June 2,
2019
We had plans
to have all shut-off dates for the Volney & Surrounding Area History Books
done by 2018, with write-up in the spring & photos in the fall. There were
a few last photo scanning’s that I had planned and contacted people on that
Tammy Bromley & I had planned on doing last summer. I was not able to do
them until this spring and we extended the time to get permission forms mailed
in and photos posted to the Volney-Beaver & Surround Area Historical Site
until May 31, 2019.
We have been
working on these books for about five years and had planned on having them done
before now. Different things have come up along the way that has caused us to
have to extend the time to get photos and information in. In order to get these
books done, we have to now completely cut off from collecting any more
materials.
I did start
the first part of January 2019 to pull things together for the books and I
posted on our Facebook history site the names of people that we still did not
have photos of. After June 1, 2019, I will go back through and put in the
photos that we received by that time. It took me from January to the middle of
May to get through all the names that we have. Our list of names is the list
that I made about 4 years ago from old census records, cemetery records, and
old plot book records plus a few other names were added as we found others that
should be included. When I went through starting in January 2019, I was just
doing individuals and couple’s photos; this time through I will add the family
photos and add any photos that we have gotten since then. After finishing that
which will take some time, I will go through and work on the community photo.
This is all very times-taking, so will take some time to finish. With all this
that I mentioned above I am just putting the photos that we have received with
the names on our individuals/couples name list, which has some basic person
information gathered by our book committee members and by Naomi’s office team,
and basic photo descriptions. Even after that I will have to go back through
everything, checking the information, checking which photos are clear enough
for publishing, checking with book committee members to see if
information/descriptions are correct, etc. This will take me, I would say at
least a year to do as it is very times-consuming and I do not want to rush and
make mistakes. Also, it is taking so long because we have so many names and so
many photos which really is a good thing as we will be able to include so many
different families now. I am so sorry that this is all taking such a long time.
When I finish with my part which is the photos, then it all goes to Naomi’s
office for her team to put the photos with the write-ups that different ones written
about their families, and the write-ups that some of our book committee members
researched and wrote. So very many people have been involved in pulling all
this history information together. I want to thank all that has had a part in
getting these books together. Naomi’s team will put the books together and get
them all ready to be published.
Tammy
Bromley and I, from time to time may be doing scanning’s for family history
books that we are talking of starting to work on after we finish doing our part
in getting the Volney & Surrounding Area History Books done. We are
finished scanning for the Volney History Books. I want to mention this, so the
scanning do not get confused. If we get enough photos we may be doing several
family history books. Mine would include: an All The Gleason’s History Book
(Encoh & Lovina Gleason Family), a Thompson History Book (Benjamin &
Libby & Tamma Thompson Family), a Giddings
History Book (Elisha
& Philothea Giddings Family), a Knowles History Book (Charles &
Wealthia & Hannah Knowles Family), a Newville History Book (James &
Hellena Newville Family), a Way History Book (Anderson & Leanna Way
Family), a Sanders History Book (Samuel & Mary Sander’s Family), a
Bellinger History Book (Jacob & Elizabeth Bellinger Family), and a Harmon
History Book (Daniel & Mary Harmon Family). These books will be just one
volume each and not as many pages as the Volney & Surrounding Area History
Books which will consist of three volumes of about 500 pages each.
History Books - Volney & Surrounding Area - Life in the Area During –
Vol. I - 1860-1909,
Vol. II - 1910-1959,
Vol. III - 1960-1985
Life of Individuals Approximately
Vol. I - born before 1870
Vol. II - born before 1900
Vol. III - born before 1930
Vol. I - born before 1870
Vol. II - born before 1900
Vol. III - born before 1930
Area Covered
Walkerville/Crystal Valley/Ruby Creek to Bitely
to Hesperia
Communities Included
Volney and surrounding communities --
Colfax, School
Section, Troy, Carr Settlement, Wagamott Settlement, Hardscrabble/Shaw, Nichols
Lake, Woodland Park, Beaver/North, Benton Lake, Huber, Old Denver, Daily,
McLaren Lake, Philo, Klondike, Levitt Townhall, Abson/Gowdy
History Book Committee Members
Volney – Beaver and Surrounding Area History
Group’s History Book Committee
•
Volney – Beaver and Surrounding Area History Book Committee Members
•
Nellie Way Dezinski – History Site Project Coordinator & History
Books Project Coordinator
•
Sarah Antoinette Dezinski - Assistant
•
Tammy Gleason Bromley – Assistant History Books Project Coordinator
•
Naomi Thompson Pogorelski – Education Coordinator from F-H-C Educational
Group
•
Christian & Michal Livingston F-H-C Assistants
•
Furlo Booher Bengtsson
•
Cara Thomas Eding
•
Dave Hunt Sr.
