2011 Meeting Minutes
November 12, 2011:
The regular monthly meeting of the Rush County Genealogical Society was held at the Rushville Lodge with 15 members present. President Donna Tauber called the meeting to order at 11:05.
The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. The Treasurer reported a balance of $1,163.52 in our account.
Old Business
Randi James reported on meeting with her brother explaining that her mother had been 17 when she had to adopt him out. The meeting went well and he later joined the rest of the family to get acquainted.
Susan Huston reported that the draft of the Civil War book in on its way and we hope to have copies available by the end of the month. Susan went over what was included in the book. She, also, noted that Clearview Farm is holding a reenactment on December 3 and we will have a table set up by 7:30 a.m.
Pam reported that she was a bit disappointed that only one person had filled out the Family Group Sheet that she had placed on the website and encouraged all of us to complete the form.
Pam, also, reported on the Indiana History Society event recently. Although we didn’t sell very many items, several people took the literature and order sheets.
Carol Jones asked where we were on the Rushville Library project. Pam reported that it is on hold until after Thanksgiving, but would like to have a report for Susan Otte before Christmas. In the meantime, she is staying in constant contact with Susan.
It was reported that we are too late to request a Rush County Community Fund grant this year, but one of the ideas put forward was to replace the copier in the back room of the Clerk’s office at the courthouse as the current one is a bit inconsistent in its output. Linda Mahan noted that they have a copier at her workplace that they might be able to donate for that purpose.
New Business
President Donna Tauber asked where we were on the Cemetery Book and Pam noted they had started on Anderson Township.
Out-of-town member Joel David was with us today and introduced himself and his wife. They are here from Northern Virginia on a research trip.
After Susan Huston declined a nomination for President, the following nominations were made, seconded, and passed:
President: Pam Steed
Vice President: Bill Baetz
Secretary: Carol S. Jones
Treasurer: Linda Mahan
Historian: Karen Pruet
Linda Mahan then introduced John Johnson from Fayette County, Indiana who presented a very interesting program on the Civil War and the artifacts he brought with him.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:05 p.m. As there is no meeting in December, the next meeting will be held Saturday, January 14, 2012.
Secretary,
Carol S. Jones
October 8, 2011:
The Rush County Genealogical Society regular meeting was held, October 8th at the Rushville Elks Lodge. The meeting was called to order by Vice-President Pam Steed. There were seven members present.
Due to the absence of the Secretary, there were no minutes from the last meeting. They are available on the RCGS website. Treasurer Linda Mahan reported a balance of $1123.52 in the checking account.
Old Business
Susan Huston informed the group that a publisher has been selected for our Civil War book. It is No Waste Publishing located in Missouri. A sample of one of their publications was passed around. The book is titled“Let Us Die to Make Men Free” and will have 160 pages. The minimum order is 25 books. With an order of 25 the cost will be $19.48 each, and the cost for ordering 50 books will be $14.30 each. We decided to order 50 copies and price them at $20 + $5 shipping. There is a very short turnaround time once the material has been submitted.
Linda reported that John Johnson from Fayette County will present the program at the November meeting, and bring his Civil War artifacts.
Pam has made a Family Group Sheet form and it is now available on the RCGS website. Members were invited to submit their family lineage.
New Business
The Indiana State Library will host a Genealogy & Local History Fair on Saturday October 22nd from 9:00 to 3:00. RCGS has a table reserved. Pam and Susan will attend and have brochures, membership applications, and marriage books available. They will also promote the Civil War book and take advance orders.
Pam reported that the officers met with Sue Otte at the Rushville Library to offer our help in cleaning and organizing the Indiana Room. Sue was very receptive and asked us to prepare a plan and the cost involved.
Pam showed us a report from the Rush County Community Foundation. She would like to apply for a grant in the near future, so we need to be thinking about a project for funding.
She also reminded everyone that we will need to hold the election of officers in November and there will be no meeting in December.
