~by Chuck Offenburger for the Greene County Historical Society
The town of Jefferson is celebrating its sesquicentennial during 2022, and Roger Aegerter, director of the Greene County Historical Society, is presenting a reflection on the community’s 150 years in a special program Sunday, July 24, at 2 pm at the historical museum.
Both the program and refreshments are free.
Aegerter is a native of Rockwell City, a graduate of Iowa State University, a former K-12 art teacher, a principal in the Southern Cal schools, and then superintendent for the Paton-Churdan schools. He retired from education in 2005. He has served as the part-time director of the Historical Society “for about 10 years.”
He normally is helping get the group’s programs staged, but over time has presented programs himself on the Historic Lincoln Highway (he has driven it coast-to-coast); he has costumed up and spoken as Revolutionary War hero & county’s namesake Nathanael Greene; and he also is a member of the Historical Society’s trivia team.
As he planned Sunday’s presentation, “Jefferson: 150 Years,” he said he “didn’t want it to be a series of dry slides and facts, and I wanted people in the audience to feel comfortable asking questions while I’m talking. So besides the history, I’m also including humor and having some fun with the topic. My first line is going to be, ‘It all started 12.2 billion years ago!’ ”
He said that while most people would think of Jefferson’s 150 years as a very long time, “I’ve thought about how I’ve now lived in this community for 44 years, which is about 30 percent of the total history. Then I think of one of our society’s longtime members Marilyn Hoskinson, who is 90, and I think, wow, Marilyn has been here for about 60 percent of the history.
“When you think about people of today having been here for that much of the town’s history, it makes you realize that we’re actually a pretty young place.”
