Hope Historical Society
Meeting of September 17th 2013
Draft Minutes
President Donovan Bowley gaveled the meeting to
order at 9:39 AM. Also present were: Bob Appleby, Ron & Janet Bennett,
Joe Berry, Gwen Brodis, Edith Beverage Brown, Lorraine Davis, Claire Crabtree
Frye (speaker), Everett & Helen Payson Harding, Janice Harriman, Bob
& Linda Ludwig Hillgrove, (Rockland) Bill Jones, Ann Leadbetter, Edwin
C. Lee, Mira Liebster (New York), Barbara Ludwig, Mary (\u201cMickie\u201d)
Brown McKeever, Lewis & Florance Merrifield, Marie Childs Pinkham (speaker),
Viola Richardson, Ron Smith, Warren & Veronica Westbro, and 11 unidentified
others who did not sign in.
Secretary Bill Jones summarized the minutes of
our August meeting with Thomas Vinal Hardy talking on his re-write of his
mother\u2019s 1990 History of Hope, Maine. The minutes were approved.
Treasurer Gwen Brodis reported income since last meeting of $111.94, of
which $75 was a gift in memory of Verna Dyer, a savings\u2019 account balance
of $16,579.02 and a checking account balance of $672.50.
Announcements
Donovan announced that the Faith Ludwig Hart winter
project continues to bubble and perc.
He passed around a large number of new photographs received and brought
to the meeting, asking for help of those present identifying the people
and places.
Committee Reports
For the Website Committee, Bob Appleby reported
on errors detected and corrected. He asked that discovered errors be reported
to him and requested assistance in reading the gravestone corrections gathered
by Tom Hardy to speed his entry of them on the website..
For the Program Committee, Ann Leadbetter reported
that our October annual meeting will feature Kerry Hardy, well-known Indian
expert. The meeting will be held at Hope Corner firehouse with potluck
supper at 6 PM, followed by a short business meeting (ca. 6:46 to 7:15)
and the program at about 7:30.
November\u2019s meeting may feature a speaker from the Matthews Farm Museum
(Union) or a genealogical school held jointly with neighboring historical
societies. December will feature our annual Christmas brunch.
Ann Leadbetter introduced speakers Claire Crabtree
Frye and Marie Childs Pinkham, alumnae of South Hope School. John Crabtree,
scheduled to be there as well, sent his regrets. The speakers and several
other South Hope School alumni/ae present gave lively and interesting accounts
of life at school and of what childhood in South Hope was like, principally
in the 1940s and 1950s. Two of the boy janitors who took care of firewood
and fire tending, hauling drinking water, sweeping and snow shoveling for
50 cents/day were present. (Another janitor, Bill Gould, was regrettably
unable to make it to the meeting.) There were a lot of positive memories
of teacher Olive Crockett who taught Claire in grades 1 through 6 and 8.
Creative scholars made life miserable for substitutes in her grade 7.
The full house showed particular interest in the may-basket tradition, which
persisted until recently. Each day in May, a home-made may basket would
be placed at a female\u2019s door. The placers would run away. The recipient
had to run after them and would catch and be kissed by one. Mary (\u201cMickie\u201d
McKeever Brown recounted how she, a Boston girl, was introduced to this
tradition when she married Alan at 19 and moved to Hope. The presentations
& discussion were recorded and will be available on www.hopehist.com.
The meeting was formally ended to allow some people
to go, but informal discussions and attempts to identify mainly-South-Hope
people and houses in photographs continued until noon.
Respectfully submitted,
Bill Jones, Secretary
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