Donna Tauber & Pam will present the January program on “Online Genealogy”.
Terri Stevens shared a very interesting family letter from 1863. It was written by Nannie E. Smith to her cousin. She talks about Old Abe calling for 500,000 men and if he doesn’t get them he is going to draft. She says “I wish Old Abe was in hell” and states she hopes her brothers never have to go to fight to free the durn Negroes.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 PM.
Linda Mahan
Acting Secretary
September 10, 2011:
The Rush County Genealogical Society held their regular meeting on September 10th at the Rushville Elks Lodge. The meeting was called to order at 11:00 AM by President Donna Tauber. There were 7 members present.
Minutes from August were read and approved on a motion made by Susan Huston and seconded by Pam Steed. A balance of $1173.52 in the checking account was reported.
Ron Darrah and Bill Baetz were contacted about presenting a program in November. Neither is available at that time. Linda Mahan will contact John Johnson from Fayette County to see if he would be willing to bring his display of Civil War memorabilia.
A standard form for entering family history data was discussed. We would like to have a fill-able form that doesn’t require the user to have Microsoft Word. Pam will see if she can come up with something for the website.
There was some discussion on developing a membership directory. Members would need to sign a waiver allowing us to publish their personal information. It was suggested to put this waiver on the renewal form for 2012.
Donna reported that Henry County had recently held their County Day of Caring. They had 600 volunteers and approximately 60 graves were restored. She also shared interesting information on the Bales Cemetery in Blue
River Township.
Pam passed around numerous queries that she has received. Members offered to help with several of them.
Susan Huston brought a copy of the quarterly publication she receives as a member of the National Genealogical Society. Members were asked to check their website if interested in becoming a member.
The Civil War publication is still a work in progress. Susan reported that she has been looking into publishing companies for the book and obtaining an ISBN number for it; the cost quotes from a couple of different companies were in the $1,000 range for their minimum number of books per order. Other options/publishers were discussed and will continue to be researched.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:15 on a motion made by Pam and seconded by Terri Stevens.
Acting Secretary,
Linda Mahan
August 13, 2011:
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at 11:00 at the Rushville Elks Lodge. There were six people present.
The minutes for the previous meeting were read and approved.
The Treasurer’s report indicated a balance of $1,173.52 in the checking account.
Carol Jones announced that we had received notification that our Non-Profit status had been approved.
President Donna inquired about the status of our Sales Tax Exemption and Carol Jones reported she had contacted Pam Steed, but would follow up on the status.
A printout from the web site “Casefile Clues” was handed around and noted that it was a site that offered genealogy hints on research for a minimal annual fee.
As part of her request for personal and genealogical backgrounds on our members, President Donna shared her background and the names of families included in her genealogy search. She then read some that she had received from
members. Susan Huston suggested that we pursue Karen Pruet’s request to put the histories of our members on the
website.
Carol Jones suggested using an Ancestor Registration sheet included in her Palatines to America newsletter. She was asked to scan and email it to the officers. It was also suggested that we make it an internet fillable form for our member’s
convenience in completing.
President Donna then announced that she was having an Open House at her residence at 230 East Broad in Spiceland on Sunday, August 21 from 4:00-7:00 p.m. and invited members to attend.
After a discussion on when to hold meetings and how many programs we wanted to present each year, Linda Mahan made a motion to have four programs a year in January, April, August, and November. Susan Huston seconded and the motion passed. Carol Jones then made a motion to eliminate the December meeting, Karen Pruet seconded, and the motion passed. Meeting times and dates was discussed at length and a consensus of those attending agreed to keep the same meeting times and place of meeting.
Carol Jones brought up the idea of creating a membership directory that would include a member’s name, address, phone number, and surnames they are searching. The question of privacy arose and the subject was postponed until a later time.
