The Jefferson County Historical Society (JCHS) and Jefferson County Genealogy Society (JCGS) have worked hand in hand for the past 50 years preserving and recording the history of Jefferson County Kansas.  The two societies share the responsibilities in maintaining Old Jefferson Town. 

Old Jefferson Town consists of 10 buildings and a prairie grassland that preserve and exhibit donated artifacts (objects, documents, photos, books, maps, etc.)  It has an extensive genealogy library open to the community on weekends throughout the year and by appointment. 

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A variety of volunteers keep the museum up and running. Recently the Genealogy and Historical society merged to better meet the needs of Old Jefferson Town.  JCHGS meets monthly to  hold a business meeting to discuss events and the needs of the facilities.   Community members are encouraged to be a part of the meetings. 

Volunteers work on accessioning and displaying objects, clipping and filing paperwork (obituaries, maps, family histories, photos etc.), planning events and connecting to the community through the local newspapers and social media.  Local school groups and 4H groups help with projects outside keeping the grounds picked up and landscaping maintained. 

The Jefferson County Historical and Genealogy Society has been awarded a $3000 grant  from the Kansas State Historical Records Advisory Board (KSHRAB) to work towards bringing the Old Jefferson Town historical archives to a digitized format. If all goes well, the digitized format will be available online around the first of June to not only Jefferson County, but others across the United States and World. 

The Kansas State Historical Records Advisory Board (KSHRAB) seeks to encourage Kansas organizations and individuals to preserve  records of the past by offering a digital grant to aid in the process of digitizing records into a shareable format to the public. Their funds are granted from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). 

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Volunteers from the OJT museum began working January 10th to enter the thousands of objects, photos, archives and library items into a software program purchased with the grant money.  The Past Perfect Software offers organization of the records that have been kept on paper for the past 50 years.   The digitizing of the museum artifacts will make researching easier, not only at the museum, but also from the comforts of your home.  The Past Perfect system will allow us to locate the items in the museum quicker if you want to come and see an item in person. 

Currently, there are eleven volunteers who are working consistently each week at getting data entered into Past Perfect.  So far over 5000 objects, photos, books, paper documents, etc have been entered into the system. We have inserted over 1500 Jefferson County names into the system that are linked to biographical information, objects, photos, books, maps and any documents that have been donated to the museum by that person or their family.    

While the project is progressing much more quickly than  ever imagined, please understand that this project is a 3-5 year project.  When working with each record entered, each item can take anywhere from 4-10 minutes to enter.  That’s a lot of volunteer hours. Just to give you an idea of what we have to work on...there are over 30,000 photos in our file cabinet that need to be scanned and data documented. In the museum buildings alone, I’m guessing that there are at least 5,000 - 10,000 objects that will need to be photographed and data entered. Our genealogy library is growing each day, there are over 5000 books in the library.  There are thousands of family files and obituaries that someday could be scanned and connected to families and names in our system. 

There are some ways that you can become involved in this project.  If you have an hour or two a week or every couple of weeks, we can keep you busy.   We are in need of volunteers who can scan photos and documents, file clippings, and assist with the cataloging of the numerous library books and photos that we house in our genealogy library.  No experience is necessary, we will train you. 

Volunteer hours are: Tuesday’s 11:00 am to 4:00 pm and Saturday’s  1:00 pm - 4:00 pm.

If you are  interested in becoming a part of preserving Jefferson County’s history, please email:  oldjefftown@gmail.com.

Become a volunteer!

Old Jefferson Town would not be here if it weren't for its volunteers. For over 50 years, history keepers have helped to preserve Jefferson County history.  Come and be a part!

CONTACT 

ADDRESS

Jefferson County Historical Society

P.O. Box 146

Oskaloosa, KS 66066

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MUSEUM HOURS

Due to COVID, the Genealogy library and building tours are open by appointment only. 

It will reopen in February, pending COVID scores in Jefferson County.

CONTACT US

oldjefftown@gmail.com

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