Tuesday, November 2, 2004.

The president called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM with 10 members present.

The minutes from the last meeting were read.

The treasurer's report was given.

The Society gave $50.00 to the library to be used in memory of Paul Rimstidt. It was brought up that we might want to have the microfilming of one year of the local papers labeled in his memory. We had approved the microfilming of the 1950 Journal and the 1971 and 1972 Democrat at the last meeting. A motion was made and seconded to do this. The motion carried.

It was stated that the Genealogy room informed us that the 1954 Democrat needed to be added to the list of papers to be microfilmed.

It was brought up that it was time to renew our membership to the Indiana Historical Society. A motion was made and seconded to pay the $35.00 membership dues. Motion carried.

A member mentioned some correspondence she had received when sending out membership cards to members in other areas of the country. One member from Georgia replied and told of some local history of when her family lived in Rockport. Her father had been the superintendent of the Strawboard factory and she and her mother had graduated from Rockport High School. Another member from Wisconsin was looking into some information on a statue that might possibly be the work of George Honig, Rockport native and designer of the Lincoln Pioneer Village.

A letter was read from a person concerning the Santa Claus statue located on State Road 245 near Holiday World. The statue was erected in 1935 and needs some attention. The president mentioned that he would try to have some people attend one of our meetings to discuss the statue.

A member brought up about a plaque to be placed on a pillar on the grounds of the old Rockport High School. We have talked about marking several historic locations in the area and this was a place to start. After much discussion, a motion was made and seconded to purchase a14" x 19" plaque with a picture of the old Rockport High School, formerly the Rockport Academy and the Rockport Collegiate Institute, and a brief history of the school. The motion carried. Two members are going to pay a portion of the cost as they had attended school and taught in the building.

It was then discussed that it would be nice to work with the Association for Better Rockport to get more historic sites marked.

The showing of "The Kentuckian" at the Lincoln Pioneer Village where part of the movie was filmed was mentioned. There were over 60 people in attendance at the Community Building. The monologue that told highlights about what was happening behind the scenes was interesting. There was some talk of the movie being shown again in the spring when the weather is nicer.

A member is working on wording for a plaque to be placed under the picture of Mrs. Bess Ehrmann in the Genealogy room. It will tell of the many contributions that she made to the area.

A member attended a Society of Indiana Pioneers meeting in Indianapolis recently. He would like to see Spencer County recognized during the celebration for Lincoln in 2009, as this is the county in which he lived while his family was in Indiana. Several ideas were mentioned about what we could do to promote this area that was so important to Lincoln during his formative years.

Several members had gone to see the Lincoln Train while it was in Evansville, Indiana. One person had asked the spokesperson on the train what was Lincoln's connection to Indiana and she said she didn't know! He felt that if someone was going to be talking about Lincoln, she should have known that Lincoln once lived here for fourteen years. People know he was born in Kentucky and ran for President from Illinois, but know nothing about his Indiana years.

A motion was made and seconded to purchase the book "Early Indiana Trails and Surveys" from the Indiana Historical Society. The motion carried.

The Old Rockport Cemetery project was discussed. The School Corporation had removed some fallen trees. It was decided that due to the rainy weather, we would wait to schedule a workday.

Some members stated that at over a period of years, there were six button factories in Rockport. They were gathering information about Spencer County in answer to a inquiry they had received from a fourth grader in Bloomington, Indiana wanting to know more about our county,

The next meeting will be Tuesday, December 7, 2004 at 6:30 PM. (Notice the time change.)

The meeting adjourned at 8:10 PM.