MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Atlas Coffee Mill
CALL TO ORDER BY CHAIRPERSON TOM SUTTER
TOTAL ATTENDANCE: 40
BOARD MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:
Mark & Karen Moderson, Tom Sutter, Christine Williams, James Richter, Laura Leimer, Brian Schneider, John Marx and Gwen Sargeant.
REVIEW OF UPCOMING MEETINGS AND PROGRAMS:
•DECEMBER NO MEETING
•JANUARY 18 - Chloe Siamof, a senior at Appleton West High School will discuss the History of Appleton West High School
•FEBRUARY 15 – Brad Brautigam, an Appleton firefighter, will discuss the history of the Appleton Fire Department
•MARCH 21 – Tom Boldt will give a presentation on the life of Harry Houdini.
•APRIL 18 – Ivan Spangenberg, retired conductor of the Appleton City Band will discuss it’s history.
APPLETON HISTORICAL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION:
•Officers and Committee Chairs for the organization are as follows:
A. President - Thomas Sutter
B. Vice President - Christine Williams
C. Secretary – James Richter
D. Treasurer – Laura Leimer
E. Mark and Karen Moderson, Principal Organizers
F. Brian Schneider, Technical Resources
G. David Buss, Research Specialist
PRESIDENT SUTTER ANNOUNCEMENTS:
A. Extended his deepest thanks to Cindy Czarnik-Neimeyer and other residents of the Peabody Park/Bellaire Park neighborhood for last month’s program.
B. Reminded the audience that we will not have a meeting in December, and looks forward to seeing everyone at the Atlas Coffee Mill on January 18, 2012.
C. We are pleased to announce there will be a tour of 3 Historic Homes in the City Park Neighborhood on November 19, 2011.
D. Sutter also reported that he toured the Outagamie Historical Society Exhibit at the Outagamie Museum at the corner of Drew St. and College Ave. The exhibit focuses on the Schlafer Hardware family.
E. Advised that Financial Reports on AHS are now available from Sutter or our Treasurer
F. The membership year ends December 31st, so renewal notices for 2012 are in the mail.
G. Reminds everyone to attend and help where possible with our Christmas at Conkey’s Event on November 22, 2011, and our Third History Fair on December 3, 2011.
H. Encourages us all to stop and see the AHS exhibit done by Mark Moderson and Dave Kalz at the Appleton Public Library, 2nd floor.
I. Made the night’s Door Prize Drawing- a $25.00 Gift Certificate to Fratello’s Restaurant was won by Rosemarie Debruin.
PRESIDENT SUTTER – ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING:
A. Per Bylaws the Annual Business Meeting was held and paid members allowed to vote.
B. Current Officers and Board Members were introduced and thanked for their service.
C. Also acknowledge service of retiring Treasurer Jack Voight and retiring Board Member Karen Moderson.
D. Nominations for Officers for 2012 were received, and majority approved.
President - Thomas Sutter
Vice President - Christine Williams
Secretary – James Richter
Treasurer – Laura Leimer
E. Nominations for Board Members for 2012 were received, and majority approved. (Officers Also Serve as Members of the Board)
Mark Moderson Brian Schneider
John Marx Linda Muldoon
Dave Buss ONE SEAT OPEN
Gwen Sargeant
AHS COMMUNICATIONS REPORT:
A. Matthew Payne our Videographer reported that he continues to video each of our monthly Historical Society meetings and that copies are available at $10.00 each.
B. Gwen Sargeant who has been doing a great job working with Christine and Brian on communications and public relations wanted to remind us that AHS can be found on Facebook by going to AppletonHistory.com.
C. Brian Schneider reminds us to check our AHS website regularly, as new pictures and articles are being inserted on a regular basis. Just go to www.appletonhistory.org
AHS HISTORY FAIR - DECEMBER 3, 2011:
Jim Richter, History Fair Co-Chairman, reported on planning underway for our third History Fair. Items reported:
(1) Mark and Karen Moderson are again our principal organizers. They have arranged some 15 exhibitors thus far who will display historic Appleton pictures and artifacts at the event.
(2) Richter reminded the audience that the History Fair Committee have concluded that objects, artifacts and pictures have been the biggest attractors in the past, and therefore they will continue to be our focus for this and the March 3, 2012 event..
(3) Arrangements have been made for a WHBY radio appearance by Mark Moderson prior to the event, as well as having Nancy Barker help promote for us on her WHBY program.
PROGRAM SPEAKER – Emily Gilbert of The Appleton Public Library – the history and role of the library.
Emily’s Background:
A. Emily is a lifelong homeschooler with a deep interest in history and costume, especially the Regency and Victorian eras.
B. She has worked as a costume interpreter at Heritage Hill State Historical Park.
C. She also has volunteered at the Hearthstone Historic House.
D. She has been employed as a Library Page at the Appleton Public Library since 2008.
Emily’s Presentation:
AIn 1888 the Appleton Public Library began as a Reader Room in the old YMCA.
BIn 1891 the YMCA and the Reading Room moved into the old Congregational Church. Regrettably 2 years later the building was burned.
CIn 1893 due to a recession construction of the YMCA and library were postponed until October 1896.
DThe first formal library was set up in a room above Peterson Rehbein Meats. George Jones provided the property.
EAlberto Brown was hired as the First Library Director. He didn’t have much of an inventory to manage at the time.
FThe Free Library Association campaigned for books and a building. A City Ordinance was passed in 1897 to build a library and make George Jones as Board President. A ½ mil tax was approved to fund the facility.
GThe library group proved to be very successful in their efforts and finally got so many book donations they had to hire a permanent Librarian and Deputy Librarian to catalog and disperse the books.
HBuilding the first library though turned out to be a political fracas. Democrats fought the Republicans on the issue. On June 1, 1899, the library was formally approved with Mayor Herman Erb Jr. assessing the swing vote to get it done. Suddenly many fund raisers arose to help with building the new library.
IThe new building finally became reality on March 28, 1900, when it was dedicated and opened. The 1ST floor of the building served as the library, the 2nd floor served as City Hall.
JPrograms advanced and by 1905 librarians began visiting all schools promoting books and the library.
KIn 1911 the Library began providing it’s first Story Hour.
LIn 1921 a formal Children’s Department was organized.
MIn 1939 City Hall was moved out of the building to the old red brick building at the corner of Appleton and Franklin Streets, where much later the current library was built.
NIn 1954 the Library was finally expanded into the 2nd floor of their 100 S. Oneida Street building. This beautiful building functioned for many years but was lost with construction of the present facility. The Outagamie Historical Society made every effort to preserve the structure with no success.
OOn June 1, 1981, the new and current Library opened at the southeast corner of Appleton and Franklin Streets. The original structure provided 70,000 square feet. But through great community support and use the library expanded it’s current building in 1996 to provide much more space and larger collections.
PThe library continues to be a success and some 1 ½ million items were checked out of the facility in 2010.
Special Thanks to Karen Probst:
AHS member and Appleton Public Library staffer Karen Probst assisted Emily with
research for her presentation, and also helped answer questions at the meeting.
MONTHLY MEETING AND SPEAKER’S PRESENTATION AGAIN VIDEOTAPED:
We want to again thank Matthew Payne for his videotaping our entire meeting. DVD’s from his tapings are available through Tom Sutter.
Respectfully, James L. Richter AHS Secretary 12/6/11