Next Meeting Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Just a reminder that the next meeting of the Cambridge Historical Association, Cambridge, Iowa, is next Tuesday - February 17, 2009, at 7 p.m. Everyone is invited.

Photos of Current Cambridge, Iowa - Follow-up

Just a short note following up our previous post. Random Iowa did visit on February 8th and took great pictures of some Cambridge landmarks. Some of them are in this posting on their blog. This also includes a link to the Cambridge pictures they have posted on Wikimedia. Some of the pictures were incorporated in the Wikipedia article on Cambridge, Iowa.

Thank you Random Iowa for this project and for including Cambridge in it.

Photos of Current Cambridge, Iowa

The Random Iowa blog had as its topic this week visiting Cambridge, Iowa. (They were planning to visit on February 8th.) They travel around Iowa to a different area each week to take interesting photographs for Wikimedia Commons, i.e., the pictures may be used in Wikipedia articles and related projects. For example, the pictures might be used to illustrate the Cambridge, Iowa Wikipedia article. I'm pleased they planned to visit us and look forward to seeing the pictures.

They asked for suggestions of sights to photograph and I offered the American Legion Mural and the Memorial on Water Street. What do you think we should be photographing? What pictures should the Cambridge Historical Association be collecting now to document Cambridge's history for the future? Please add your comments here or contact us.

Finding that Random Iowa, which I was previously unaware of, was going to visit was partly luck and partly use of some of the tools available on the Internet. The timing was mainly luck because Random Iowa posted their plans on the day before their visit. I found out about their plans because I also have a Google Alert for Cambridge, Iowa, which searches blogs and sends results, if any, daily. You can set these up to email or receive via a Feed Reader. For more information, see the Google Alerts FAQ. The results I receive are similar to this Google blog search for "Cambridge Iowa", just spread out in time rather than all at once.

Monthly Meeting and Election - November 18, 2008

The regular monthly meeting of the Cambridge Historical Association was held Tuesday, November 18, 2008. Items discussed included:

• The Slater Area Historical Association presentation by Amy Yoakum on the Cemeteries of Story County
• The microfilm reader-printer has been received and installed in the Cambridge Library. A different computer is required to make it fully operational.
• Mayor Scott DeYoung has requested our help in designing a sign for the Heart of Iowa Nature Trail from Cambridge to Maxwell.
  
• Election of officers for 2009.

The officers elected were:

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

The next regular meeting of the Cambridge Historical Association will be Tuesday, January 20, 2009, at 7 p.m.

Monthly Meeting - October 21, 2008

The regular monthly meeting of the Cambridge Historical Association was held Tuesday, October 21, 2008. Among the items discussed were:

• Memorials for long time supporters of the Cambridge Historical Association.
• Larry Purvis gave us a wooden model of the old Cambridge water tower which was recently taken down. These are also available for purchase from Larry.
• The American Legion has requested our help preparing a list of veterans buried in the Cambridge Cemetery.
• Florence Wheeler and Wayne Messer represented Cambridge at a meeting of the Story County Historical Societies with the Story County Supervisors. We reported on our accomplishments this year and heard what other groups are doing. This was followed by a tour of the Roland Museum.
• Arlen Twedt of the Central Iowa Norwegian Project sent us a transcript of a news item from The Story County Representative, July 6, 1870, describing the 4th of July celebration and town of Cambridge, Iowa, at the time.

The next regular meeting will be Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at 7 p.m. It will include election of officers for the coming year.

Monthly Meeting - September 16, 2008

The regular monthly meeting of the Cambridge Historical Association was held Tuesday, September 16, 2008. Because we did not have a quorum, a formal meeting was not held. We did note a request from John Stow of the American Legion for help in listing the veterans buried in the Cambridge area cemeteries. Also, the Slater Area Historical Society is having a presentation by Amy Yoakum on "Cemeteries of Story County", October 23rd. The remainder of the meeting was used as a work session checking obituaries, email requests, and indexing.

The next regular meeting of the Cambridge Historical Association will be Tuesday, October 21, 2008, at 7 p.m.

Cambridge Iowa Newspapers

The local newspaper in Cambridge Iowa had a number of name changes in its history. These changes are described in our first book on page 73. A summary of the name changes for your reference:

• Cambridge Independent was a weekly begun June 7, 1881. It lasted a few months.
• Cambridge Reporter started publication April 27, 1882.
• Cambridge Argus followed.
• Cambridge Herald published Vol. 1, No. 1 on February 27, 1885.
• Cambridge Garland started August 2, 1887.
• Cambridge Press appeared in 1893.
• Cambridge Chronicle was in 1895.
• Cambridge Dispatch 1896.
• Cambridge Phoenix began in 1903.
• Cambridge Leader 1905.
• Cambridge Clipper 1906.
• Cambridge Leader 1906 to March 1972.

Since then the Tri-County Times has carried weekly news of Cambridge.

Microfilm of most of the Cambridge newspapers is available in the Cambridge Memorial Library and at the State Historical Society of Iowa.

[Updated 4-11-2010 with new Tri-County Times link.  Updated 11-10-2016 with new Tri-County Times link.]