A motion to adjourn was made by Linda Mahan, seconded by Carol Jones, and the meeting was adjourned at 12:15 p.m. The next meeting will be held Saturday, September 10 at 11:00 a.m. at the Elks Lodge.
Secretary,
Carol S. Jones
August 4, 2011 (Board Meeting):
The Rush County Genealogical Society Board met at 7:00 p.m. with the following officers present: Donna Tauber, President; Pam Steed, Vice President; Carol Jones, Secretary; Linda Mahan, Treasurer and Susan Huston, Newsletter
Editor.
The main purpose of this meeting was to discuss ways to grow our organization and increase membership participation. President Donna began by asking Pam to tell us her original vision for the Society. Pam indicated that her main purpose was to get records out to the public.
Many ideas and suggestions were discussed with the highlights being the following:
1. Need to suggest things members can do to assist and contribute
2. Discussed possibility of a membership discount on purchases
3. Need to know who else might be interested in creating indexes
4. Need to ask for committee reports
5. Ask the members what they would like to see accomplished and ask if they would be willing to head a committee to accomplish the goal.
6. Need to make definitive decisions; president needs to make sure a motion is made on each item discussed that requires a decision
7. Secretary was asked to provide copies of the minutes for members who would like them
Some items we need to bring before the membership is how often we would like to have programs at the meetings and possibly changing the day and time we meet.
Before the meeting was adjourned, it was stressed that we need to listen to our members when they express suggestions or ideas.
Secretary,
Carol S. Jones
June 11, 2011:
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at 11:00 at the Rushville Elks Lodge. There were six people
present.
The minutes for the previous meeting were read and approved as corrected. The Treasurer’s report indicated a balance of
$1,350.25 in the checking account.
The subject of not having meetings in July, August, and December was discussed. It was the unspoken consensus that we would still meet for a round-table discussion in July and December, and not have a “formal” meeting.
Donna reported that the dedication of the former New Castle Cemetery as a Heritage Site turned into an event with the mayor attending, etc. Then the day before, a huge sink hole appeared that brought into view a body that turned out to be Adeline Hess Julian who had been buried in the former cemetery. Emergency measures were carried out the dedication went off as planned and the body will be reburied at a future time.
Although President Donna needed to leave due to a previous commitment, the meeting continued with the announcement that SHAARD has Rush County on their website now with 111 cemeteries.
Karen Pruet agreed to answer a query that Liz King found in the Rushville Republican requesting some information.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:45. The July meeting will be a round-table discussion rather than a formal meeting. The next formal meeting will be August 13 at 11:00 a.m at the Rushville Elks Lodge.
Secretary,
Carol S. Jones
May 20, 2011 (Board Meeting):
The Rush County Genealogical Society Board met at 7:00 p.m. with the following officers present: Donna Tauber, President; Pam Steed, Vice President; Carol Jones, Secretary; and Linda Mahan, Treasurer.
The meeting was called in response to an IRS letter listing several issues with our Non-Profit application. Pam Steed had taken it upon herself to contact our attorney, Julie Newhouse and together, they prepared a response to the numerous questions. One of the key issues was a suggested change in our Articles of Incorporation. Again, Julie had prepared the necessary changes for approval by the Board. Linda Mahan made a motion to approve the amended Articles of Incorporation and the other changes necessary to our Non-Profit application. The motion was seconded by Carol
Jones and passed unanimously.
As the IRS has made a change in our application from a 501c to a Public Charity, Carol Jones agreed to discuss this with Julie to see what the ramifications and/or restrictions were for this change of status.
After a very heartfelt thanks to Pam for her work on these issues, the meeting was then adjourned.
Secretary,
Carol S. Jones
May 14, 2011:
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at 11:00 at the Rushville Elks Lodge. There were 12 people present.
We were particularly pleased to have Bud and Cecelia Mathews with us after a siege of illness for both of them.
The minutes for the previous meeting were read and approved.
The Treasurer’s report indicated a balance of $1,322.25 in the checking account.
