The First Corrigan Community History Day recently held

CORRIGAN -- The fi rst Corrigan Community History Day was recently held and en-joyed by many. Corrigan was busy reliving, collecting and adding to its vast history at the Corrigan Com-munity History Day recently held. The town was stirring with people attending a myriad of events including a Daughter of The Republic of Texas Marker Dedication at the Union Springs Cemetery, a discussion on the importance of preserving our local history and the unveiling of the Data Collection Cen-ter at the Mickey Reily Public Library, followed by displays of Corrigan area artifacts, in-formation on bottle collecting and a cemetery mapping pre-sentation all at the First Baptist Church Family Life Center. The town was also abuzz with several family reunions.The day started with the Dedication of The Daughters of the Republic of Texas Memo-rial Medallion honoring Elisha Wood Cockrell was held at the Union Springs Cemetery. The program, held by her descen-dants, was well attended by 3family and friends of the Cock-rell family, as well as members of the community and history buffs from other areas. (A spe-cial article on this ceremony is included in this week’s Corrigan Times.)A group gathered at the Mickey Reily Public Library to learn from Mark Barringer (SFASU) why it is important that local history be preserved. A community’s history gives it an identity, which is vital to sustain An additional topic at the li-brary was The Data Collection Center, a computer area dedi-cated solely to acquiring infor-mation relevant to the Corrigan Area History Project, has been installed for patron usage. The center can scan documents and photos, as well as record audio and video interviews, all with exceptional ease. The purpose of the center is to allow pa-trons to share items of interest from their personal collection without giving up possession. Furthermore, the center is an extraordinary tool for conduct-ing interviews, audio or video. A demonstration of the almost effortless touch screen access for interviews included an in-formal video conversation with 10 year-old Brianna Monroe. Attendees were encouraged to “spread the word” about bring-ing in items, and people, to preserve history with the use of technology. Hundreds of local artifacts were show-cased at the FBC Family Life Center. A number of tables, as well as the walls, were covered with items de-picting the community’s past. Most of the relics, donated by individuals throughout the years, are part of the City’s collection. Groups of items donated by a particular fam-ily, are identified as such, but are still considered part of the City’s holdings. A couple of private collections also embel-lished the show. As there is no facility to permanently display these items, they are in climate-controlled storage.An area was provided to view two local videos. One recorded in 1956, by Charlie Waller, Gulf States Utilities, and E.C. Wood, Southwestern Bell, contain-ing footage of the W.T. Carter & Sons sawmill operation at Camden, the Corrigan two-sto-ry brick school and inside the local telephone company the day the dial-tones where intro-duced. The other film, record-ed in 1968 by James Bryan, a UCLA Film School student and nephew to Dr. Arthur Bryan. The film depicts life in the company owned town of Cam-den, just prior to its demise, re-sulting from of the sale of the W.T. Carter & Sons sawmill to US Forest Products/Champion International. Attendees could also learn some tricks of the trade on bot-tle collecting from George Av-ery (SFASU). He brought some examples of various types and ages of bottles from his own collection and also provided some literature and discussion on the hobby. Darrel McDonald (SFASU) gave a Power-Point presentation on cemeteries, the importance of documenting their history, as well as the pro-cess of mapping of cemetery. Of particular interest was the recently completed mapping of the Union Springs Cemetery.Tables were also available for enjoying refreshments. Center-pieces consisting of photograph albums encouraged lingering conversations.It was day of full of history…past and present. The crowd, consisting of young and old alike, enjoyed reminiscing and socializing. An observance by one of the attendees: “People smiling and laughing, fellow-shipping with one another over all things Corrigan. A very nice scene.”Plans are underway to hold a similar event next year in conjunction with the 75th An-niversary of the incorporation of Corrigan.