Smokey Bear turns 80 years old

There's no gray hair on this octogenarian, and he has not retired even at 80 years old. For the entire year of 2024, you've been seeing, and will continue to see, Smokey in parades and events to celebrate this milestone.

Smokey's official birthday is August 9. "Born" in 1944, Smokey celebrates his 80th birthday along with most of the members of Mansfield's high school class of 1962 who've been crossing that threshold all of this year.

We at the Museum of Us are also celebrating with an exhibit of Smokey Bear posters and memorabilia going all the way back to the earliest years.

These are part of the collection of Mansfield resident Bret York. He has been collecting hunting and conservation memorabilia and has allowed us to display these Smokey Bear items from late July through August. Stop in and see how Smokey has changed over the years since he has carried the message of preventing forest fires.

Read more about Smokey, his history, and the birthday celebrations from the U.S. Forestry Service

Coming up in 2024: Smokey Bear turns 80 | US Forest Service (usda.gov)

Our History-Genealogy Library is open any time the History Center is open. We invite you to stop by to browse, dip into volumes, do research, or just sit and read. We can search our database if you are looking for some specific book or topic. You can also check out a volume on loan to take with you.

Summer 2024

High School Reunions 2024

So far three high school reunions are scheduled to visit The History Center this summer:

Classes of 1957-1958-1959 on July 27

Class of 1974 on August 3 @ 1 P.M.

Class of 1964 on September 14.

We will be glad to welcome all reunion classes. Just let us know you are coming and when.

Railroad Books in our Library

      The History Center has a variety of materials on railroads. The larger part of our railroad collection was donated by railroad researcher and expert, Jim McMullin. It is concentrated on the Tioga Division of the Erie Railroad. The collection includes a number of very old ledgers and manuals from railroad stations in our area. We have two old ledgers of ticket sales, one from Canoe Camp and the other from Trowbridge. While a list of ticket sales may seem mundane, these ledgers give us a peek into how and where folks travelled in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Canoe Camp Station ledger from 1870-1873 shows ticket sales for as close as Covington and as far away as Corning on the Tioga RR, listing points along the way for Mansfield (the most frequent trip), Fall Brook, Somerville, Arnot, Morris Run, Blossburg Lamb’s Creek, Mill Creek, Tioga, and Old Station. 

The Trowbridge Station ledger of 1915-1917 is a more casual document with simply blank pages with information written in, including stations. Tickets are numbered but show no amount, so we have no idea what folks paid to travel to Elmira or Millerton. In addition to train tickets, the ledger lists “Dog Tags.” Apparently, one went to the train station to license their pets (work animals were exempt).

Reading the diary of Thomas B. Hulslander, we find that in 1900, while working as a lineman for the telephone company, his main mode of transport was the train. The ledgers don’t list names on ticket sales, but Hulslander notes that he travelled by train to: Cohocton, Cowanesque, Oseola, Galeton, Gaines, Coudersport, Cross Fork, Elkland, Savona, Knoxville, Bath, Corning, and Addison. Later he travelled as far as Connecticut and New York City by train.

Unlike today, the train station was the place where one did business other than buy train tickets—or dog tags. We have a freight bill on the Erie RR for 1904 that lists the following from Buffalo to Millerton: box soap (100 lbs), Pkg. D Goods (10 lbs.), and Table in Flat (50 lbs.). And in 1907, Rand, McNally published a Pocket Map of the entire RR system of Pennsylvania, where one could look up: nearest mailing point; post offices for money orders; and telegraph stations. Thomas Hulslander mentions sending a letter and engagement ring in 1902 to Jennie Kiff by registered mail in this way. My, how life has changed.

In addition, our collection includes several small books containing RR information, written for the employees of various Railways. A 1925 NY Central RR Co. book includes instructions for making a freight conductors’ train report with this admonition: “Insert carbon paper between narrow and wide sheet.” Oh, the days of the manual typewriter. An Erie RR manual from 1927 entitled Maintenance of Ways and Structures, gives precise directives for allowances of grade and gauge: “No side track to have elevation of more than one inch.” Hm, we can picture these men out with their measuring instruments walking the tracks. There are even instructions on how to carry ties, mow right of ways, and maintain ditching. The Southern Railway 

Warren L. Miller Elementary School: Thirty Years of Class Photos Now Online (In Process)

In 2016, the Warren L. Miller Elementary School donated all the albums of class photos from the 1982-1983 school year through the 2010-2011 year. We cataloged the albums right away, but not until this year, did we find time to scan the photos and catalog them by class. They are now included in our online catalog at Online Collections | History Center (pastperfectonline.com), although we still have some not yet uploaded. We should be completed soon.

If you want to pull up the whole list so far, try a keyword search such as "elementary." That will get you more than you want. Keyword search "2016.08.02" will bring up all the records in that WLM collection that we have uploaded so far. If you want just one year, try keyword "1015.1983" for the school year 1982-1983, etc.

Or, take the easy path and click here. This is what we have uploaded so far. Search Results for 2016.08.02 | History Center (pastperfectonline.com)

Find yourself, your kids, your friends.

Note: The earliest albums from the 1970s to 1982 were lost before had them.

Wander Through our Records Online

Online Collections | History Center (pastperfectonline.com)

While we have nearly 30,000 cataloged items, about 5,000 of them have so far been uploaded in our online catalog where you can see them.

Take a look. The ONLY way to learn your way around this utility is to read the guidelines and poke every link. Just explore, go wandering. You'll be surprised.

You will find lists of people (all by name at birth), lists of subjects, or try searching on keywords which is just about anything. Our genealogy database of local connections includes over 100,000 individuals. Over 11,000 of them are also included in our museum files with links to schools, cemeteries, businesses, etc. People are only included online if we have an object or photos associated with them, although they are in our files if they are/were local (lived here, buried here, went to school here). If your family is not shown, send us photos so they can be.

You can select Random Images and follow something that catches your eye.

Try searching for advertisements. They link to businesses and the life stories of the people who ran them, and even the buildings they operated in.

You can also link to the online catalogs through our landing page at joycetice.com.

We have lots more fine-tuning and linking to do for our online presentation, but you'll be surprised what you find when you get lost in our files.

We'd like to have twenty new members for 2024. As a bonus, we'll send each of them a journal issue from 2023 in addition to the 2024 issues as they are published. You can send a check or pay by PayPal. Directions link from the button at left.

If you are planning a reunion, consider a casual afternoon Meet & Greet at the History Center's Museum of Us. In an informal environment, you can chat with your friends, watch a slide show of Mansfield's historic photos, and find traces of yourself, your friends, and your family. Many of our exhibits are designed for those who grew up here. The Blue & Gold Room is full of MHS sports mementos. The pictorial display includes YOU along with all the other MHS graduates in its first hundred years.

Thank You to Our Gold Level Sponsors

Law Offices of Larry Mansfield

First Citizens Community Bank

VFW Post 6757

Mansfield Auxiliary Corporation

Lutes Foundation