Hope Historical Society
Meeting of April 20th 2010
draft minutes

President Donovan Bowley called the monthly meeting to order at 9:30 at the Hope Historical Home. Also present were: Bob Appleby, Gwen Brodis,Jean Connon, Faith Hart, Herb Hart, Mary Ireland, Bill Jones and Ann Leadbetter.

Treasurer Faith Hart presented the Treasurer's Report for the period December 2009 to April 2010. The balance in the checking & savings accounts was $9,927.90. Notable receipts were $645 from our appeal letter, $283.54 from Coastal Workshop for the collection of ca. 4,700 bottles and cans, $47.07 from Florance Merrifield in memory of her mother, Velma Hastings, $35 from memberships, and $4.58 from interest. The report was approved as presented.

Secretary Bill Jones distributed the draft minutes of the November meeting and the December Christmas gathering. After corrections, the minutes were approved as amended.

Committee Reports

The Program Committee (Ann Leadbetter, Bill Jones & Ron Smith) has been inactive during the winter recess. On behalf of the Program Committee, President Bowley made plans for the May meeting and compiled a list of potential meeting topics & projects.

The May meeting - 7 PM Tuesday May 18th at Hope Library - will feature Kevin Johnson of the Penobscot Marine Museum showing and discussing early photos of Hope following a short business meeting. Johnson, a good speaker, is responsible for rescuing 40,000 glass-plate photographic negatives of the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company (Belfast) which, from 1909 to its demise, sold picture postcards made from photos it had taken in Hope and other towns. To publicize this exceptionally interesting meeting, Bob Appleby will be responsible for the web and Bill Jones for the newspapers.

On the President's list of suggested meeting topics were: sheep & the wool industry in Hope, Hope lumbering, Hope orchards, Hope dairy farming, Hope's industrial past, Hope's old houses, how to conduct surveys of old houses - more than phjotos, famous Hope residents, what was invol ved in settling Hope?, Ii ve on Maine's frontier, land-use changes in Hope, Hope writers, artists & musicians. Earl Shuttleworth (Maine Historic Preservation) gives how-to workshops on conducting old-house surveys. Members added programs on Bishopswood and Alford Lake Camps, a program by Irene Hawes or Elaine Tracy on the Matthews Farm Museum and something on the Rockl;and Lighthouse Museum.

On the President's list of projects and possible projects were: the 2010 Hope Chronicle;
South Hope School relocation & restoration (How can/should HHS help the Town conserve this last one-room school? Independent task force? Purposes of conservation. Possible uses of


restored building); oral history project; developing a mini genealogy course for Hope School &/or adults; accessioning the HHS collection.

For the Building Committee, Herb Hart reported that drainage has been working properly.
abed Hart cleared the ditch and removed debris. The road ditch was deepened as part of the Corner firehouse construction.
Post-winter inspection revealed that the house was not that damp. No mice! Low temperature was 60F though the setting was lower. Herb has trimmed the shrubs & will continue every 20 days. Used weed killers on driveway & parking lot and Deer Off. Herb bought & used mulch from EBS. Barbara Carver will mow lawn.
The memory garden has survived the winter well. Donation from Florance Merrifield will be used for Memory Garden.

For the Website Committee, Bob Appleby reported that the daily number of hits per day on www .hopehisLcom was an amazing 86 in January. The Abner Dunton Diary is up.
Photographs of all Hope Grove Cemetery gravestones are now up; Google is indexing them.
The pattern of deaths in 1866/7 warrants our attention. Was there an epidemic, of cholera for instance?
The Committee would love to be able to put up a digitized copy of Anna Hardy's History of Hope, Maine if copyright holder Tom Hardy would agree.

For the Chronicle Committee, Gwen Brodis, Mary Ireland & Faith Hart reported that work is nearly finished. The Committee hopes to have the 2010 Chronicle printed and for sale by the primary election. Elizabeth O'Haverty wrote the new Hope history and Mary the new HHS history. The business directory is complete. Bill Jones should send Mary Ireland the final copy of material in the 2000 Chronicle so that new material can be incorporated and the same format used.

Old Business

Regarding publication/use of the 1936-7 Florence Adele Payson Pearse diary that Lester R. Dickey had transcribed, produced and gave to HHS, Faith Hart reviewed the terms of the gift.
It was agreed that the terms excluded putting it on hopehist.com, but that we could print and publish it as is and sell it for the benefit of HHS. Pricing and printing options, including ondemand publication, were discussed. No decision was taken.

New Business

Since no one has heard about a meeting of the Come Spring annual meeting of neighboring historical societies this year, we are assuming that it is not happening.

The next meeting will be Tuesday May 18th at Hope Library at 7 PM. See above.

Respectfully submitted, Bill Jones, Secretary