By AMANDA KIMBLE
TheFlashToday.com
STEPHENVILLE (April 10, 2017) – It’s a painstaking process that dates back to 2009. At that time, Stephenville Historical House Museum board members Sherri Knight and Cindy Shipman began sorting and archiving local history into a digital archive.
Now, boxes upon boxes of records from families, communities and government offices fill a portion of the recently renovated Berry Cottage, where a public library allows visitors to explore the past in a setting that speaks to the structure’s storied history.
The stone structure was constructed in 1869, but there are artifacts in the library that tell tales of a more recent past. Collections donated by Rick Sherrod tell the story of Yellow Jacket Football and the city’s history. Sherrod, a retired school teacher, collected historical photographs and published the artifacts in Images of America series books.
The Berry Cottage’s shelves also hold a growing collection of high school annuals and Tarleton State University Grassburr yearbooks.
Today, the collection includes a several from Stephenville High School, but Sherri Knight, museum board president, said there a number of years of Yellow Jacket and Honeybee history missing. She also said while there are a number of Huckabay year books on file, none of the other of the county’s school districts – existing or defunct – are represented.
Knight is calling on community members, asking for anyone with Stephenville High School annuals from the years of 1948-51, 1956, 1962-64, 1967, 1971-72, 1976-86, 1988-present to consider entrusting the museum with the yearbooks’ safekeeping.
“We also don’t have any from Dublin, Lingleville or Morgan Mill,” she said.
“We would love to have more for the collection,” board member Carla Trussell added, saying there’s a desire to include annuals and other school records from the communities of Alexander, Daffau, Bluff Dale, Three Way and other locations where community schoolhouses were once located.
“In some old county records, we found polio vaccination cards from around 1956 from students who received the vaccine,” Knight said, adding she found her own record in the collection.
Knight, Shipman and Trussell meet twice a week, working to catalog various records and artifacts collected by the museum and donated by local families.
Knight said while directors would prefer to have the entire cottage displaying exhibits to the public, a climate controlled facility is essential to preserving history so the decision was made to establish a makeshift workroom in the back portion of the home.
The artifacts housed in that portion of the home are cordoned off from public view, but available for research 1-4 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday, when board members are present.
Trussell’s current project includes entering information from a 1913 logbook from the Daffau chapter of the International Order of Odd fellows into the PastPerfect museum collection software database.
Knight said the software was obtained through grant funding a number of years ago and said with the limited time the women have available, the project has slowly progressed to an estimated 80-percent complete.
Getting lost in the bygone days wouldn’t be hard if not for the women’s efforts. The shelves hold – among other things – boxes of old records and long since forgotten photographs donated by Miller Studio when Joan Livingston passed away.
Joan was born on April 5, 1951, to Janie Lyle and Manuel Miller. The Miller family purchased the existing studio in 1956, and Joan was a career photographer.
Knight said the Miller Studios collection, which she is currently working to catalog includes Joan’s professional certifications, collections of post cards made in the 1950s and sold by the studio, photographs that customers never retrieved from the studio and more.
“Each piece, every artifact, will have its own number,” Knight said. “There’s a lot of history in those boxes.”
Trussell said the aging volume from the Odd Fellows record book was one of many, and the museum has also been given scrapbooks, rosters and record books from many of the city’s past and current clubs, including the 20th Century Club, garden club, study club and others.
Looking at her current effort, Trussell said Odd Fellow records provided information on the death of members and detailed the organization’s efforts to assist ailing and aging members by providing funding assistance for nursing care prior to the advent of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
“A lot of the fraternal organizations of the time cared for its members by providing financial support,” Knight added.
Trussell said the process of archiving the information is much more detailed than simply noting the artifact. The database is being kept in a way that will allow searchers to enter the name of their ancestors or other community members and retrieve a list of documents in which they are pictured or named and find corresponding records on the museum shelves.
Among the records are death notes, which Trussell said were not only fascinating, but also useful.
“Back then, when someone died, their bodies needed to be buried the next day, so these death notices were the only way to notify the community of their passing and funeral arrangements,” Trussell said, opening a box of sealed notices.
She also said since fire destroyed the county’s 1890 census, funeral notices can be used to piece together the history of population.
“If someone died in 1886, the funeral notice may be our only way of confirming the date of their death,” Trussell said.
Records from former teachers, Velma Stidham, first grade, and Gwen Williams, high school history, are also housed at the museum. Neither woman had descendants so their impressive collections, detailing years of public education and the scholarly lives of their students were given to the museum.
Also within the archives is a mayor’s criminal docket dated 1898 to 1901. The aging record book details criminal citations for everyday crimes – racing horses across the city, gambling, prostitution, carrying of weapons into the city center and fighting.
“Here’s one for failure to complete public service,” Knight pointed out, adding the crime was most likely related to the failure to complete required roadwork. “Everyone was required to work on roads, community members with enough money could pay someone else to do their work for them, but they would be arrested if they work wasn’t done.”
“The road records are kept at Tarleton (in the Dick Smith Library),” Trussell said, adding the names of individuals who built the city’s early streets are listed in the ledgers.
Trussell also pointed out an old map from 1931 that is located in the Center Grove Schoolhouse. There you can see a much smaller city and university, as well as street names that have since been replaced by those of today.
While combing through the tomes of local history, visitors to Stephenville Historical House Museum will also find church records noting the removal of certain members for various “indiscretions,” as well as subsequent artifacts that show those who were previously banned had been allowed to return to the congregation.
Ledgers from old businesses paint a picture of the local economy decades ago – the cost of goods and services.
Boxes of history unearthed by Knight when she wrote “Death List Trail of Terror” are also available for viewing.
“There are things in there nobody else had ever seen,” Knight said.
While many of the records are things nobody would ever expect to find beyond the museum’s walls, the 17 community members serving on the nonprofit’s board of directors hope to see the collection continue to grow.
“We want any and all records of local history,” Knight said.
“A lot of people inherit scrapbooks and other things related to their family history and don’t know what to do with them,” Trussell said. “They can bring them here.”
“We would love to include all local artifacts and records from schools, communities and families,” Knight added.
Donations can be taken to the Stephenville Historical House Museum, located at 525 East Washington Street, between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday or 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday.
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