Hope Historical Society

Meeting of September 21st 2010

Draft Minutes

President Donovan Bowley called the monthly meeting to order
at 9:30 AM at the Hope Historical Home. Also present were: Bob
Appleby, Faith Hart, Herb Hart, Juanita Johnson Hunt, Bill Jones, Ann
Leadbetter, Barbara Ludwig, Sally Brown Robbins & Arthur Small.

Secretary Bill Jones apologized for not distributing the
minutes of the August 17th meeting ahead of time to solicit
corrections, then read them. Faith Hart noted mistakes in reporting
the treasurer's report and Bob Appleby in reporting Website Committee
report. The minutes were approved as corrected (9-0-1).

Treasurer Faith Hart reported that our starting balance had
been $8,640.57 and that the closing balance was $8,634.49. Income
reported was $41.47 from bottles & cans returned to Coastal Workshop.
Expenditure reported was $27.50 to Central Maine Power for
electricity and $20 to Hope School Volunteers for our table at the
craft fair (at which $27 of crafts were sold as reported last month).
The report was accepted (9-0-1).

Reports

From the Program Committee, arrangements for the program at the
October annual meeting had not been confirmed. Possible topics were
Sally Brown Robbins on growing up in what is now the Hope Historical
Home, or Carolyn & Kate Wiley's dramatic presentation on the fires of
1947, or Jack & Kate Moody's reading of letters from the Great
Rebellion of 1861-5 between Abiatha Richrdson, an Appleton soldier,
and his sister. A Richardson was the first resident pastor for Hope
and Appleton; the letters were recovered by Barbara Pitman when she
bought the Richardson house.

The Chronicle Committee reported that the 2010 Chronicle is here!!

Regarding South Hope School, the possibilities of relocating it to
the Town's Quiggle Brook lot or to the Union Chemical site (which the
Town is soon expected to ask the court for the return of title) were
discussed. (See business below.) The importance of getting oral
histories from the living alumni/ae of South Hope School was
discussed.

Old Business

Authorization to pay the printing bill for the 2010 Chronicle was
discussed. Members recalled that we had authorized the expected
amount for this expenditure at a previous meeting. The secretary
could not find a copy of the relevant minutes. [In fact, it was the
May 18, 2010 meeting and we authorized expenditure of up to $2,200.]
It was moved, seconded and decided (9-0-1) that, if the printing bill
for the 2010 Chronicle should exceed the amount previously
authorized, the treasurer was authorized to pay it up to the amount
reported by the committee.

New Business

It was moved, seconded and the society voted (9-0-1) that Donovan
Bowley form a committee to look into the possibilities for saving the
South Hope School, to liaise with the Friends of South Hope School,
to look into uses for the school, to see whether Florance Histings
Merrifield would be committee head, and to seek volunteers.

It was agreed that the Program Committee seek to arrange a meeting at
which South Hope School alumni/ae could share and record for
posterity their recollections of life at the school.

Faith Hart suggested that we hold our October annual meeting in the
new Hope Corner firehouse instead of in the Hope Volunteer Library.
It was so moved, seconded and decided (9-0-1).

The next and annual meeting will be held Tuesday October 19th with
potluck supper at 6 PM and program beginning at 7 PM.

For the program, Juanita Johnson Hunt displayed and told the story of
the friendship quilt made by her mother, Ruth Hunt Johnson, in 1931
at age 17 when she was a high school junior. The squares were all
signed and the signatures have been stitched over to avoid their
fading out (as they have on HHS's early19th Century friendship quilt
(after being recorded)). Not all of the 40 signers were from Hope.
Indeed, the Johnsons lived just beyond Hope over the Camden line.
Some were from Lincolnville Center and some from Camden, e.g. the
Camden family where the Johnson girls put up their means of transport
when they went to high school. A number of the squares were signed
by men. Members wondered whether the men had, indeed, made them.

The list of forty is a social register of Hope Corner and adjacent
parts of rural Camden and Lincolnville in 1931. Note that the
population of the entire town was in the 400s at the time and that
probably more than half of these were in South Hope, cut off from
Hope Corner and the Johnsons on Howe Hill Road by impassable roads
part of the year. Other customs, such as the making and giving of
May baskets, were discussed. Juanita will work on the list of 40
signers and we will try to make a map of where they lived in 1931.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill Jones, Secretary