Thurman's historical society dissolves

ATHOL | Until this year, the rich history of the Cameron, Mosher, Magee, Combs and Reynolds families who lived in the town of Thurman over the past 260 years — has been curated and preserved by the John Thurman Historical Society and stored in Athol, the town's sole surviving hamlet. On a cold day in early December, five men and Warrensburg Town Historian Sandi Parisi loaded boxes of these historical Thurman documents, photographs, books, ledgers and various artifacts into two trucks, and drove them about five miles to Warrensburg, their new home. This move was conducted due to the dissolution of the John Thurman Historical Society, whose four remaining members, officers of the group, voted in late September to cease its existence and turn over its charter to the state, Parisi said. "If we hadn't had taken them, the materials would have gone to the state, and area residents would have lost access to all the information and artifacts," she said, noting that it was appropriate for the transfer to occur because centuries ago, the boundaries of the town of Thurman once included Warrensburg as well as most of Warren County. Thurman's historical materials are now in the custody of the Warrensburgh Historical Society and the Warrensburg town historian's office — and Parisi is leading an effort to organize and inventory the items. The artifacts include a spinning wheel, a wooden butter churn, post office mailboxes, and articles of clothing including a wedding dress. Joan Harris, longtime president of the John Thurman Historical Society, said in a recent interview that although the society was once a thriving organization with plenty of enthusiastic, active members, only four remained when they voted this fall to dissolve. "Our society's members worked hard organizing Thurman's bicentennial celebration and were active for a long time afterwards — but now, people in town here are not very interested in joining," she said. "All things come to pass." In decades past, the John Thurman Historical Society sponsored lectures with guest speakers, conducted tours of historic homes and published their Quarterly magazine that included new historical discoveries, photos of local residents' ancestors, and featured time-honored tales from northern Warren County. The Society also published a booklet of poetry by Thurman authors. The thousands of historic Thurman photographs, ledgers, documents and books that are now in Parisi's office or in the Warrensburg Museum of Local History include an age-old document detailing the conviction of John Thurman, reputed to be the town's founder, on charges of "treasonous activities." This historic memorandum said John Thurman was detained in the Albany County Gaol (jail) for three weeks or so in Spring 1777. Another document details property transfers in Thurman that date back more than 200 years. The historic materials also include handwritten diaries describing day-to-day activities of Thurman residents. One of these leather diaries details the activities and musings of Ruth E. Cameron in the early 1930s. Also are photographs of historic homesteads and one-room schoolhouses in town. Much of this material was collected and preserved by James A. Magee. For an appointment to review any of the materials, contact Parisi at 623-5153 or: sandi.parisi@gmail.com.

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Thurman's historical society dissolves

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