Susan Huston reported that she has about 50 biographies for the Civil War book and is beginning to put it all together.
Linda Mahan responded to President Donna’s question about the progress at East Hill Cemetery by noting that there are about two and a half sections to finish the cemetery.
Susan Huston noted that in reviewing the Rush County Fair Book that there is a category for 4-H Genealogy. She suggested that we approach Becky Stone, who is in charge of this program, to suggest a mentoring cooperative between the two organizations. It was suggested that we wait until October; after all fair activity is over for the year, to approach her. It was also suggested that we contact the Boy Scouts to see if theywould be interested in a similar program.
Linda Mahan suggested, as a future program, that we each pick an interesting person in our ancestry for a presentation at the next available meeting.
President Donna then announced that on May 28 Henry County and the Historical Society will be erecting a heritage plaque at the City Cemetery in Connersville and on June 4 there will be a DAR presentation at the Cambridge Library as part of its dedication.
Karen Pruet reported that she had been approached by the President of the Shelbyville Genealogy Society about merging our two organizations. Linda Mahan suggested that we invite them to come to our meeting, but Carol Jones responded that maybe we should wait to discuss a merger until we have our non-profit status in place. Karen said she would extend them an invitation.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:40. The next meeting will be on Saturday, June 11 and our program will be the delayed Genealogy Bingo organized by Pam Steed.
Secretary,
Carol S. Jones
April 9, 2011:
The meeting was called to order by Vice President Pam Steed at 11:00 at the Rushville Elks Lodge. There were 6 people present.
The minutes for the previous meeting were read and approved. The Treasurer’s report indicated a balance of $1,290.94 in the checking account.
Bobby Lee noted that Mayhill Publishing in Knightstown is still publishing books and should be able to publish our Civil War
book.
Pam announced that she was given thousands of obituaries recently and requested advice on how we wanted to organize and list them. She noted that she had talked to Kevin Green at the Rushville Republican concerning copyright issues. Kevin indicated that they were copyrighted, but we had permission to publish them as long as we did not profit from the publication. Carol Jones made a motion to post an index on our website and to charge only for copying and mailing if a
copy was requested. The motion was seconded by Myra Alexander and passed. Pam indicated she would have another conversation with Kevin Green to be certain it was okay to cover our costs for copying and mailing.
Although Julie Newhouse was unable to be present for her presentation about the DAR due to illness, she did provide an interesting and informative DVD about the DAR, which was enjoyed by all.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:00. The next meeting will be May14 and will feature a game of Genealogy
Bingo.
Secretary,
Carol S. Jones
March 12, 2011:
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at 11:00 at the Rushville Elks Lodge. There were 7 people present.
The minutes for the previous meeting were read and approved as corrected. The Treasurers report indicated a balance of $1,290.94 in the checking account.
Susan Huston inquired about who would publish our cemetery book once it was completed. After a discussion of area publishers that might be available, President Donna said she would check into the publisher in Knightstown.
The question of obituary copyright issues was brought up. It seems the Shelbyville newspaper is no longer allowing
their obituaries to be recopied elsewhere without changes. Further research on this subject will be required as it will have a large impact on genealogists who post the obituaries on websites such as Find-A-Grave.
A discussion of Joel David’s membership status ensured that resulted in a motion by Carol Jones to credit his membership fee in return for the research he has done for the organization. The motion was seconded and passed.
After a discussion of gaining more publicity in the Rushville newspaper for our organization, Carol Jones volunteered to write an article about the organization and seek help from local resident, Mark Sloan in getting it published in the paper.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:45 p.m. The next meeting will be April 9 with a presentation by Julie Newhouse on the
DAR.
Secretary,
Carol S. Jones
February 12, 2011:
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at 11:00 at the Rushville Elks Lodge. There were 9 people present.
The minutes for the previous meeting were read and approved. The Treasure report indicated a balance of $1,202.94 in the checking account.
