Isabella County Historical Society Organizational Records, 1972-2023 (Scattered)

Summary

Creator:

Isabella County Historical Society.

Abstract:

This collection is the incomplete organizational records of the Isabella County Historical Society.

Extent:

.75 cubic ft. (in 2 boxes)

Language:

English

Authors:

Collection processed and finding aid created by Marian Matyn, 2024

Background

Scope and Content:

This collection is the incomplete organizational records of the Isabella County Historical Society. The majority of the collection consists of scrapbook pages documenting their successful efforts to preserve, restore, and relocate the Isabella County Courthouse cupola, with many black and white and color photographs, 1972-2023; meeting minutes, for Board and membership, with treasurer’s reports, some attachments 2007-2022; and related foundational and tax documents, 1987-2021 (Scattered). The collection is organized alphabetically by folder heading, and then chronologically. The collection is in excellent physical condition. All the materials are letter-size or smaller. Researchers may be interested in a folder of earlier Society materials, 1958-1963, and undated, which is separately cataloged.

Processing Note: .25 cubic foot of miscellaneous financials and a few duplicates as well as two empty binders were returned to the donor as per the donor’s agreement.

Biographical / Historical:

Organizational History:

The Isabella County Historical Society’s name and goals have evolved over time.

The Central Michigan Historical Society met Tuesday evening, October 14, 1943 to elect officers, according to December 12, 1943 CMLife. The officers included President Dr. Van Lieu, head of the Central Michigan College, later Central Michigan University (CMU), History Department; Vice President Webb McCall, editor of the Isabella County Times-News; secretary Dr. Rolland Maybee, also of the History Department; and treasurer Sylvia F. McGuire of Roosevelt Oil Company. Dr. Maybee reported on the State Historical Society, of which he was a trustee and the future of the local historical organization. A committee was formed to create foundational documents. No further Society activities were documented by the news.

The Central Michigan Historical Society met Tuesday evening, October 14, 1943 to elect officers, according to December 12, 1943 CMLife. The officers included President Dr. Van Lieu, head of the History Department; Vice President Webb McCall, editor of the Isabella County Times-News; secretary Dr. Rolland Maybee, also of the History Department; and treasurer Sylvia F. McGuire of Roosevelt Oil Company. Dr. Maybee reported on the State Historical Society, of which he was a trustee and the future of the local historical organization. A committee was formed to create foundational documents. No further Society activities were documented by the news. From 1958 through 1963 the Society existed under Dr. Maybee and CMU President Charles Anspach’s leadership, meeting in Anspach’s office (see separate 1 folder collection of the Society’s papers, 1958-1963, and undated). Dr. Maybee sent his history students to State History conferences during the 1960s. The Isabella County Historical Society sponsored a coffee hour on campus for the 1961 Michigan Historical Society annual meeting (CMLife September 22, 1961).

There is no extant documentation of the Society from 1964 until 1972. The July 1972 Centralight reported that Shirley Bragg, then president of the Isabella County Historical Society, worked with CMU professor of History Floyd Dain and Harold Mahan, Director of the CMU Center for Cultural and Natural History to find historical materials to restore and supply the Bohannon School. While there is no other news documentation of the Society in the 1970s, photographs from 1972 in this collection document that the Society was actively photographing history and participating in public activities concerning the Isabella County Courthouse cupola.

The Mount Pleasant Area Historical Society, Inc., Mount Pleasant, Michigan, was incorporated in 1987. The mission of the non-profit Society was to “bring together those people interested in the history and heritage of the City of Mt. Pleasant and its surrounding area.” The Society goals were that it might do any or all of the following activities: collect printed material, manuscripts, and objects; preserve and make the collections accessible to the public; preserve historic buildings, monuments, and markers; disseminate information about its collections through meetings, lectures, and other means; and collaborate with other historical organizations to collection and preserve materials of historical significance.

The Society actively engaged in a wide variety of history-related activities through the decades, notably Founders Day (Mount Pleasant’s founding day in February) and Michigan History week. The Society financially supports the Historical Society of Michigan and the John and Audrey Cumming Endowment at the Clarke Historical Library. The Society formed the Elizabeth Hursh (1838-1927) Monument Committee in 2011 to complete an unfinished project from the 2009 Isabella County sesquicentennial. Mary Ellen Brandell, for whom CMU’s Volunteer Center is named, wrote a small booklet on Hursh’s life. Hursh was an Isabella County pioneer woman. CMU was built on her property. The committee worked with the Hursh family to create the marker, its size, and wording. The marker was unveiled in a ceremony at Riverside Cemetery on June 16, 2012.

One of the largest successful projects of the Society was saving the cupola of the old Isabella County Courthouse, which existed 1871-1971. In November 2003, a Cupola Committee was formed to preserve the cupola, the only surviving part of the building. Through a wide variety of grass roots activities, including participating in the local Bicentennial parade and selling bricks, the Society raised the public awareness and funds necessary to restore, repaint, and relocate the cupola from the Isabella County Fairgrounds to its current site on county property immediately north of the current Isabella County Courthouse’s parking lot. A kickoff ceremony for the groundbreaking of the new location’s was held on June 26, 2005. The cupola was installed there in August 2007. Signage was placed there in 2012.

Through the years, the Society maintained a strong connection with Central Michigan University administration, faculty, students, the Clarke Historical Library, and the CMU Museum of Cultural and Natural History. Notably, CMU students in the Museum Studies Program benefitted from their experiences with the Society, such as: opportunities to professionally present to the Society about their research; experiential learning experiences working with the Society’s collections; creating exhibits; and interacting with and presenting exhibits to Society visitors.

In November 2017, the Society changed its name to the Isabella County Historical Society. (This information is from the collection.) In late 2019 the Society purchased archival and museum supplies for CMU students to rehouse their collections. By October 2020, CMU students were preparing the Society’s collection for transfer to the CMU Museum. The papers were returned and subsequently donated to the Clarke Historical Library in July 2024. (This information is from the donor.)

Acquisition Information:

Acc# 77961

Arrangement:

The collection is organized alphabetically by folder heading, and then chronologically.

Subjects

Click on terms below to find any related finding aids on this site.

Subjects:

Courthouses--Michigan.

Names:

Isabella County Historical Society.
Central Michigan University. Museum of Cultural and Natural History.
Central Michigan University--History.
Hursh, Elizabeth, 1837-1927.

Places:

Mount Pleasant (Mich.)--History.
Isabella County (Mich.)--History.