NEW VINEYARD – The New Vineyard Historical Society has received a donation of 57 scrapbooks from Rebecca Weatherbee and her uncle, Sherwood Anderson. The scrapbooks were made by her great-grandmother, Frances “Frankie” Voter of New Vineyard. Voter had been a news correspondent for the Franklin Journal for many years.

Sherwood and his wife, Liz, went through each book, rethreaded, labeled and later cataloged by number and topic titles for the society, a copy to be there for use.

Besides the scrapbooks, a china cupboard that had been used as a bookcase for the books was also donated. The family wasn’t sure if the bookcase had been Voter’s, but they all knew that she had made all of the 57 scrapbooks.

They had been kept safe and dry by her daughter, Florence “Tonse” Anderson-Jackson, her granddaughter, Abigail “Gail” Anderson Ouellette and now her great-granddaughter, Rebecca Ouellette-Weatherbee, and grandson, Sherwood Anderson.

The society will be closed for the winter but will have open hours starting in March 2005.

Members took a mystery ride on Oct. 20 that included a hike to the “Falls”on the Ramsdell Road and a visit at the Norton Cemetery on the Hymi Norton Road. The previous month, Pat Durham had been the guest speaker and she told the group a lot about the Nortons, some of New Vineyard’s early settlers, so it was a special stop on the ride. The group traveled on to Duane Norton’s to see the view of Clearwater Lake and the mountains. Buildings were spotted and identified as a mill in Livermore and a pond in Vienna.

From there the group traveled to the cottage of Liz and Sherry Anderson by Porter Lake and had their bag lunches with hot tea and coffee provided by Liz. A few of the scrapbooks were looked at after lunch.

The group plans to paint the library, town office and historical society room building starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27, weather permitting. Help from the community is welcome.