Titanic Disaster in the Cambridge Leader

The April 18, 1912 issue of the Cambridge Leader, Vol. XVII No 51, page 6 reported the initial reports of the sinking of the Titanic as shown to the left.

Next Meeting Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The next meeting of the Cambridge Historical Association is next Tuesday, February 21st, at 7 p.m.  This will be a combination business meeting and work session.  Everyone is invited to attend and to see (and help with) the new exhibits we are preparing!

We've Expanded Our Yearbook Holdings

School yearbooks can be a great source of pictures and information about Cambridge and its people.  They offer pictures of students and teachers, sports and other activities, and may have other historical notes.  For example, some of the Cambridge Echoes yearbooks offer detailed histories of the graduating class including who joined or left the class in which grade.  They generally include not only the graduating class pictures; but, also those of many of the following grades.

We have a collection of both Cambridge Echoes yearbooks and the subsequent Ballard Bombers yearbooks for your research.  While we had some of each, we were recently able to obtain a number of Ballard Bombers yearbooks to greatly expand the years we cover!

Our current holdings are:

• Cambridge Echoes 1952 through 1956
• Ballard Bombers 1962 through 1964
• Ballard Bombers 1967 through 1971
• Ballard Bombers 1975
• Ballard Bombers1978 through 1979
• Ballard Bombers 1981 through 1987
• Ballard Bombers 1990
• Ballard Bombers 1992
• Ballard Bombers 1995
• Ballard Bombers 1998
• Ballard Bombers 2001 through 2003
• Ballard Bombers 2005 through 2011

This still leaves us with a number of years not represented in our files.  We know the Cambridge Echoes was published in 1951; but, we do not know when it started.  Does anyone know how early it was published?  Do you have yearbooks you would like to donate or would allow us to copy?  Thank you for your help!

Cambridge Veterans from WW II Can Be Found in Story County Index from Ames Historical Society

The Ames Historical Society had their World War II Veterans Index online in time for Veterans Day.  This contains nearly 5300 service personnel from all branches, both from Ames and throughout Story County, Iowa.  There are thousands of scanned articles, photos, and other materials available online.

Preparing this information for online availability was aided with a grant from the State Historical Society of Iowa.  Learn more about the creation of this material during WW II and its history in this Ames Tribune article.  The Ames Historical Society.also describes how it came to be available online.

While you cannot search for Cambridge specifically (as far as I can tell), the index does contain many Cambridge veterans.  Those that I noticed so far are:

• CLAWSON, Robert Gale
• DEAN, Lauren White
• DEAN, Robert E.
• HILL, John Meredith 
• JENNINGS, Wilbur Guy  
• SEVERSIKE, Richard B.  
• TOMLINSON, Melvin E.
• TOMLINSON, Paul E.
• TOMLINSON, Rex E.
• WEATHERMAN, Darold
• WEATHERMAN, Jimmie J.

Note that the Ames Historical Society welcomes additions to the project.

More on the Old Cambridge Theatre

While looking at our microfilms of the Cambridge Leader, I saw  some more items about the Cambridge Theatre.  I probably would not have noticed them if not for our recent posting about the Cambridge Theatre in the Hollywood in the Heartland database.  They do have some information which was not included in the history of the Cambridge Theatre.  Looking at them reminded me to check our first book, Cambridge, Iowa The First 150 Years, as well.

In our book, pages 128-129 describe the Opera House and the Movie Theatres.  Some of that information came from these Cambridge Leader articles.

The front page of the September 29, 1921 Cambridge Leader announced that H. A. Hoskins and L. Collins have gone into the movie show business by renting the Cambridge Opera House.  The first show in the Star Theatre was to be "Charlie Chaplin in the Kid".

A little more than two months later, the front page of the December 1, 1921 Cambridge Leader had two items about the movie theatre.  The first announced a change of ownership (again), with Hoskins and Collins selling out to H. F. Spencer and son of Ames.  The second was an announcement that the first offering by them would be that Saturday with Harry Carey in If "Only Jim" followed by the shorter "Vamps and Scamps".

Florence Wheeler Can Be Reached at Sunny View Care Center

As you may have heard, Florence Wheeler fell and broke her hip this fall.  After later surgery, she is doing well and can now be reached at the Sunny View Care Center.  You can visit or reach her at Sunny View Care Center, 410 NW Ash Drive, Ankeny, IA 50023-1590.  She can be reached by phone at 515-964-1101, which is the main number for Sunny View.

Florence was the founder of the Cambridge Historical Association, which for many years was located in her residence.  We wish her a speedy recovery!

The Old Cambridge Theatre is listed in Hollywood in the Heartland

Hollywood in the Heartland is a research project of Preservation Iowa and the Iowa State Historic Preservation Office that seeks to document Iowa's movie legacy.  Part of this has been identification of motion picture theaters and other buildings that have served as theaters.  Their online database of these buildings allows searching by name, city, county, and architect or builder.

Among the 16 buildings found by searching for Story (as a county), is the Cambridge Theatre shown above in its current incarnation as the Cambridge Library and the American Legion Post 233.  The Cambridge Theatre link describes its history and architecture.

The project is continuing to look for information about the theaters it has identified and any that it has missed.  You can help them by adding to their survey as described in Get Involved on this page.

Also, be sure to check out the section labeled Extras.  This includes Iowans in Hollywood and Hollywood in Iowa.