Western Monroe Historical Society
Morgan-Manning House
151 Main Street
Brockport, NY 14420-1909
585-637-3645
Office Hours Monday-Friday 9:30 am to 1:30 pm
E-mail:
MISSION STATEMENT:
The Western Monroe Historical Society is committed to educating the community and future generations regarding the history of the Morgan-Manning House, preserving this National Landmark and celebrating our local heritage.
------
SEPTEMBER, 2016 NEWSLETTER
------
GREETINGS - The House has been abuzz with activities such as getting ready for Peddlers Market, and finishing up the renovation and redecoration of the conference room, formerly Eunice’s Office. Soon this room will be finished and we hope the members will drop by to admire the work Gordy Fox, Richard Fenton and Harry Shifton have been doing. The walls are painted, the beautiful table was taken apart and refinished by Gordy, and Peggy Fox, Head of Curatorial, has been going over materials in the filing cabinets in order to rearrange their contents. As soon as the floor is refinished, we will move the filing cabinets back and we will finally organize the conference room. It has been a long time, and much work has been done (thank you to Gordy and his helpers).
ARCHIVED MATERIALS - When Curatorial began to examine all the materials collected by Eunice, it was decided that most of it should go to the Local History Room in the Seymour Library. What they could not use should be sent to the Emily Knapp Museum. Some materials went to Clarkson and some went to the College Archives. With this distribution, the material would be more accessible to everyone who wanted to do research. For our files we kept any information dealing with D. S. Morgan, the family, the House, and anything related to the Historical Society. With certain documents, Charlie Cowling, Archivist from SUNY Brockport, will make digital copies which we will share.
SUMMER TOURS – Our tour guides have been busy this summer. Between Sunday afternoons, plus tourists and town people who called, some from the front door, we have had many people visit and admire our beautiful house. Sunday of the Arts Festival, we had over one hundred people visit. Unfortunately, at times like that, we can only offer a visit of the first floor, and an invitation to come back for a complete tour. We thank all the members who have volunteered to spend a Sunday afternoon offering tours.
OUR OLD MAPLE TREE – Unfortunately, everything comes to an end, and so does the life of our trees. With sadness we had to make the decision to take down our beautiful old maple tree from the front of the house. Branches were coming down, and there was the danger that, at some point they could come down on the house. Amazing how little time it takes to destroy what took years to grow! The grounds do not look as naked as we thought they might look. Right now we only have a pile of tree shavings in its place. This coming weekend that will also be cleaned out and, maybe, at some point, we will plant another tree in its place.
We kept two slabs of the tree as a memento. One will go to the 4th grade students who will clean it and study it. These slabs will hopefully tell us how old the tree was. We have no record.
SATURDAY OF SERVICE – Collegestudents who are attending SUNY Brockport for the first time spent a few hours doing community service Saturday, August 27th. We were given the opportunity to participate in this great program, and gladly we took it. A great deal of wonderful work took place. Twenty students and a few of our members worked to make our grounds clean and ready for Peddlers Market. We take every opportunity to network with the College.
LIFE LONG LEARNING INFORMATION FAIR – One of the objectives of the Historical Society is to partner up with various organi-zations in town. The College is the most obvious one. An important program SUNY Brockport has started is Life Long Learning. Following up on our educational mission, we joined their effort with Gordy Fox’s presence on the planning committee. It was a pleasure to attend the information fair and to see many of our members taking advantage of the offerings. Deanna Shifton and I (Alicia), represented the WMHS at the fair. We were able to introduce people to what we are, We distributed literature about the House and the Society, and we were able to recruit new members. This partnership got off to a good start. We hope our members take advantage of the opportunity for Life Long Learning.
WOOD WORKING - Did anyone read the D and C of 8/22/16? Well, the article about “things to keep your kids busy” put our Historical Society on the cutting edge. One of the suggestions the article made was to look for woodworking programs in your community. We had a most successful program for kids from 7th through 12th grade. After a little over a week’s work, the kids took home their beautifully crafted tool chests. The parents of these Carriage House Carpenters were very excited with the result and they have asked for an opportunity for adults. Gordy and his helpers are interested in offering that (Life Long Learning) program in the fall. Because of limited workstations, we can only accommodate a reduced number of apprentices. If you are interested in making a tool chest without power tools, call the office and get your name on the list and we will let you know when and if the programs becomes a reality.
