~by Valerie Ogren for the Greene County Genealogical Society
Meeting notice: The Greene County Genealogical Society will meet Saturday, Oct. 3, at 11 am in the basement meeting room of the Jefferson public library. (Please note change of time.) Speaker that day will be Rick Morain. He will share some family memories and tell about “Preserving Your Stories” to pass on to younger generations. Rick was scheduled to be with us last year but had a last minute conflict. The library is handicapped accessible and guests are always welcome. The reference library will be open at 9 am. if you would like to do some research before the meeting.
Civil War re-dedication: The reason for changing the time of our meeting is that a Civil War re-enactment group is coming to re-dedicate the Civil War monument in the Jefferson Cemetery at 10 am sharp. We hope our members and many others will be able to attend. The monument was erected by the local chapter of the Women’s Relief Corps and dedicated in 1902. The ceremony Saturday will denote the end of the Civil War 150 years ago. Following the ceremony, we will go immediately to the Jefferson public library for our meeting.
Lost & found: I answered a query to our library email address requesting help in locating a person by the name of Mary Jane Walter/Walters from the Churdan area. I pondered that request for a few days wondering who I might contact who could be of assistance. Susan Harrington from Ames had found some pictures which had belonged to her mother, and she wanted to return them. One person identified in a photo was Mary Jane. Susan’s mother was Lorraine Brander Peterson and had taught in Churdan. Another person mentioned was Richard Carey.
The Churdan Centennial Book provided a clue in their alumni list – Mary Jane Walter is now Mary Jane Fields. With the help of Elaine Deluhery, I contacted her. The two have since met, gotten acquainted and exchanged photos. Mary Jane took them to Churdan and found friends who could probably help identify others in the pictures. They will soon be making their permanent home in the Churdan public library.
I asked Susan if I might share the story and she replied, “Please do. It is a wonderful story that began long before I saw those many photos of that beautiful little girl in my mom’s photo album (Mary Jane). I would look at them over and over when I would search my mom’s many, many photo albums and think I must find this little girl. My mom’s first experience teaching was there in high school in Churdan. I only have one story about her class and that was one of the guys flunked her class – and he was maybe on the basketball team (?) and she was asked to change his grade so he could play and she said ‘no’. For me the added bonus to this entire story is to find out Mary Jane is related to our son’s girlfriend of the last two years! It is quite a story – – coming all the way from 1946.” I just love happy endings!
Reference library: Our library has had a short respite because of the Friends of the Library book sale. We are now back on duty. If you have an interest in family history but need help getting started, we have volunteers in our reference room every Wednesday from 1 to 4 pm and Saturdays from 9 am to noon. We have an online computer and a copy machine available. If your family has compiled a family history, we would welcome a donated copy for our collection.
Contact us: Our web page is located at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~iagcgs/. Email us at gcgsiowa@hotmail.com or P O Box 133, Jefferson IA 50129-0133.
