March 6, 2018

The Spencer County Historical Society met on Tuesday, March 6, 2018, in the Rockport Library Genealogy Room.

The meeting was called to order by the president at 6:17 PM with twelve members and two guests present.

The minutes from the last meeting were read and approved.

The treasurer’s report was given. 

The secretary reported on the following communications she had received:

            1.  Eva Weil inquired about a mystery church in old family photos.  The president solved the mystery as it was St. John’s Lutheran Church.

            2.  Beth Chase of Deputy, Indiana, was looking for a photo of the old Highland Methodist Episcopal Church.  An e-mail was sent to Grandview Aluminum.  They did not have a photo, but were going to send her information they had about the church.

            3.  E-mail from Olivia Schultz concerning a documentary they had made called The Josiah Henson Project.  His life inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe’s 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

            4.  Mentioned an article in the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer about a program that displayed an exact replica of President Lincoln’s casket.  (Members stated that Spencer County had his casket lying in state in the Court House rotunda in 2009, the 200^th anniversary of his birth.)

            5.  The secretary had a copy of the Spencer County Pageant of 1816 written by Kate Milner Rabb that listed county soldiers that were in the Civil War.

A guest mentioned he and a member belong to the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and they are working on the “Last Soldier Project”.  This project is a memorial to the last Civil War veteran buried in Spencer County.  That soldier was Private David Jackson Smith of the 1036 Indiana Company G.  He died July 17, 1943.  He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Chrisney, Indiana.

The president announced the committee is making progress on the bicentennial book and they hope to have it sent to the publisher soon.

The president asked about the possibility of making a book containing the newsletters written by the Society since 1986. A member mentioned the Grigsby Society recently did such a project and he would bring the book to the next meeting.

A Society member, who is also a member of the Tri-State Genealogy Society, stated a retired USI professor had scanned in newsletters and put them on a flash drive that was searchable.  The flash drives were available for purchase.

At the November meeting, the president had asked several people to check on the background of the formation of little league in Spencer County.  One member had called the son of L. G. Jolly.  L. G. was the man who started the little league at the Kiwanis Park, now called the Joe Hargis Athletic Field, in the early 1950’s.  It was just a team from Rockport with other communities joining later.  The little league later played at the Rockport Park.

A member handed out copies of “Lost in the Fifties Tonight” written by David Chandler and typed by Nancy Kaiser.  It tells of his recollections of Rockport in the fifties and early sixties.

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting.  The motion carried.  The meeting adjourned at 6:56 PM.

The next meeting will be April 3, 2018 at 6:30 PM in the Genealogy Room.

The group then went to the conference room in the basement to watch Clayton Spurlock’s video “Revolutionary War Soldiers Buried in Spencer County”.  There were 17 people in attendance.