PEDDLERS MARKET – The carriage house is filling up with gently used and fully loved articles and collectibles. As you know, the profit from the sale of your generously donated items goes directly to the running and maintenance of the house. We thank everyone for their donations, and we thank everyone for their purchases.
As usual, Saturday September 10th, we will have food, music and vendors; and, no doubt we will have good weather since last year was not so good. We hope we get all the rain before the 10th, and all the sun and wonderful colors for Peddlers Market Day. If you have not signed up to volunteer, please call Sandy and sign up. We need you to be among our volunteers.
CHANGES ON THE BOARD - A couple of months ago Ron White, our then Vice President, resigned for personal reasons. Regretfully the Board accepted his resignation. Gordy Fox stepped in to fill in the Vice President’s Position. He will continue to be our Investments person and will stay as Chair of the Investments Committee. He will also continue to be the Chair of Buildings and Grounds Committee, and will take on the job of Chair of the Programs Committee. Due to personal reasons, Ann Frey had to resign from chairing that committee. A new Programs Committee was formed, and they are in the process of organizing the programs for next year. Soon you will get the list with the corresponding dates.
Eileen Ryerse, our Board Secretary, stepped in to take on the job of Treasurer. She has professional experience on this. We are very happy she agreed to this new position. Now, Don, our President is in charge of finding a replacement for the vacancies. If you have been interested in serving on the Board and have never been asked, please call Don Voorheis and take on the opportunity. We will be happy to have you join.
USE OF THE MORGAN-MANNING HOUSE - Once a month, the local spinners have been coming to the house and enjoying the opportunity to work in our beautiful environment. It is a very pleasant sight to see the spinning wheels producing colorful yarns which will at some point become beautiful sweaters, scarves, etc. As you can see in the photo below, taking advantage of the beautiful weather and of the nice grounds, they also take their tools and enjoy their time outdoors.
THANK YOU to the following people for their generous donations: Pam & Greg Ketchum for donation in memory of their daughter, Eliza Ketchum. Joanne Vary Schwandes in memory of Phyllis "Fif" Schafer. Eugene Korber for donation in memory of Janie Korber.
SEPTEMBER CALENDAR
Sept 5Labor Day - Office Closed
Sept 7Wed - 10AM - Quilters
Sept 10Sat 10AM-3PM - Peddlers Market
Sept 13Tues - 7PM - Board Meeting
Sept 21Wed - 10AM - Quilters
Sept 27Tues - 10AM - Spinners
SAVE THE DATE
Dec 2 & 3Fri & Sat - Candlelight Christmas - more information to follow.
Dec 4Sunday 3PM -Pictures with Santa
Western Monroe Historical Society
Morgan- Manning House
151 Main Street
Brockport, NY 14420-1909
These fine businesses in the Brockport area are supporters of the Western Monroe Historical Society. We encourage you to patronize them.
Adams Basin Inn
Arjuna Florist
Bateman Orthodontics - Dr. Bateman
Bittersweet
Brad's Northside Service
Brockport Animal Hospital
Brockport Auxiliary
Brockport Custom Carpet
Brockport Optometry - Dr. Raff
Carriage Place & Antique Co-op
Country Treasures
Danielle Windus-Cook Properties
Dunn's Furnishings, Inc.
58 Main BBQ & Brew
Five Star Bank
Fowler Funeral Home, Inc.
Garnishes Catering
Jill's Antiques & Collectibles
Kirby's Farm Market
Klafehn Heise & Johnson, PLLC
Lift Bridge Book Shop
Magic Wands Vacuum Cleaner Shoppe
Mahan Discount Liquor & Wine, Inc.
Red Bird Cafe & Gift Shoppe
Robb Farms
Salmon Creek Nursery
Sara's Garden Center
Seaward Candies
Strong West - Brockport
The UPS Store #1145
The White Farm Bed and Breakfast
Thomas E. Burger Funeral Home
Maxwell Thaney, DDS
Wegman's Brockport
Westside News Inc.