recording the historic homes in Dover.  Gayle and Joyce Law will work on getting this information into the computer database and complete the home survey forms.  Gayle said once they have all this data compiled, she hopes it will help them decide which homes get the first historic plaques.  Funds for the plaques were included in the $5,000 state grant we received. 

 

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

President Shermeyer stated she had a conversation with Ron Botterbusch concerning how we handle our officer and board of director nominations.  Ron had questioned why we call every member of the society and asked if it was in writing stating we must do it.  President Shermeyer reviewed documents and could not find anything in writing saying we must call the members.  It was determined that this was a decision made by Sue Forrey when she was secretary.  The phone calls were done in 2004, 2005 and 2006.  President Shermeyer stated she would like to change the procedure we follow for nominations.  President Shermeyer said she and Lucia Hrinyak discussed inserting a nomination form into the newsletter and dispensing with phone calls.  The newsletter will list the open offices and 2 board of director seats.  The nominating committee will not have to make phones calls.  The committee member’s phone numbers will be listed for any society member to call if they are interested in running for an office.  Also, President Shermeyer’s phone number will be listed if any society member would like a copy of the job description of each open office.  President Shermeyer stated that copies of the job descriptions for each office are on the table for any member who is in attendance at tonight’s meeting.  President Shermeyer noted that every member receives a copy of the newsletter so they should take the time to read it and respond if they are interested in running for an office.  There were no questions from the members and all agreed it was a good idea to handle the nominations in this manner.  President Shermeyer asked for any volunteers to serve on the nominating committee.  Jeff Koch and Ron Botterbusch volunteered to serve on the committee.  President Shermeyer thanked them.  Gayle asked if our society documents state how many members should serve on the nominating committee.  President Shermeyer said she is not sure if the by-laws say the president appoints 3 members but paused the meeting to research this before proceeding.  Joyce Law will look it up and the meeting resumed. 

 

President Shermeyer stated the budget meeting is scheduled for November 1 at the Dover Borough hall. 

 

President Shermeyer reported that we will have Jeff Holder, a Civil War re-enactor, as our guest speaker at the October meeting.  He will speak about the Civil War and Dover’s participation during the war.  Gayle asked what Jeff’s credentials are and President Shermeyer stated he did a thesis on this topic.  He is a teacher at West York.  Norma Botterbusch said we had two WW2 re-enactors visit the blacksmith shop for the open hours on September 8 and she said Jeff Holder also does re-enactment for WW1. 

 

President Shermeyer reported she received an email from Lori Koch concerning the leftover bricks at the blacksmith shop.  The Borough has installed a water spigot in Ketterman Park and they would like to use some of the rough brick to put around the bottom of the spigot.  President Shermeyer said she felt this was a very good idea and presented the request to the membership.  Joyce Law questioned how many bricks would be used since we may need to use some for the sidewalk and President Shermeyer said the Borough is not using the red brick.  It was suggested that the rough brick could be used on the small side path behind the shed.  President Shermeyer stated she would like to have enough of the rough brick left to use for a small wall to surround the name/date stone in the blacksmith shop.  This was suggested by Gayle Heagy at our last meeting and President Shermeyer feels it is an excellent suggestion.  The membership approved allowing the Borough to use some of the rough brick around the water spigot and this will be a community service graduation project by a high school student.

 

Lori Koch presented the society with a check for $500 representing the donation by Dover Borough.  There was a brief discussion about Dr. Nathan Wallace, who set up the Wallace Fund for the Borough and Township to benefit its residents.

 

OLD BUSINESS UPDATES

 

President Shermeyer stated there are no changes for the old business updates:

 

·        2005 – calendars with pictures of old buildings/homes in Dover – this will get started after the first of the year

·        2006 – Don Baughman – safe

·        Pen/ink drawing of blacksmith shop for stationery and letterhead

·        Cook stove in Borough garage – still needs moved to Bob Stitley’s shop

·        Annual craft show at blacksmith shop

 

OTHER BUSINESS – Questions from Membership

 

President Shermeyer stated that Lucia Hrinyak asked her if the Borough would have a problem if the brick pathway from the archive building to the walking path had to be done in 2 stages.   President Shermeyer told Lucia she would bring this issue up at the meeting.  President Shermeyer did have a suggestion which is if the path has to be completed in 2 stages, it should be staked off at both ends and orange/yellow tape attached to the stakes so people are aware of it and protect ourselves from liability.  They plan to do this project on Saturday, September 22 at 8am. 