Secretary Carol Jones read a letter she had received from the IRS concerning our Non-Profit application noting we need to
send them another $100 for the application fee. A motion was made, seconded,and passed to send them the $100.
Susan Huston passed around a note card she and Pam Steed had created to send to members who have not paid their dues yet. Everyoneagreed they had done an outstanding job on the cards.
Pam Steed announced there will be a lock-in at the Rushville Public Library for genealogy research from 4-9:00 p.m on March 12. She passed around registration forms and explained she would need the completed forms as soon as possible.
Pam, also, passed around a sample format for the cemetery book. A discussion of what we wanted to include resulted in
the decision to work by township with what tombstone inscriptions we have, but no tombstone photos. It was agreed to bring in what we currently have in the way of records to review what we have and what we need to accomplish.
The meeting was then turned over to Barbara Harcourt. She presented a very interesting history of the role Quaker and, in particular, Quaker women played in the history of our country. She noted that the Quaker religion began in England with George Fox writing many of the early works on the religion. She also noted that 40% of abolitionists were Quaker women and that the religion exercised absolute equality between the sexes and other races.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:10 p.m. The next meeting will be held on Saturday, March 12 at 11:00 at the Elks Lodge.
Those who will be participating will meet at the library at 4:00 for the lock in.
January 8, 2011:
The meeting was called to order by President Donna Tauber at 11:00 in the Rush County Historical Society. There were 15 people present.
The minutes for the previous meeting were read and approved. The Treasure report indicated a balance of $1,032.94 in the checking account.
President Donna passed around proposed note cards created by Susan Huston to begin a discussion on how to market them. It was decided that we needed to create a marketing committee to handle such projects.
Pam Steed then introduced Al Hodge to present his program on the Historical Society’s Oral History project. He began by noting that when he came to Rush County High School, he created a History Club. It was in the 1960s that they started the project using high school students to interview county residents. These students created almost 300 reel-to-real tape recordings. Mr. Hodge is now in the process of converting those tapes to DVD using specialized software.
He then played some extremely interesting and enlightening clips from some of these interviews. They included Joe Pike talking about buying boot leg whiskey while he was in high school, Leonard Pate on when then Sheriff Lon Coons offered him a drink from confiscated liquor when Leonard went to bail a friend out of jail, Charlie Pea on joining the Rushville police force in the 1930s, and Don Myers about being on the road with a big band in the swing era. There was Jack Bartlett, father of Butch, explaining how the Kennedy bridges were constructed when he worked for the Kennedys. There was“Fat”
Edwards telling about a horrendous train wreck in 1937 when the train jumped the tracks. He told about the engineer leaping from the train and getting scalded by the steam and how his friend, Dizzie Gillespie, visited him in Rush Hospital.
Mr. Hodge continued with an unknown speaker who recounted the Boling family murder during the Civil War. Seems burglars tried to rob Mr. Boling in his home, but he managed to get hold of an ax. He swung it at the robber and nearly cut his head off, went to bed, and reported the incident the next day. If you might know who it was that might have told this tale, please contact Mr. Hodge.
Then there was “Hap” Apple, the earliest pilot in Rush County telling about a flying lesson he gave when the engine quit over Wayne County and the effort it took to put the plane down without serious injury. Finally, there was Joe Pike again talking about the 1940 Willkie campaign. Since he lived right behind the Willkie’s on Jackson Street, he was asked to help escort visiting dignitaries around one day. He was overjoyed to spend the day with Ernie Pyle!
There are many, many more such conversations recorded on those reels of tape. If you have the time and equipment, Mr. Hodge could certainly use the help in converting the tapes to DVD.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:05. The next meeting will be held at the Elks Lodge on February 12 at 11:00 a.m. The guest speaker at this meeting will be Barbara Harcourt and her presentation will be on Quaker women.
Carol S. Jones, Secretary