The
Hancock County Historical Society celebrated their
40th Anniversary on Saturday, February
16, 2008 at 306 Walnut Street in Carthage, IL. .
The
Hancock County Historical Society, as we know it
today, was officially organized on June
6th, 1968 at a meeting of interested
citizens representing all areas of the county
and the nine high school districts of the
county.
The Directors were basically Leo Lamet
(Warsaw), Clara Barker (Dallas City), Robert
Cochran (Hamilton), James Lawton (Plymouth),
Gladys McConnell (LaHarpe), Donald Parker
(Bowen-West Point), Olen Smith (Carthage),
William Walker (Nauvoo-Colusa), and Rachel
Weinberg (Augusta).
Robert “Bob”
Cochran was chosen as President, which he held
for 3 years. A
Constitution and Committees, which with little
revision are still used today, were
adopted.
The objectives adopted were to bring
together persons interested in Hancock County
history; to collect and provide safekeeping of
materials which establish or illustrate Hancock
County history; provide for preservation of
historical materials; to encourage interest of
young people in the historic heritage of the
county and state; and to cooperate with other
kindred groups in promoting and carrying out
project of benefit to the community. It was
also decided that an informative quarterly
newsletter would be of great value, especially
to those members who were not able to attend the
meetings.
On Wednesday evening, October
23rd, 1968, the first regular meeting
was held with a display of tools, household
items, kitchen utensils and other articles used
by early settlers and their wives. It was
noted that at this time the membership stood at
271 members. The
membership today runs around
269.
There
were 2 Hancock County Historical Societies prior
to the one started in 1968. In 1829
early pioneers of Hancock County started the
first society and then Mr. Don Gordon started
the second one in Hamilton around the
1920’s.
In 1967, the State of Illinois contacted
the county supervisors wanting each county in
the state to write a historical book for the
sesquicentennial. Bob
Cochran, the general chairman, along with Floyd
Burkhart, Harold Myers, Dale Owings and Ralph
Vass were chosen to serve on this committee.
Much hard work and research went into this
book.
Five editors were chosen by virtue of
their background, education and writing
experience. Plus the
names of the many persons who wrote, researched
or otherwise contributed to the history made a
formidable list. In fact,
the committees did such a fantastic job of
gathering information from all over the county
that they received an avalanche of information
that could not be included in the 1968 History
of Hancock County, Illinois book. All the
information received was then kept, logged,
sorted, and filed. This
information along with donated historical books
became the basis for this Hancock County
Historical Society.
2250 of the
1968 history books were printed at the Journal
Printing Company in Carthage and sold for $10.00
each.
The
historical society has continued the tradition
of publishing historic books such as: 1979
Historic Sites and Structures of Hancock County;
reprint of the 1874 Hancock County Historical
Atlas; 2000 Hancock County Pictorial History;
2004 Families of Hancock County; 2006, “I’ll Be
Seeing You”, WWII 1941-1945, as reported in the
Hancock County, Illinois
Newspapers.
Donald
Parker, Bowen, Illinois, is the only original
board member remaining on the Hancock County
Historical Society today. The
society continues to value the importance of
this 40 year board member who served as
president of the society for a combined total of
7 years and has researched and put together the
society’s newsletter for over 20 years which is
filled quarterly with historic information found
through continuous research of various
newspapers and information found within the
societies vast archives.
Mr. Parker continues to volunteer his
services and research talents every Thursday
from 9:00 to 3:00 pm. Because
of these pioneers and the many hours they
volunteer and continue to volunteer over these
past 40 years, the Hancock County Historical
Society is proud to have experienced persons to
help search for ancestors and/or historical
data.
The
Hancock County Historical Society has remodeled,
repainted, added more tables and chairs and
changed their look with more room and area
space.
The public is encouraged to drop by anytime. Feel
free to challenge any of the board members to
demonstrate how much information and how many
different ways they can help find historical
facts by browsing through the quarter of a
million cards on file, microfilm dating back to
the 1800’s from various county newspapers,
thousands of obituaries, family genealogies,
veteran information as well as historical
pictures and scrapbooks.
