I had to chuckle when we ran across this photo in the "stacks" at the Old Jefferson Town Genealogy library. As a retired public school educator, I can say, this would have been a "busy recess duty" area. Do you recognize anyone in this photo or can anyone put a year on this?
Do you remember playing on a merry-go-round like this one? Did you know that Old Jefferson Town has a merry-go-round like this near the Wellman School building?
I did a rough estimate of how many photos are in our OJT files...we have close to 30,000 photos. I knew we had a lot, but when I did the Math, I was amazed and brought to reality. So far, we've scanned approximately 800 of those photos to our online program. When we scan a photo, whatever information we have is entered as well. While scanning 800 photos is a lot of volunteer hours, we have a whole lot more hours to put in. Right now we have 7 consistent volunteers who come in and keep plugging away at the files. If you would be interested in helping, we can use your help.
Currently, there's a group of volunteers that comes in on Tuesday afternoon. We are limited on the number of people we can get on computers, so Tuesday afternoon is full. However, if anyone is interested in coming in on Tuesday morning, we would love to have you join us. The work time has become a fun time to share stories and learn about the past of Jefferson County. No experience is needed, we'll show you what you need to know.
Along with the photos, we have been continuing to enter object data and people data. So far, we have entered over 3200 object files and entered data on over 1200 people. We are hoping to go "live" in June with what we have entered. You, the public, will have access, virtually, to the rich history of Jefferson County. It's definitely an exciting time for Old Jefferson Town and Jefferson County. ~Deb
I meant to ask you the other day, Deb, if that photo you probably have of the ladies in their dresses walking away from the old Valley Falls train depot is ID'd on the back, because the names of those ladies show up in a reprint of the photo that appeared in the Valley Falls paper in the mid-1960s.
I meant to ask you the other day, Deb, if that photo you probably have of the ladies in their dresses walking away from the old Valley Falls train depot is ID'd on the back, because the names of those ladies show up in a reprint of the photo that appeared in the Valley Falls paper in the mid-1960s.
I will have to look and if not, grab that information to add to the photo. We are also able to add a link to the newspaper article, if it's online.
I will have to look and if not, grab that information to add to the photo. We are also able to add a link to the newspaper article, if it's online.
Hmm, I'm not sure why the postings are being added twice...lol..always something to figure out.
On Facebook Neva Keck said that the tree behind the merry-go-round was a persimmon. That and the smaller, more airborne, merry-go-round thing identify the playground as the one at the Oskaloosa primary school. Leanne Chapman said that the playground was at the south end of the current nursing home block in Oskaloosa. My mother, Mary Roberts Hoskinson Schiller, taught at that school in the 1940s and '50s. She came to Oskaloosa from southeast Kansas. She was familiar with a different variety of persimmon tree, one whose fruit was not ripe and fit to eat until after the first frost of the season. When her students offered her an early persimmon from this tree, she thought they were playing a trick on her and refused to eat it.