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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023 Town Historian Annual ReportLansing Town Historian Annual Report 2023 Fannie M. Welch, Historian I am available on Saturdays from 10am until noon or by appointment. I also have an email address which has been convenient. This position is an enjoyable experience! JANUARY • Met with Sue Travis to help her with her genealogy. MARCH • Linda Chapman gifted us with several historical publications. Anne Drake helped me shelve those books plus some additional Lansing year books. • Met with Pat Tyrrell on computer issues. • Showed the Association how to fold the letter to membership. • Marilyn Farmer called with questions on the schoolhouse which is now the library. APRIL • Spent three hours between the Archives and North Cabin. MAY • Colby Gee, realtor, wanted info on the purchase of historical buildings. • Jeanne Bishop and I had a long conversation about the 40+ years that her father Everett Nobles delivered the mail. • The Quilters group met to look at the quilt that they had made of the churches in Lansing. • Met with Stacy Hern regarding the choice of the graduating senior for the $500 Susie Howell Haring Scholarship. JUNE • Anne Drake and I went to the cabin to decide on getting ready for July 4. • Anne swept through twice since it was filthy. • John Howell helped move some of the furniture in the cabin. • Members of the Association were urged to attend. JULY • My granddaughter, her husband and their two-year-old all dressed appropriately sat in front of the cabin waving to folks as they drove in. We were open from 9:30 until 12:30 and a lot of folks stopped in. • Special thanks to Mike Moseley and all his crew that helped, especially for the Plexiglas windows. • On July 10, I met with Pat Sawhaney, a Lansing native who now lives in Virginia. She had called and asked if it was possible to see the cabin since she wouldn’t be here on the 4th. She and her daughter enjoyed the visit and left a donation for the Association. • Matt Zippolo asked for info on Allen Fletcher and Orlando White. Thanks to Nellie Minturn’s history I was able to give them the answers they were looking for. • I wrote an article for the Association newsletter on the “Last Days of Lincoln” SEPTEMBER • Laurel Sutherland asked for information on the Giles Nichols family. I replied with what I found. • Linda Bush asked if I knew who the Revolutionary War soldier was who is buried with Rouse on the Creek Road. Thanks to our book on all the Revolutionary War soldiers from Lansing I was able to tell her ‘who they might be’. OCTOBER • Attended the Lincoln Train Program in the Town Hall. • Carol Kammen, County Historian, asked if I knew what the NNP was. It was an early labor that met in Ludlowville. They proposed equal pay for women in various jobs. It was also known as the “Knights of Labor”. • Joanne Romanowski, a former Myers resident will be coming from Florida this summer and would like to see how that little hamlet has changed since 1950. NOVEMBER • Researched the Lansing Plaza and Chris ’n Greens. • Jo Baker asked for information on the name ‘Swarts Trail’. I spent quite a bit of time looking through our files and could not find anything. I told her that perhaps she should ask the person who named it. Her reply was Louise Bement named it. She said she would ask Bill Martin to look in Louise’s home office. It appears that there is historical information stored there that should probably be in the archives. DECEMBER • Kate Gilbert asked Deb Munson for info on Hiram Herrick. Deb referred the question to me, and I answered Ms. Gilbert. Herrick was a blacksmith and owned the building that Frank Howland bought and then opened the Red and White grocery store. • The new owners of the Federal House in Ludlowville contacted me by email. They were interested in the history of their purchase. I had done research from four different sources, but the best was when John Howell came with a notebook that his grandmother had kept. It seems that Ward and Mattie Howell lived in that house many years ago and she kept notes of various things that they did or that happened, including photographs! John copied some of the pictures for the Kworniks and they also purchased several of our publications. Both Kworniks are professors at Cornell. The County Historians meet monthly. I now attend via ZOOM. It is interesting to see what other Town Historians are doing. I also watch the Lansing Town Board Meetings and some of the other committee meetings. I have not gotten too involved with the Village history. When the Village was first organized Rita Smidt was involved and kept great records which were published. There are nine boxes of records in the archive attic. A few Saturday mornings, I know someone from the Village came to look at them and to do some filing. Louise said she wasn’t going to bother doing their history. There is a lot going on there now with the Mall, Tompkins Hospital, and also the new housing project. There have been several changes in the Cayuga Mall as well. That having been said, I believe it is time for the Village to appoint a Historian.