•
Hugh Conley
•
Toni Tozer Rumsey
•
Iva Smith Fairchild
•
Shaun Hill
•
Marie Crandall Rose
•
Steven Christian Sr.
•
John Bettys
•
Starr Pletcher Gleason
•
Delores Hunt Brown
•
Ruth Dudley Frees
•
Shawn Akens
•
Sandra Sibley Shineldecker
•
Christine Turple
•
Scott Kroepel
•
Terri Wantz Teall
•
Brian Steinmacher
•
Anita Murphy Lotts
•
Scott Hall
•
Dave Armstrong
•
Mary Tillery Walker
•
Gregory Brasic
•
Marjorie Hewitt Howes
•
Joni Smith Gerard
If a family member did not turn in a
write-up, there won’t be one in the books for an individual or couple. Michal
Livingston, Naomi’s assistant found and put with each name (that she could find
information on) some basic information. I made the list of names, Michal added
basic information if she could find some, and I went back and added the photos
that we have of each person. Michal is adding some obituaries, etc. if we have
them. Joni Gerard is doing a lot of research with photos and obituaries and we
may add some from there if we don’t already have a photo or obituary: this will
be probably mainly for volume three. Naomi and Penelope (a friend of Naomi’s)
are working on a book to follow our 3 volumes of the Beaver People (people of
Beaver Township and others that lived along the Beaver Creek area). Our three
volumes will be mostly photos and documented materials where their book is non-documented
stories.
How did these books get started? I was
interested in the history of the area and my family history who all traced back
to this area, my father’s a couple of generations and my mother’s father back
four generations and her mother’s back five generations (both her mother’s
mother’s family and her mother’s father’s family); they were the first to
settle in the Volney area. I also had been working with the F-H-C Educational
Group (with Naomi mostly). They were using my DEL-A-LAC/DAL-A-LEC – The
DEL-A-LAC Way materials that I wrote while working on my master’s and beyond
master’s classes at Grand Valley State University. I started a Volney &
Surrounding Area Historical Facebook Group to gather old photos and
information. Naomi asked me if could pull it together for a series of history
book as history curriculum. We used grants that Naomi got to get started. Naomi
wanted to use the books to give to teachers when they came to Camp Dream with
student to help them teach the area’s history to their students. At this time
Naomi was an University Professor and Director of the small center in a town
near her home in Maine. Camp Dream started out as a dream of mine for a camp
for my students in Muskegon Heights and students of Hesperia were my daughter
went. We own land in the area that I wanted to develop into camp. The gathering
and organizing of materials for the books takes so much time that I couldn’t
work on the camp dream, so Naomi’s F-H-C Educational Group took over leadership
of planning Camp Dream. This book project has become so much bigger then we had
first imagine and the Camp Dream project has become so much more than we had
first imagine. Both are coming along great but they both are going to take a
lot longer time then we first thought as they have both become so much more.
Summery of what is done & what we
will be doing now –
·
I just finished
going through our list of individual & couple names putting their pictures
with their names & posting the ones that we did not have photos of yet (first
of January -middle of May). Michal (Naomi’s assistant) had researched & put
basic information with each name (over the last few years).
·
Tammy Bromley
& I scanned some photos that we weren’t able to do as planned on doing last
summer.
·
Next I will go
through adding the family photos (starting after May 31). This will take some
time as I will need to contact families on the names in the photo; most have
some names with them but I need to check if we have the right names to the
right individuals.
·
We will save all
of this on a large back-up so the information is there for future projects as
family books, etc.
·
Then we still
have to go back through, double checking which photos are of the best quality
to be used in the books and proof read the basic information.
·
Then it will be
sent on to Christian & Michal where they will sort it all into the three
volumes and put the pages together for each book with the adding of index, etc.
Some of this was done a couple of years ago, but we have received so much more
since then that we need to add to what we done back then.
·
Then it will be
ready to go to publishing.
Again, sorry that this all is taking
so long; we didn’t realize it would take this long when we started. It just
took a long time to collect all the photos, information, & permission
forms. A couple things came up along the way where what we were doing was
confused with what other groups were doing as dates, etc. were very similar.
So, to make it less confusing we decided to extend our date. This worked out in
the long time good for us as other photos, etc. surfaced that will make the
history books so much better.
Nellie Dezinski
