Margaret Bruton

A professor at a college in TX messaged Mia while she was on the desk re a Margaret Bruton who was thought to have attended a "finishing school" in the 1860s in the area. I did a little research and replied as follows:

Hi, your message asking about a Margaret Bruton came to me. I checked my records, and there is no one that I see surnamed Bruton in the lists of our predecessors, the Collegiate Institute or Normal school. In a search of the local paper in nyshistoricnewspapers.org, an 1864 mention did pop up of a Christopher Bruton being a sergeant in “Capt. Edwards Company,” he was listed as 22 years old, and from Riga NY. That makes me wonder if perhaps your Margaret Bruton might have been from Riga, and attended the Riga Academy. That institution is long closed, but the building still stands as private residence:

 

http://nyhistoric.com/2013/09/riga-academy/

 

You might try contacting Ron Belczak, he is the Churchville Village Village and Riga Town Historian:

Sriram Bakshi

Taught theater, 1970-2000. He is in hospice now and I was contacted for some biographical info, picture etc., for a Daily Eagle post and a planned tree planting in his honor. Found bio info, but no pic, he was a quiet, self-effacing man, not one to be in the camera! Supplied what I could, and luckily they found a nice photo courtesy of the Seymour Library where he was on the board.

Writers Forum History

John Follaco called, said had been talking to a D&C reporter re WF, it's upcoming 50th... He wanted to know if I could talk to the reporter re its history. Said yes, reporter called, discussed with him on phone, got his email, sent some docs re the early days, a photo of Greg Fitz Gerald etc., and will send more later when off the reference desk.

First article for "The Post"

Sent Valerie Dimono an article about homecoming for the inaugural issue of The Post, and she emailed back to say it looked good, and also that she appreciated all the images I sent her.

Hartwell Society - '66

Been held up working on the '66 reunion. Book scanner PC was messed up, took a couple weeks before IT/helpdesk sent Rob over. He recloned PC etc., but then with the move I couldn't locate my driver cd, then he got hold of someone to send it to him, but unfortunately Rob was in an accident and so will have to make do with using a camera to do some of the work.


Anyway, will work on that, and am giving the luncheon talk again this year.

Scans for Chris Norment

Helped a student assistant of Chris' to scan a box of slides of his to use in power points etc.

Valerie Dimino

She did an internship with Mary Jo G. in archives in 2009, and is now on staff, marketing, and in charge of the new publication "The Port," the successor to the Kaleidoscope. She came over and spent an hour here learning about the archives, what it has, what I can do to help with projects etc.

Athletics requests

Need info/pics for two different people. First is Ron Vosberg '97, wrestling. This will be a little tricky, since wrestlers don't have #s, and Jim's photos aren't generally labeled... That's for us, our hall of fame, the other is for a school district that wants to honor a grad of theirs who was a soccer player here, Gary Miller '57.

MM House presentations

Am working with a small group at Morgan Manning house to set up presentations for this coming year. I am doing one in the spring on Seymour & Morgan and their part in the reaper revolution. Contacted Sarah Cedeno about doing one, and she is interested, in the history of the old Seymour House where the village offices, and the museum she directs, are located. Also am supplying information to Chris Albrecht re Mary Jane Holmes for a friend of his who is going to talk about her.

"Little libraries"

Ginny Campbell of our Friends group had the idea of acquiring a "little library," a small box or unit that people can place books in, and withdraw, in a casual and fun sort of way. There have become quite popular in many settings, and often the box is a decorated sort of thing, and FODL agreed to support it.


She contacted Gordy Fox '66 at my suggestion and I spent some time to assemble images and details about Hartwell Hall and Alumni House, which he was thinking could serve as possible models. I also included a couple images of the old Normal complex, and he actually was quite taken by that, and is now planning a scale model of that building!


More to work on, including questions of placement etc.