| Newsletter Archives |
 |
|
Letter From the President Eddie Lee I continue to be impressed with the creativity and energy of our society's members! The Clock Project, which has been a dream of Jan Ramsey since her presidency, is a perfect example of what makes our society so vibrant. The time for this wonderful project has arrived, and I appreciate the efforts of Jan and her fine committee to give York a permanent and fitting memorial to Mel Ebersold! Our March meeting was "strictly business" and we accomplished much in less than an hour. The final version of our society's by-laws was approved. We talked about the auction, coordinated by Ken Spalding, which will help fund the clock mentioned above. We also asked Peggy Enright to share her expertise and prepare a $1000 budget for items to be sold at Summerfest. Jan Ramsey and Ann Allison are once again seeking assistance with the 2003 Christmas Tour, which will be here before you know it! Before then, however, Marge Neary will be in touch with you about a May social. Let's take time at the May meeting to enjoy each other's company...and plan even more projects!
|
|
WHAT'S UP DOWNTOWN? By Grace Ebersold Cougar's Den is now open. This is the former White Rose Café on Congress Street that is now owned by Jane and Terry Gillfillan. Hours are Mon- Wed. 7-9, Thurs. and Sat. 7-11, Fri. 7-12. Menu lists everything from hot dogs to rib eye steak. Check it out. Ann and Terry Morrison purchased the Neely Drug Store building also on Congress Street. They will sell flower arrangements for weddings and funerals, silk arrangements, live plants, collectibles and gift baskets. They hope to rent the old soda fountain and lunch counter section of the building. That leaves only two buildings remaining vacant on Congress Street. Downtown York is bustling these days! What is not "up downtown", but will be up in the next month…is the Mural. We know we have been "at it" for a year, but Johnny and I think you will be pleasantly surprised when you see it. How did this all happen? I will start at the beginning. Under the auspices of the Downtown Business Association, Johnny Wine and Mary Anna Richbourg came up with the idea of the mural and asked me to help. That's just what I did, "And I helped". Johnny sketched all the buildings and churches and I drew the downtown stores. Then Johnny watercolored it; we had prints made from it and they were sold at Summerfest and around town. The money from the prints was used to purchase the materials to make and paint the mural. Some of you may not know how this mural will be attached. You see, we are not painting it on the Belk Building wall. First of all, the wall is so rough we could never paint a straight line. We took the print to Diversified Signs & Graphics. Mike Wilson had his people put it on the computer and the computer cut out all the pieces! (Yes, this surely is a new age). We are using 3/4inch Marine plywood. Forest green painted sheets of this plywood will be attached to the wall and then the buildings will be attached (screwed and bolted) to these sheets. After these building pieces were cut out, they were primed. We are using Exterior Gloss Enamel to paint the individual pieces. Our biggest problem was mixing the primary colors to our needs. Stir, stir, add some more yellow, no, some more navy…does that look right???? We have a lot of little jars with strange colors mixed in them. We started painting before the Christmas Holidays at times there were as many as 20 volunteers working all over Johnny's shop. We stopped for the holidays and continued at our usual Tuesday night workshop from 4-8 PM. As of April lst, we have three more pieces to finish! We will be done in a couple of weeks. Then it will be time for Mike Wilson to hang the mural. The finished size should be 12 X 30 feet. Watch the Belk Building or watch the newspapers to see What's Up Downtown. |
CORRECTIONS TO THE BYLAWS. By Grace Ebersold The full revision of the Bylaws were accepted in the March 28th regular meeting except for two minor corrections: Under Article VI - Executive Board Section I .The Society shall be governed by the Board of Directors, herein after referred to as the Board, and shall consist of no fewer than eight etc. etc. etc. Section II. The Directors shall be elected at the annual January meeting (in even years) to serve four-year __________ terms. (Staggered has now been omitted) Please correct your copy. If you need a full corrected copy of the By-laws contact Grace at 684-2822. |
|
Collecting Today By Ken Spaulding I'll be the first to admit that I'm an auction addict and have been since the ripe old age of five. Back then ten cents was a legitimate bid, for twenty dollars you could buy as many round oak china cabinets as you cared to buy and a one dollar bid on a treadle sewing machine made you the laughing stock of the auction. Fainting couches, Morris chairs, and parlor furniture were among my earliest conquests… I also had a serious compulsion for old books and board games back then What is an auction and what part does an auction play in the collecting world today? We will examine the surface of the auction profession in this column. Webster's Dictionary says that auction means sale to the highest bidder. This definition is the very essence of the auction world. The truest form of the auction as we know it today dates back to earlier military times. The Colonel used a strong verbal chant to sell surplus supplies, bounty, or other goods. Today, many auctioneers use the honorary title of Colonel in honor of those earlier traditions. Over the years the auction method of marketing proved to be very vital in our agriculturally-based economy. Crops like tobacco and cotton were often sold at auction as well as livestock, grain, equipment, and, yes, even slaves! Later, automobiles, real estate, antiqueseven slaves! Later, automobiles, real estate, antiques, and other higher-valued commodities entered the domain of the auction world. Collectors today are apt to encounter several types of auctions. · Live Auction. The auctioneer uses his voice and a distinctive style of chanting to call out the bids. · Silent Auction. Items are displayed with a bid card in front of them. Potential buyers enter their names and what they are willing to pay on the bid card. Bids are raised by adding your name and the amount you are willing to pay on the bid card. The successful bidder will be notified at the auction conclusion. This is very similar to the way online auctions are conducted in venues like Ebay. · Dutch Auction. In a Dutch auction there is normally more than one lot of the same or similar item to be sold. Jewelers often use a Dutch auction format to liquidate larger quantities of goods. A Dutch auction can be an oral or written bid auction. · Chinese Auction. Chinese auctions are most commonly used in a charity or party type setting. At our Christmas