Coulterville Historical Society

 

Website:cvillehistory.wixsite.com/coulterville

Email: cvillehistory@cvillecusd1.org

Contact by Phone: Jenny Dyson 618-317-4933

Quarterly Newsletter

January 17, 2023

Monthly Meetings on the 3rd Thursday at 7:00 pm

     Welcome 2023! Here are some items to catch everyone up on our 2022 activity!

     *We are back to our regular hours 3 days a month. Anyone in the local area that would like to help work the museum on those days would be welcomed! 

     *The museum continues to take advantage of the Amazon Smiles program. If you are not already signed up with a charitable organization, look us up and assign us as your Smiles group!

     *A new showcase was donated and is currently being filled with coal mining items. The Local History Class at CHS is working on creating a new Coal Mine display area in the front room.

     *In April, the museum received a monetary gift from The Betsey Gimber Memorial Scholarship Fund.

     *In May of 2022, Dr. Pflasterer was admitted to the Randolph Society at the Randolph County Courthouse! You can stop in to see his plaque on the wall in the Society Gallery.

     *In September, the Historical Society presented Cyndi Howell with the Citizen of the Year Award at the Fall Festival. 

     *Also in September, the Museum welcomed descendants of the Oli Boyd Family to receive a donation of an original stock document for the village of Coulterville from 1908.

     *The Museum also received framed items from the Miles family representing Miles’ corner store formerly located on Main Street. 

     *Tim Heggemeier donated a document of a Civil War Regiment from Coulterville. This item is currently out for professional framing! We hope to have it on display by February. 

     *Our mural project fund stands at $3152.66. We are still working on a design. We hope to make progress by 2025!

 

     We would also like to welcome new Society members Hugh & Susan Miles for annual memberships. For lifetime memberships we would like to welcome Herman & Karyn Albers and Donna & Robert Campanella, and Lonnie & Judy Coke. 

 

     The Historical Society is planning to FINALLY host a trivia night fundraiser! Gather a team of 8 to come out to the VFW on Saturday, March 18th at 7:00 to test your knowledge! You can call Tony if you would like to reserve a table: 618-559-9154. We are also taking donations for silent auction items! Let Tony know if you have something that you would like to donate, OR send us an email at the address above.

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     This website is periodically updated! Is there anything in particular you would like to see there? Send us an email!

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     Remember us when you are going through boxes of stored items! Do you have Yearbooks, pictures, business advertisements, school related items, newspaper clippings, military documents, or obituaries? Don't throw them away, send them our way!

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     We know that at some point we are going to have to repair the front room floorboards. They are getting “spongy,” so any ideas for additional fundraising would be greatly appreciated! 

 

     The Coulterville Historical Society Board is happy to announce that the Museum is back open for our regular monthly hours. The museum is open on the 2nd Wednesday of the month from 9-1 and the 2nd and 3rd Saturdays from 10-2. 

     We have some big  news to share with you to start off 2022! First of all, the Coulterville Republican Newspaper has been digitized! The website is now available for public view. You can now access information about the history of Coulterville from 1918- 1958 by visiting this website:

     http://coultervillenewspapersil.advantage-preservation.com/

     There is a direct link to this website on our Museum website. Please check the website periodically for updates and announcements.

     https://cvillehistory.wixsite.com/coulterville

     We are sure that you will find some great pieces of history, but something that the students have been working on is collecting the names of high school graduates prior to 1935. Articles in the paper have provided much needed information that has been missing from the school archives! Students have also put together a more cohesive timeline of the Adami Hotel and the Adami Opera House. Did you know that The Lyric Amusement Company out of New York once ran a theater inside the Adami Opera House. 

     We continue to work in coordination with the Coulterville Public Library, raising funds for a mural to be placed on the East facing wall of the library. So far the fund has just over $1200. The Local History Class at the High School will put together a variety of ideas for the mural, then we will look for an artist for cost estimates. We would like to see both the museum and library represented as well as historical elements of the town. We hope to move forward with this project by the summer of 2023.

     In a bit of sad news, as most of you have seen or heard, the past few months have led to the demolition of two major buildings in town, first the skating rink and second Wilson’s Furniture Store. Both buildings will have permanent displays in the museum. Several ornate pieces of the building were salvaged and taken to the museum grounds for future use.  We continue to look for any information or pictures related to the skating rink!  

      If you have a particular topic that you would like to see researched or featured in the museum, please contact us at the above email address.