Author Archive
Posted by Jerry Hartzell in featured
Welcome to Jay County History
The Jay County Historical Society welcomes you! We are proud of our work collecting, preserving, and displaying the rich heritage of Jay County, Indiana, the only “Jay” County in the United States. Come see the 11,000 square foot Jay County Historical Museum. Admission is free, and the museum is handicapped accessible. The museum is staffed by dedicated volunteers who would be happy to share Jay County’s history with you. It offers visitors a unique glimpse of bygone times here in east central Indiana.
Children play at the fair near Floral Hall in 1892
Sunday museum open houses occur frequently throughout the year. In the early fall, our Jay County Heritage Festival has history-related fun and entertainment for all ages on the grounds of the museum, and admission is free. End-of-year holiday time brings special indoor activities at the museum, as well.
The Jay County Historical Society is supported mostly through membership dues and donations. Please consider joining the Society. Members receive the Jay County Journal, our monthly newsletter with articles about both current events and historical topics in addition to a mystery picture. We also sponsor informative and interesting monthly program meetings at the museum. An annual dinner meeting for members is held in November with a special program and election of the board of directors.
Frank Kenyon Remembered
Jay County recently lost a remarkable friend, Francis E. (Frank) Kenyon (4-30-1923 to 2-16-2012), a gentle man who chronicled our history through his pictures in The Graphic from 1949 to 1961, and in other publications until his retirement in 1988. Frank was the Norman Rockwell of black and white photography in Jay County. For 40 years, he captured, with a light-hearted touch, the essence of who we were as Jay Countians. The plaque affixed to a newspaper camera given by The Graphic Printing Company to Frank when he retired read:
Frank Kenyon
Photographer
Whose Pictures Brought Joy
and Wonder to Our Lives
From 1949 to 1988
Presented in Sincere Appreciation
By The Graphic Printing Company, Inc.
April 30, 1988
If there is a “Holy Grail” of memorabilia in Jay County, it is those issues of The Graphic which many people collected and eventually brought to the museum in various states of deterioration. Everyone hoped that we could somehow magically treat the yellowing paper to preserve forever the images which defined a generation. We have carefully checked our collection to be sure all pages are in place and selected the very best examples to store in special boxes in a cool, dry, and dark place. We have three copies of each, but the life of that ink and paper is still finite. We needed to find a way to save Frank’s art.
Last spring, with the help of a dedicated volunteer, Richard Hummer, we began the task of scanning and storing digital files of every page (over 15,000) in high-quality TIFF format. Richard is now up to 1957, and our digital storage space is filling up fast, since we need to maintain backup in two places. Our hope is to find an offsite storage medium where we can rest assured that Frank’s legacy will be available to future generations who might want to recapture that time. We have a donation to start a fund for this storage project which will honor Frank’s work, and if you would like to contribute to it, simply send a donation marked “Frank Kenyon Graphic Storage Project.”
Of course, another way to honor Frank is to purchase a copy of the book of Frank’s work, Through My Camera Lens, compiled by Jane Spencer and published by The Graphic Printing Co., Inc. The book is available at the museum at a cost of $10 plus shipping of $4.00.
Frank was an honest and humble man. I know he would be embarrassed by all this attention, but I also know he was proud of his work and proud of his home county. The least we can do is to insure that his significant body of work is preserved for future generations. ~ Tom Young
Thank you to the Portland Foundation for our recent grant!
Thank you to The Indiana Arts Commision and The National Endowment for the Arts for a grant to help fund our ninth annual Heritage Festival.
Jay County Genealogy
Posted by Jerry Hartzell in Genealogy
Historical Society Board Policy
For Queries
Members of the Historical Society
Jay County Historical Society members are provided 1 hour’s research time during the calendar year of their membership. This may include 2 short queries if both queries can be done within 1 hour’s time. Should additional time be needed for these queries, there will be a fee of $10 per hour, or portion thereof, required to answer the query. For example, the charge for 1 hour and 15 minutes would be an extra $2.50 to members. Our standard copy and mailing fees will apply.
Copy fee: $ .25 per side
Scanning fee: $1.00 per copy
Shipping: Actual shipping using first class rates will be charged. All fees need to be paid before materials will be shipped.
Non-member Query Request
There is a $10 per hour research charge for non-members of our society. The Historical Society must be in receipt of your query and the $10 before any research is started. All other charges are the same as for members.
All research will be limited to materials within the Genealogy Library at the Historical Museum.
Please be patient when requesting a query.
We have a very limited number of volunteer researchers.
Please direct dues payments and questions about membership to the museum office at: 903 East Main Street, Portland, IN, 47371. Phone: 260-726-7168, fax: 260-726-7178, or email us at: research@jaycountyhistory.org.
Please click on the following link for a query form and more information regarding our research materials and guidelines.
Genealogy Brochure
If you would like to give genealogy a try, here is a link to a printable pedigree chart.