party, we use this form of auction: numbers are drawn and gifts are opened individually in a numeric fashion. The person opening the gift has the choice of keeping the gift he or she opens or "stealing" a gift from someone else who has already opened one. After two or three "steals," the gifts are "retired" and can no longer be stolen by another party. Once all the gifts have been opened, the first person who opened a gift does have the right to "steal" any gift that was opened during the event. Chinese auctions are a lot of fun. · Absolute Auction. If an auction is advertised as an absolute auction,it means that whatever is being offered for sale will be absolutely be sold to the highest bidder regardless of price. In my opinion this is the purest form of an auction, but it is not widely practiced locally. · Reserve Auction (Also called minimum bid). In this scenario, the owner or auctioneer has set a limit on how low an item may be sold. Many sellers have an investment or financial stake that they want to protect. In most cases,the reserves are less than actual market value so the buyer still has an opportunity to come out ahead on his purchase. There are many other forms of auctions being practiced today, and like every other form of business enterprise, the auction business is constantly in a state of change. I could write pages and pages about the auction profession that we wouldn't have room to print in this newsletter. Eddie Lee had asked me to talk about the auction profession at our April 24th meeting; one thing led to another and our first major fundraising event in quite a long time has been implemented! Plan now to attend our benefit auction! It will be held Thursday, April 24th at the Family Life Center of the First Presbyterian Church. Preview and registration begin at 6PM with the live portion of the auction starting promptly at 7PM. We will be holding both a live and a silent auction as well as an old-fashioned cake auction. Refreshments will also be served. We have accepted some wonderful donations and are still looking for more items to sell. Bring your donation along with your purse or your wallet and a good friend and enjoy the evening. If you have never attended an auction, this will probably not be your last, as auctions tend to be rather addictive in nature. This is a golden opportunity to see and hear your normally quiet and controlled editor in action doing what he loves to do best! Yes, you may call me Colonel. |
Poetry Compiled by Grace Ebersold Always remember to forget The things that make you sad. But never forget to remember The things that made you glad Always remember to forget The friends that proved untrue. But don't forget to remember Those that have stuck by you. Always remember to forget The troubles that have passed away But never forget to remember The blessings that come each day. DO IT ANYWAY By Gene Bedley People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway If you are successful, You will win some false friends and some true enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you. Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the final analysis it is between you and God. It never was between you and them anyway. |
THE JAILS OF YORK, SC FLOYD ALLISON Ed: This is the first in a series of articles by Society members about various buildings in York. In 1785 thirty-three counties of South Carolina were established by the S. C. Legislature, York County being one of them. In 1786 a commission was appointed by the county to build a Courthouse and a Jail. The courthouse was to be built of square logs, 30 feet long and 22 feet wide, on two acres on the comer of Congress and Liberty Streets. While there is no description of the jail construction, it was to be 22 feet long and 16 feet wide on the other side of Congress Street. I do not know the exact location of this building. In addition to the jail the Sheriff was directed to erect stocks and a whipping post and it is said both were liberally used. The next jail, constructed in 1828, is what is presently known as the Wilson building and is situated directly across the street from the Courthouse door. While often attributed to the design of Robert Mills, the building was designed and built by Robert Leckie, a Scottish stonemason, thought to have come to America to help build the Landsford Canal. 
I was told by a local electrician who had done some wiring there that the floors and ceiling were of twelve inch square logs laid against each other. He was impressed by this as, when he did his wiring, electric drills were not available. 
The next county jail stood at the rear of the Courthouse in the area where the courthouse extension was erected. It faced on West Liberty Street. I do not know the year of construction. The fourth county jail was located further west on West Liberty Street and still stands there. It is presently occupied as apartments. It is on the left side just before you come to Harbor Street on the right. It was built 1933-1934. I recall touring this jail before it was occupied by prisoners. The Sheriff lived on the first floor. On the second floor at the front were two cells used for female prisoners and behind that were six cells, three on each side. The third floor was never finished. It was very modern for its time, with remote mechanical locks on the cell doors. The bars on the cells were round steel with the center case hardened. I remember Sheriff Moss saying that someone had slipped a hacksaw blade in to a prisoner and he heard them sawing on the bars. He just let them saw. One of the prisoners later said the bars were hollow and the interior bar rolled. At the time the jail was built, it was designed for an elevator, but, at that time the County Legislative Delegation "ran the county". Mr. W. R. Bradford, a Representative, was a very frugal man in both his personal life and handled the public funds in the same manner and he eliminated the elevator. I was a Deputy Sheriff 1950-1954. One night it fell my lot to pick up a passed out drunk at a local nightspot. When I got to the jail it simply carry him up the stairs. I obtained some help and even at that it was a job to get him up the narrow winding stairs. I then knew why the local police "cussed Old Man Bradford" so much. No one ever escaped from the interior of this County jail. The current county jail is in the Moss Justice Center on Highway 5. I do not know the history of the city jails. The jail I remember consisted of two cells, constructed of flat iron bars on all four sides and top and bottom. It was used as a holding cell until the inmate could be transferred to the county Jail. I understood that it was in an earlier City Hall, a frame building on East Liberty Street, and was moved to the "new city hall" when it was built next door in the 1920's. When the present City Hall was built a complete jail was included. |
|
|
|
|
