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Jun 16

Looking Ahead to 2018-19!

Sydney Sampson-WebbWe’re excited to announce that our next project will focus on the Black River connection to the Vietnam War.  Sydney Sampson-Webb, class of 2019, will serve as our senior intern next year.  This will be our 17th project overall and our 5th focusing on one of America’s major wars.  World War II was our initial project in 2002.  We explored the Korean War (2007), the Civil War (2010), and World War I (2014) in subsequent years.

Our plan is to conduct several interviews with area veterans during the fall semester, and work on our story in spring semester. Check back for updates!

Apr 23

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Our 2018 Project: BRF’s “Holy Hill”

After a one year hiatus in which we worked on editing prior projects and refurbishing our web-site, our 16th project focused on the religious history of our community with a special emphasis on the three parishes represented atop Main Street — St. Joseph Catholic Church, Evangelical Lutheran (ELCA), and United Methodist.  Senior Intern Elizabeth Pardoe brought enthusiasm to the effort! Elizabeth recently graduated from BRFHS and will continue her education in the fall at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.  Check out our final paper here! 

Apr 23

OUR 2015-16 PROJECT: Edna Frances Perry

This is a school photo of project intern Michaela Custodio.

Our 15th project focused on the life and times of Frances Perry (1897-1996). Perry was born on a farm in the Kenyon Valley, taught in one-room schools prior to World War I, graduated from Columbia College of New York in the late 1920s, and returned to Wisconsin, living the humble life of a farm-wife and town librarian. From her days as a teenage schoolteacher, Perry developed a fascination for Ho-chunk language and culture and was instrumental in helping to identify hundreds of photographs that document the lives of Ho-Chunk residents of our region. We interviewed several people who knew Frances Perry while researching local archives at the Jackson County Historical Society and the Jackson County History Room. Senior Michaela Custodio served as project intern in 2015-16. As part of the project, Michaela researched the photographs that Frances helped to identify and we chose two of them that will be enlarged for display at BRFHS in the fall of 2017!