November 1, 2011

The Spencer County Historical Society met on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 in the Rockport Library Genealogy Room.

The meeting was called to order by the president at 6:40 PM with seven members present.

The minutes from the last meeting were read and approved. 

The treasurer’s report was given.

The president told that after several years of trying to get the 1950 issue of The Rockport Democrat microfilmed, it was finally completed.  Since the Evansville Bindery could not do the work, the president finally found a company in Evansville, Retrievex, which was able to make a microfilm copy for the Society.  In fact, the company made three copies.  One copy was given to The Journal-Democrat when the book was returned, and one copy is going to be sent to the Indiana State Library.  The man would not take anything for his work as he said he was donating his time in helping preserve history.

The president sent the man a thank you note and included a check for $100.00 for his time and expenses. The money was part of what had been donated in memory of Erma Purviance.

Having the 1950 issue of The Rockport Journal copied completes all the issues up to 1980 when they merged with The Democrat.  The Rockport Journal-Democrat is on microfilm up to December 2005.  The Spencer County Leader is on microfilm up to December 1998.

The president mentioned the letter from a member from California who was concerned about cemetery records deteriorating and that he would give $50.00 seed money to do something about them.  The president had a cemetery record book from Newtonville and it was in bad shape.  There was some discussion about the methods that could be used to copy the old records to preserve them.

A member stated that the Honig plaques were finished and were given to another member who is still working on how he is going to install the plaques.

A member from California and relative of George and Alda Honig, mentioned that he had come to Spencer County via Interstate 70 which allowed him to take new pictures of a statue that George Honig had in Fairmount Park in Denver, Colorado.

A member said that at this time, the Honig website is down and he is in the process of moving it to another site.

A member reported that the cell phone tour sign on the west end of Boner Bridge was missing.  He called Warrick County and told them their sign was missing and also told them that the original signs on each end of the Bridge had been stolen.  He told them the Spencer County Historical Society had paid to have new signs made and installed, but the sign and post on the west end had been taken this summer.

The next item was the “Historian of the Year” for 2012.    April 14, 2012 was selected as a tentative date for the banquet.  After a short discussion, the item was tabled. 

The question was brought up again about an inventory of the Genealogy Room.  It was stated that the library requires anything owned by the library must be insured by them.  Since the Society owns the contents of the Genealogy Room, the Society insures them.  The Society does need to have a hard copy of the contents for insurance purposes.  The president is going to check with the library about a list.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting.  The motion carried.  The meeting adjourned at 8:00 PM.

The next meeting will be December 6, 2011 at 6:30 PM in the Genealogy Room.