Club Notes

Kansas Genealogical Society
    The Kansas Genealogical Society met Sunday, 13 July 2008 at the Village Square Mall. Vice-President, Ruby Schaffer called the meeting to order.
    During the short business meeting, it was announced that at the Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies meeting at McPherson in mid-June that KGS was given the award of outstanding quarterly publication for The Treesearcher. KGS member, Eldora McMinimy of Ashland delivered the Certificate.
    Following the business meeting, KGS members provided a "Walk Down Memory Lane" in honor of the fifty years KGS has been in existence.  Gay Rooney was the Mistress of Ceremonies who guided the speakers through the afternoon of entertainment, as well as supplying some of her own memories.  Gay read a letter from Virginia Herrman of Ensign sharing her memories of her and her sister, Goldie Frink, researching and working in the library before her sister’s death.  Virginia wrote they found their ancestor, Nicholas Stilwell, who came to America in the early 1600s through books in the KGS library.
    Norma Jane Daniels, Dodge City, formerly of Kalvesta, who has served the Society in many capacities over the years she has been a member, shared some of those memories. She told of she and her husband, Bill, who was also a KGS member, preparing the Treesearcher for mailing.  Norma brought a ‘show and tell’ with some of our holdings she had a part in compiling.  JuliaMae Embree of Pratt shared her memories of the trips she & Miriam Eads made from Pratt to assist with things in the library.  JuliaMae also told of researching her ancestors in Tennessee and Virginia.
    Gertrude Jones, Dodge City, told of her researching in New York where she came from, and the strangeness of the Town Records being kept in the homes there. Gertrude could not remember how many years she has been our Monday librarian.  Gay then read a letter from Ethel Taylor.  Ethel wrote, "Back in 1968, while living in Cimarron, I became interested in family history and someone suggested I check out the KGS Library, which was located in the Dodge City Public Library.  Little did I know this would be the beginning of a life long passion!"
    Ethel also shared her memories of the various capacities she worked in for the Society before moving to Hays.
    Rose Mary Shoemaker of Medicine Lodge, whose maiden name was Lotspeich, has an ancestor. who kept a diary while he was in the Civil War.  Rose Mary read touching excerpts from this diary.  She had placed a copy of the diary in the KGS Library many years ago.  Nola Ochs, of rural Hodgeman County, when she is not residing on the campus of Fort Hays, told us unlike some of the rest of us, she did not have volumes of her genealogy, that hers was all on her computer.  Helen Harper, Dodge City, prepared her talk as a tribute to Judy Hall.  Helen then proceeded to tell us how Judy had shared her expertise in Genealogy with her in her search for  identity.  Helen’s father died when she was six years old and she and her siblings were placed in a home for Orphans, Fatherless, and Friendless.  Judy led her from a small obituary to what has now become a mass of knowledge and information, accurately documenting her early years.
    The History of KGS was portrayed in the form of an interview of Betty Herrman, Ensign, as ‘Doris Rooney’ and Ruby Schaffer, Spearville, as the roving reporter of the Dodge City Daily Globe.  Prompted by the inquisitive roving reporter, Doris commented on many of the changes KGS has encountered the past fifty years.  Thus ended the "Trip Down Memory Lane" for the participants, who were presented with a certificate and a wooden miniature of the "TS little man" created by Larry and JoAnn Jones and Terry Morrow.
    Among other long-time members in attendance was Wayne Lewis of Gage, OK. All seemed to appreciate the exhibit of some of the KGS publications of The Treesearcher through the years, with its familiar golden yellow cover and the sunflower on the front.  Items on exhibit included the Engravings of that sunflower & the words, The Treesearcher, as well as the drill that was used to bore the holes in the early issues. There were many prizes and Mary Joanne Sorem, Jetmore and Terry Morrow, Dodge City served the attendees delicious refreshments.

Dodge City Lions Club
    Sheriff Dean Bush was the speaker for Lions and he spoke on the new jail that is being built and the CEO (Community Education Opportunity) program.  Carla Miller is our program chair for the month and she had invited Mr. Bush to speak at our July 16th  meeting.
    They have done the dirt work on the new Jail site and you should see big changes in the next few months.  They did not receive bids from some vendors on the jail due to a clause that stated that the price had to be held for 45 days.  After construction, the jail will house 365 inmates but if necessary they can add to make it a 500 bed facility.  Bids came in higher than what they had anticipated.  The new jail is over ten per cent of budget due to price increases and projects throughout the state are over budget.  The present jail was built in 1931 which is in need of repairs and is unsafe for our officers.
    CEO (Community Education Opportunity) is a volunteer program for children at risk, and is an award winning program.  The ages that are accommodated are 5th through 8th grades.  The CEO program served approximately 240 individuals last year.  Thirty per cent of the individuals who went through this program have graduated from high school and they are hoping to increase those numbers by including kindergarten through 4th for the coming year.   If special ed children are involved, the schools will support them and other funding is from a grant from the state attorneys office, United Way, Drug and Alcohol dollars, County, Sheriffs Office and the community.  The program is changing since the Sheriffs office is partnering with Area Mental Health (AMH), and JJA (Juvenile Justice Authority).  AMH will supply three individuals to help out with the CEO Program and JJA will be the daily reporting center.  They have 5 children to one adult ratio and this is a community base program.  One of the places that they are looking at to house the program is on the 4th floor of Bank of America building once they stop using the present building.  The Sheriff’s office has done an outstanding job with this program which helps our children in the community to succeed. 
    Lions meet every Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. at Casey’s Cowtown and the program starts at 12:00 P.M.   If you are interested in attending, call Herb White 225-4983 or Vernon Everhart 227-7439.  You do not have to be a member to attend.  

Stitch 'n' Chatter FCE
    Stitch 'n' Chatter FCE held their July meeting Thursday, July 10 with a salad
supper at the home of Barbara Hager with Maybell Ingland serving as co-hostess.
    Nine members answered the roll call  " What are you taking to the fair?"  A variety of delicious and interesting salads were served to members and there was no meeting or plans discussed.
    Georgiana Bradshaw announced that the window display for the County Fair is displayed at Flowers By Irene and the unit's theme is year is " Don't Let Cancer Bug You."  The County Fair booth will have the same theme and the booth illustrates a phase of educational work done by the unit throughout the year.  Committee for the display and booth were Georgiana Bradshaw, Norma Henton and Janice Unruh. Members were encouraged to submit as many entries as possible to be eligible for an award for the most numbers of exhibits per FCE unit.
    Next unit meeting will be September 11th at the home of Dee Smoll with Sherrie Foley as co-hostess.  There will be a lesson on Cancer awareness led by Chris York.