Date: Fri 21-Aug-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: JAN

Quick Words:

oral-history-Meserve

Full Text:

Memories of Newtown To Endure Through Oral Histories

BY JAN HOWARD

The memories and anecdotes of some senior citizens will become part of

Newtown's history because of a project cosponsored by the Newtown Historical

Society and the Cyrenius Booth Library.

A recent grant of $5,485 from the Meserve Memorial Fund will help fund an oral

history project that records life in Newtown as seen through the eyes of some

of its older residents.

The Meserve Memorial Fund was established in 1983, a legacy of the late Mr and

Mrs Albert W. Meserve, to support charitable organizations that benefit towns

in the Danbury region.

The oral history project was proposed by Town Historian Daniel Cruson and

journalist Andrea Zimmermann, who are taking turns conducting the interviews

with some of the town's senior citizens.

The idea for the oral history project came to Ms Zimmermann while she was

doing research for a magazine article in Greenwich, she said.

"I used what they had done as a model," Ms Zimmermann said Tuesday.

She said she had discovered she enjoyed interviewing the town's senior

citizens during her tenure as a reporter for The Bee .

"I missed that," she said.

"I realized there was a wealth of historical information out there that is not

being tapped, and if it is not documented, we would lose it," Ms Zimmermann

said.

"We have the ability to get historical facts and dates through historical

documents. What we're looking for are stories of people and events that

characterize the town," she said.

Mr. Cruson said an oral history was done for the bicentennial in 1976 but some

of the tapes are not of the best quality.

"We need to preserve some of the knowledge these residents have," he said.

"Andrea deals with people wonderfully," Mr. Cruson said. "We work well

together."

The interviews began on a trial basis in March with resident Sarah Mannix,

according to Mr Cruson, and continued this summer with Jerome Mayer, Bill

Honan and Gene Cox.

Ms Zimmerman and Mr Cruson do background research prior to each interview and

decide upon the questions they will ask.

The questions "depend on who we are interviewing," Mr Cruson said. "It's open

ended. We encourage them to reminisce."

Mr. Cruson said they are looking for eye witness accounts, memories and

descriptions of local events.

Mr. Cruson said in addition to the Meserve grant some funding has been

received from the Cyrenius Booth Library and in-kind donations through use of

equipment and resources have been made by The Newtown Bee .

The total budget for the project is $25,484.

However, despite the donations and the Meserve grant, there may not be enough

funding to do the project as originally envisioned.

"There are 30 people who we should tap," Mr. Cruson said. "To do that, we

would need the larger budget of $25,000."

Ms Zimmermann said, "If we find we don't have the total support we need in

money and volunteers, we will scale it back, not in quality but in the number

of people we interview."

With the funding currently available, Mr. Cruson said they hope to do 10 as a

"very optimistic goal."

"If we have volunteers to help do the transcription and indexing, it will

certainly defray some of the cost," Ms Zimmermann said.

Resident Mary Maki is transcribing the histories from the tapes and doing all

the revisions, Ms Zimmermann said.

Mr. Cruson sees the project as ongoing.

As additional donations are received, he and Ms Zimmermann will do more

interviews.

"We've been using our own equipment," Ms Zimmermann said. "We hope to get

specialized equipment so we can get quality tapes." She said it is hoped there

will be sufficient funding to put the oral histories, including photographs,

on CD rom.

"We welcome monetary contributions," she said.

Donations for the oral history project can be sent to the Newtown Historical

Society or for information, call Mr. Cruson at 426-6021.

Ms Zimmerman said she expects to have bound volumes of the taped interviews

completed by April. Photographs of subjects will be included with the bound

volumes. Footnotes and indexes will be added to the document.

Once completed, copies of the oral histories will be available at the Cyrenius

Booth Library, Newtown Historical Society and the Antiques Reference Library

owned by The Newtown Bee . If it is put on CD rom, that also will be

available.

The application for the Meserve Memorial Fund was written in March by Ms

Zimmermann and submitted by Historical Society President Elin F. Hayes.

"It is satisfying to see everything come together," Ms Zimmermann said. "We

are thrilled Meserve found this to be a worthwhile project, also."

The Meserve Memorial Fund awarded 19 grants totaling $73,205 to non-profit

organizations following a June grant making session. Forty-one agencies had

requested over $420,000. The fund is administered by the Fairfield County

Foundation in Wilton.