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One of the interesting results of my plea for recollections of the Richard Mendenhall House came from Joanne Mann of Jamestown.

Mann, as it turns out, has been collecting newspaper clippings and other memorabilia since the late 1970s when the old Mendenhall House went on the National Register of Historic Places and the Historic Jamestown Society was organized.

She is ready to consider parting with this collection if good, permanent storage can be arranged and she asked for my thoughts on the matter.

The papers are divided into several categories and are a good record of some early town zoning moves that affected historic properties.

The papers also serve as a good record of projects the Historic Jamestown Society has completed over the years, and activities of the society’s guild that was so busy during the 1990s.

Some of the files are more general in nature and feature local people, Quaker history and community events. In addition, there are photographs of special occasions and one tape recording.

It is quite a collection, and Mann wasn’t sure just how it should be cared for or the best way to make it available to others who might be interested.

As time goes on, your hobby of collecting fliers, invitations, booklets and clippings can be someone else’s treasured historical record.

So, after I had looked at the files, Mann and I envisioned getting together with some of the other ladies.

While we once were active docents, we no longer are able to take school kids trooping around the grounds or up and down those steep, narrow stairways. We still could sit around to compile scrapbooks and catch up on the latest news. What fun, we thought.
 

Then, to get some advice, I checked with Gwen Erickson, archivist for the Friends Historical Collection, which is housed at the Hege Library of Guilford College. She says that the way to preserve newspaper clippings is to copy them onto acid-free paper and then store the copies in archival quality containers.

Newsprint is just not made to last, and as it yellows and disintegrates it has a bad effect on anything next to it, so throw the originals away. I think, however, we could still make the scrapbooks and have fun doing it.

The scrapbooks would last for a few years, and would not be too expensive and would be fun and interesting for visitors to look through for as long as they last.

First, though, we would make good copies for permanent storage in archival containers.

Just where each file collection should be stored still is up for consideration. It all belongs to Mann, of course, but since she asked me for my thoughts on the matter, here they are.

I think anything specific to the Mendenhall House, the Guild, or activities of the Historic Jamestown Society should be stored at the Mendenhall House.

It does have limited storage space, but that is where those things belong. I expect the Jamestown Library or the Old School Archives might be the best place for the other items, unless they duplicate what already is there. That’s up to Mann and also up to those repositories.

I want to mention one specific thing in this collection of Mann’s: a copy of a petition that someone, sometime, got from the North Carolina State Archives, from Legislative Papers, Box #223, dated 1804.

It is a petition, “To the Honorable General Assembly of North Carolina Now Sitting.” The text reads:

“Gentlemen Wheras we the inhabitants of James Town in Guilford County, and the People included in one Square Mile, are Burdened with Many Disadvantages to our great Damage by Stock Runing at large, and Proving Very Troublesome. We therefore Beg to Be incorporated all within one Square Mile (James Town to be the Center) So as we may make such Rules and inforse them as may Soot Our Convinance not inconsistent with the Constitution. Your Attention to this will be Highly Acknowledged”

Signing it were Solomon Haworth, Isaac Sweet, George Gardner, Henry Reed, Jonathon Huddelstone, Nathan Mendenhall, Levin Charles, Henry Humphreys, John Charles, John Shelly and Ricd. Mendenhall.

Somehow, in all of the things I have imagined about those early years in Jamestown, never once did “stock running at large” ever occur to me.

By the way, it was 1816 before the General Assembly came through with incorporation for the village that enabled it to exert some control over this troublesome situation.

Thanks to Mann for collecting this and other colorful bits of Jamestown history. Mann says she is indebted to all those who wrote and researched the articles in this collection.

Combining all of our memories of Jamestown — written and spoken — is one of the best ways to share and preserve Jamestown’s rich heritage.

Mary Browning is a longtime resident of Jamestown. Contact her at maryab30 @triad.rr.com.