I don't know about you - but I feel as if 2008 will be a year that not only we will remember, but that will be remembered as a part of our local history.
The things that we are doing today remind me of 100 years ago when Louise Welles Murray, her family, and a handful of people to include a young man whom she knew had incredible talent, named Ellsworth Cowles set forth to preserve our local history for our community, and the region. One hundred years ago - Louise (in 1908) published her incredible work - "Old Tioga Point and Early Athens," and would many times over the following decades of her life be quoted saying, "The artifacts need to stay here."
Unfortunately, her words were not heard by all the ears that could facilitate her wishes, but they do echo ever so loudly at least in ours 100 years later.While our community may feel we are embarking on a new journey, we are picking up where Louise, her family and Mr. Ellsworth Cowles and others left off. Admittedly, we have moved past the idea of only housing artifacts in a museum setting, but I believe that Louise herself would have continued to grow and would have re-aligned her "museum" mentality into what we are now building on Broad Street in Waverly...All that I mean by this is that I believe that Louise, her family, and even Ellsworth Cowles would have been proud to see what we are setting forth to do.
Like us, they understood just how rich our region's local archaeology is and how important it is to continue to preserve it, research it and to educate our region about it.
It has been over a century since Louise's family found the pottery shown above in their garden. Yet, I can proudly report that the energy, passion, and the synergy that was surrounding this effort 100 years ago is still alive and well in the form of a group of incredible people who have formed what we have for SRAC.
Thank you for all you have done to keep the candle burning - - I look forward to working with you in 2008!
deb
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