 

President Shermeyer reminded those members in attendance at the meeting that if they are interested in running for an officer or board of director position to please pick up the job description on the table. 

 

Kay Stitley reported on the Dover Fair display.  She stated a lot of people stopped by the display to see the cases of items.  They had 2 cases with items from the Janet Myers Schwalm collection, 1 case of photos from early schools from Weiglestown and Kralltown which people were very interested in, and a case with items from the Jacob Joner Society and it was amazing how many men stopped to read the information in the Jacob Joner case.  There were 3 new members who signed up and we had a total of 234 volunteer hours for the fair from committee planning setup to tear down.  Kay thanked all the volunteers who helped, but Kay stated she does not want to chair the committee next year.  Kay, Lois Slothower and Carol Leathery were co-chairs of the committee and with help from Norma Botterbusch they were able to accomplish a lot.  Kay feels we should continue doing it, but she does not want to be chairperson again.

 

President Shermeyer reported that she has taken the time to review the minutes for this year since the secretary began listing the names of members in attendance at each meeting in the minutes.  She had thought the nominating committee could call these members about running for office.  But after a review of the minutes, President Shermeyer said there are about 25 regular attendees and most are here tonight so she does not see any need for the committee to call members.  Gayle Heagy made a suggestion to give Jay Stouch an award for traveling the longest distance! 

 

Norma Botterbusch reported on the September 8 open hours at the blacksmith shop. Kay and Norma set up a table of blacksmith shop items, a sign-in book and donation jar inside the shop.  Jo Ott was there and took photos of the visitors, etc.  Norma feels someone should be there each time to set up the table.  Everyone thought it was a good idea.  Randy Worley noted that Ted does really beautiful work and Judy loves the cross he made.  Joyce Law stated that Ted is still working on filling orders from the June dedication.  Norma mentioned that during Ted’s open hours on September 8 he really did not get much work accomplished because people were asking questions.  President Shermeyer said that is part of our education.  Joyce Law suggested we should put together an article on Ted’s open hours and put it on our website on the education link.  Joyce said she and Lucia are working on piece on the historical walk which will be posted on the education link and kid’s page once it is completed.  Kay will have to review it to verify photos before it is posted.

 

Randy Worley asked how many of the picture frames which Larry Law made were sold.  Joyce said it was around 37 or 39 but we cannot make anymore because we ran out of old wood.  President Shermeyer stated there is more old lumber in the rafters of the blacksmith shop but Larry said it isn’t that good and would take a lot of cutting. Norma Botterbusch had some new colored and sepia photos that Jo Ott made of the blacksmith shop.  They turned out really nice and we will get some made since we sold a lot of the black and white photos without frames.

 

Larry Law asked about the craft fair at the blacksmith shop.  President Shermeyer stated it was a suggestion to hold a craft fair sometime next year.  We can sell space to crafters – broom maker, candles, sell our replicas, t-shirts and Ted’s wares.  It was suggested to hold it on a date that Ted will have open hours and Kay stated the thought was to keep it in June like the dedication and make it an annual event.  We can try the 2nd Saturday when Ted is working in the shop.

 

Gayle Heagy reported that she and Kay went to the township building today to return the items to the archives from the fair and a township employee, Janice, mentioned the article from the newspaper regarding the $10 Dillsburg National Bank bill.  It was in the York Daily Record in the business section and it stated the Dillsburg bill sold on EBay for $999.  Gayle will keep this article in the archives.

 

There was a motion to adjourn made by Norma Botterbusch and seconded by Randy Worley.  Meeting adjourned at 8:10pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Lori Koch

GDHS secretary