A Holiday Gift from Cornville, Maine

Anne Matano, who lives in Oak Creek Valley, once lived in Cornville, Maine.  Her friend Matt Quinn and his family still live there and own a Christmas Tree Farm. The Quinn family is also affiliated with the Cornville Historical Society there.  They regularly send Ann and her husband, Dave a Christmas tree and this year offered to send a wreath to be placed somewhere in our community. After some discussion on the Cornville Bulletin Board on Facebook, it was suggested it be placed on the Old Post Office, which happened on December 9, 2021.   

Judy Miller and Marin Joslin put together a thank you package from us to the citizens of Cornville, Maine. This included a variety of items including a map of Cornville, post cards, local honey, historical brochures, our postal history, and other items.

Holiday Event at Oak Creek School - A Success!

The Cornville Historical Society held its Annual Holiday Fundraiser Event at Oak Creek Elementary School, on  Sunday, December 5, 2021. It was great to see many of our members and friends back after a two-year hiatus.

The program featured a history presentation on 11 different Cornville School locations by Society researcher Janet Cassagio. Holiday treats and beverages were  served during the event. The program was followed by the Society’s popular raffle of holiday baskets featuring gift certificates and themed items. It was a happy and heartwarming time when a fourth-generation Oak Creek School student, Paige Badger patiently and affably assisted us with shuffling, drawing and disposing of raffle tickets for 18 baskets and on the 19^th and final basket chose her own ticket for the one basket she really wanted; it included a stuffed bear.  Those present were good-humored when we found out some people are luckier than others, not mentioning the name of one guest who took home five baskets.

Two additional highlights of our event included the first exhibition of a framed, water-color painted by Winifred Stryker, daughter of the Reverend Jacob Frey, of the West Oak Creek School built by her dad in 1921. The painting was donated by Debbie Veldhuis of Glendale, AZ, in July 2020, after she found it in a thrift shop near her home. We hope to display it permanently in the old post office in the near future.

The second highlight was the display of a Christmas Wreath gifted to the community of Cornville from the only other town named Cornville in the United States, Cornville, Maine.

The society would like to extend their thanks and appreciation to the local merchants who provided us with gift certificates and merchandise, including Cornville Mercantile, Farm A Go-Go, G’s Burgers, Manzanita, Javelina Leap and Page Springs Cellars. We encourage you to visit and support these Cornville merchants and thank them for donating to us. We also wish to thank our members, family and friends who donated items for the baskets, and assisted us with the setup and take down. We could not have a successful event without you!

Thank You For Your Support

You can now help the Cornville Historical Society when you shop at Amazon Smile. By selecting us as the donee at smile.amazon.com, we recieve .5% of the amount you spend on Amazon as a donation to our organization. This does not increase the amount you pay. Please consider adding us to your list of donors!

PROGRESS ON POST OFFICE RESTORATION

We continue to receive donations of period appropriate items and items that actually came from the post office. These are being added to the displays where possible. We also receive cash donations we use to buy additional display items and maintenance.

Carpentry is complete in the interior and some painting is needed. If you would like to volunteer a few hours to help us get this done, contact Stephen Cassagio at info@cornville-historical-society.org. 

THANKS AGAIN to all for your support and hard work!

ATTENTION: DUE TO CONCERNS ABOUT THE COVID-19 VIRUS THIS EVENT IS POSTPONED. WE WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN WE RESCHEDULE IT. WE ARE SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.

Cornville Historical Society Annual Meeting March 19!

The 15^th Annual Meeting of the Cornville Historical Society will be held on Thursday, March 19, 2020, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m., at the First Southern Baptist Church, 11340 Circle Dr., in Cornville.

The agenda includes the CY 2019 Reports, CY 2020 Budget and the Election of Board members. Board members nominated for election: Tracey Campbell, Janet Cassagio, Sharon Morehouse, Nita Rinehart and Diana Stipek. Refreshments will be available throughout the meeting.

Following the business portion of the meeting, we will have a special program featuring Kip Williams. Kip is a retired geologist with more than 40-years of world-wide mining experience having held various positions in mining companies from exploration geologist, district geologist, geological manager, vice-president to president. He travelled extensively including Central and South America, Russia and New Zealand. Experience spans the metallic and precious metals industries, industrial minerals, coal and environmental reclamation. He currently serves as Director of the Clemenceau Heritage Museum in Cottonwood. His presentation covers the world-famous Gypsum Caves discovered in an underground lead-zinc-silver operation near Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico.

This meeting and program are open to all interested parties free of charge. Please join us and bring a friend!