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Almond Historical Society

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ALMOND HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

FEBRUARY 2001

Donna B. Ryan, Editor

54 Main Street, Almond, NY 14804

(607) 276 6760

email: lee_donna@frontiernet.net  


Jeff Ryan, Assistant Editor

Ryan Agency, Hornell, NY 14843

 

 

Welcome New Life Members:

Larry Ryan, son of Lee and Louise Ryan, is a graduate of AACS, Class of 1957, and now lives in Bath, where he recently retired as a Nationwide Insurance Agent.

Rhonda Williams, of California, who together with her father, Jim Thomas, once again visited their hometown of Almond last summer, renewing friendships and recalling old memories.

CHRISTMAS PROGRAM GREAT SUCCESS

A large crowd enjoyed the annual Christmas musical program and open house hosted by the Historical Society on Sunday afternoon, December 3, 2000. The festivities began with a marvelous hour of Christmas music at Almond Union Church, featuring a choir of twenty-five local children singing several numbers, enthusiastic congregational carol singing, and talented soloists interspersed with poetic narration. Afterwards, those attending followed the children’s choir as they processed to the exquisitely decorated Hagadorn House where scrumptious wassail and cookies were served, with background music provided by a recorder ensemble. Outside, the lawn featured lighted Christmas trees decorated by community groups, and the spotlighted sign was handsomely decked out with greens and red velvet bows, a sight enjoyed throughout the Christmas season by local residents and motorists traveling through town.

Many folks worked to put this celebration together, including Dick Baker and Mayor Bob Morford, who were in charge of the trees, Dennis George, who did the outside wiring, Mary Ellen Westlake, who once again created her decoration magic inside and outside the Hagadorn House, the Fippler recorder group, AACS fourth graders for making the tree decorations, and Kitty Baker, Doris Montgomery, Hazel Bracken, and Harriet Jay for the refreshments. The musical program was organized by Donna Ryan, with Randy Corkey directing the choir. Rachel Cornell and Lindsy Baker were narrators, and special musical selections were performed by Rev. Jane Shumway, Jan Leathersich, Aaron Blades, Steve Crandall, Lee Ryan, and Sola Prince.

On the following day, the house was open in the morning and evening, with Mary Ellen Westlake, Wayne and Betty Kellogg, Kitty Baker and Hazel Bracken serving as hosts for the guests. A special thank you goes to Almond Union Church for the use of the sanctuary.

(See photos below)

 

Welcome to Our Christmas Open House

Click on the Thumbnail to see the photo.

When viewing enlarged photos, click "BACK" in your browser to come back to the thumbnails.

**Special Thanks to Dick Baker for the photos.**

 

 

 

 UPCOMING EVENTS AND DUES

 

Your board of directors has some interesting programs planned, and our fund raisers promise to be fun social events. Because of the good stewardship of your officers over the past three decades, we do not burden our members with continual projects to raise money. We only have two: our Trash and Treasures Sale on May 12, and our Strawberry Festival on June 25.

We need your help!

Please save your good, used items and donate them for our Trash and Treasures sale. It is scheduled to coincide with Alfred Tech and University graduations, and we should have a good crowd of buyers. Also, we can use folks to help set up, take down, put away, wait on customers, and also buy things!! Can you give us a few hours of your time that day?? This is also a great place to have lunch: We will serve beef on weck, hot dogs, and homemade baked goods.

The Strawberry Festival is the unofficial summer kickoff event for the community, and we need helpers for that, as well as customers. Please put these dates on your calendar, and contact an AHS officer to offer to help.

Your dues notice is also enclosed. You can help us by sending your check in promptly. We want to keep our dues very affordable - and we feel they are a good value, considering that you receive five issues of the newsletter each year. Some of you are unable to assist in our fundraisers. If you would like to send a donation in addition to your dues, we would be most happy to receive it.

Most of our board members are people who have served the Historical Society for many, many years. If you would like to offer your services to help, it would be very encouraging to us.

I would like to recognize our officers and thank them for all the work they do for AHS:

President: Kitty Baker

Vice President: Hazel Bracken

Treasurer: Wayne Kellogg

Secretary: Donna B. Ryan

Directors: Anna Morford, Lillian Hanks, Betty Kellogg, Chub Lockwood, Cindy Banker, Harriet Jay

Archivist: Doris Montgomery Clothing and Textile Curator: Mary Ellen Westlake

Genealogy Research: Barbara Bernstein

Many of these folks were charter members of AHS thirty-five years ago. If you see any of them, how about thanking them for their total commitment to preserving our history by maintaining our museum, Hagadorn House.

We hope to see you in 2001! We are always glad to hear from our members.

 

HELP WANTED:

Persons willing to assist Archivist Doris Montgomery by clipping newspaper articles for the family folders and other clerical work. Also needed is someone who has experience in writing grants who will assist us in obtaining a computer and its

 

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