Nativity Scenes at the Cambridge Historical Association

The Cambridge Historical Association has over twenty Nativity scenes on display. These were collected over the years by the Wheelers, often a couple of pieces a year. They include some handmade sets. Stop in to enjoy these during the Christmas season. And receive a candy cane as well.

Cambridge Water Towers

The old Cambridge water tower was recently taken out of service and will eventually be removed.
Our "Cambridge, Iowa The First 150 Years" book shows it on page 36 shortly after it was built in 1920. Page 32 has a more recent view of it behind the City Hall, similar to the top picture.
Below it the new water tower west of town is shown as you drive toward Cambridge.

Monthly Meeting and Election - November 20, 2007

The regular monthly meeting of the Cambridge Historical Association was held Tuesday, November 20th. Topics discussed included:

• Election of officers
• A combination Scanner-Printer-Copier-Fax was purchased for use with our computer. This allows us to answer requests for copies via email. Our email is cha@huxcomm.net
  
• Annual Meeting with the Story County Supervisors and other county historical societies is scheduled for Monday, November 26th, at the Maxwell Museum.
  

The new officers are:

• Don Erickson - president
• Wayne Messer - co-president
• Val Moore - director
• Joyce Williams - director
• Julie Erickson - secretary
• Florence Wheeler - treasurer

Monthly Meeting - September 18, 2007

The regular monthly meeting of the Cambridge Historical Association was held Tuesday, September 18th. Topics discussed included:

• Newsletters were mailed to all members last month. Please let us know if yours was not received.
• Class pictures have been scanned and returned to the Cambridge Library. These large composite pictures of the Cambridge School graduation classes will be part of an upcoming book on the Union township schools. Any information on the Union township country schools and any pictures of the "Nip and Tuck" and Douglas schools would be appreciated.
• A Digital camera was purchased for use by the group.
• Stagecoach stop in Cambridge? Someone was researching a report that the green Player's house was once a stagecoach stop. Does anyone know about this?
  

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October, 16.

Famous Iowans Series

The Des Moines Register has an ongoing series about Famous Iowans. While many are historical figures, the emphasis is on their Iowa connection. Thus, the Ronald Reagan entry discusses his Iowa career as a broadcaster. The people are sorted both alphabetically and by professions. The professions include Law, Politics, & Government, which includes Herbert Hoover and Black Hawk. The Other category includes Kate Shelly (heroine) and Billy Sunday (evangelist).

Historic Cambridge Area Barn Tour

Several members of the CHA attended the August 9th barn tour at the old Kermit Freeland place. This barn was built in 1875 on the Ole Apland place southwest of Cambridge. It is one of the oldest structures standing in Story County. Both the Tri-County Times and the Mid-Iowa News have articles and pictures of the event.

Monthly Meeting - August 21, 2007

The regular monthly Cambridge Historical Association meeting was held on Tuesday, August 21st. Topics discussed included:

• Elections for officers and directors will be held this Fall, probably in October. A letter about this and other news updates will be going to members shortly.
• Postcards depicting Cambridge sights, both present and past, are available at CHA. There are currently four choices.
  
• Internet service has been obtained for the computer at CHA.
  
• A website (this blog) has been started and will be publicized. Let us know what you would like to see here.
• Class pictures are being scanned for the next book, Schools of Union Township.
  

Jubilee Pictures

This is one of the pictures from the 2007 Cambridge Jubilee Days. The Cambridge Historical Association banner goes by. Pictures from the 2006 Cambridge Jubilee Days are also available.

Cambridge Memorial Library - New Hours

The Cambridge Memorial Library is another good resource for finding information about Cambridge's history. It has recently changed its hours to:

• Monday 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
• Monday 4 - 5:30 p.m.
• Wednesday 1 - 6 p.m.
• Friday 4 - 8 p.m.
• Saturday 10 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
  

Cambridge Graduating Class Pictures Needed

The current book project for the Cambridge Historical Association is Schools. As part of this we would like to include the graduation pictures for each years class. We have most of the pictures for the classes from 1911 to 1958 (the last graduating class from Cambridge). You can see these in the Cambridge Library, although we will be sending them out for scanning soon. We're missing a few and could really use some help locating copies that we could borrow to copy. The missing years are:

• 1913
• 1914
• 1916
• 1920
• 1922
• 1925

Also, if you know of any before 1911, please let us know.

Monthly Meeting - July 17, 2007

The Cambridge Historical Association meets the third Tuesday of the month except for December. July's meeting included the following items of note:

• Approved purchase of a microfilm scanner-printer (ScanPro 300, the same as used by the Maxwell Museum) for the Cambridge Library. This will replace the current system which only allows reading the microfilms of early Cambridge newspapers.
• Decided to have Schools as the topic for our next book. As part of this we will have the graduating class pictures for the Cambridge School scanned. These pictures are displayed in the Cambridge Library. Scanning will allow them to be incorporated into the book and make them available digitally for other uses.
• Approved providing Internet service to the CHA computer. Our thanks to the Story County IT Department for providing this computer as they upgraded their systems.
  
• Approved purchase of a scanner for our computer.
  

Save Your Genealogical (Historical) Society

Save Your Genealogy Society - About.com via Google alert
Genealogical Societies - Publish or Perish? - article from About.com link
Florida Genealogical Society - blog as their website via About.com article.