Volume 37, Number 1 Summer 1997
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
by Jerry W. Gideon
For a couple of years, several requests have been directed to me in regard to any number of subjects. Many people know that I have a sizeable collection of old pictures, most of which are of the old town of Forsyth, Mo. and Taney County in general. Many of these have come from people who have discovered within the family, pictures that have no names or dates on them, not even the place where they were taken, so they have no idea what to do with them. Most don't want to destroy them, but are lost as what the fate should be. In several cases of this nature, I have been able to help, but many remain a mystery.
As a case in point, maybe 18 months ago, a store in the immediate area who offers a photo service con tacted me about some pictures that had been left with them to send off and copy, but when they came to claim them, they left behind several if other mem bers of the family wanted to come by and pick them up. No one had, so they ask me to take them and see if I could identify some of the people included in the pictures. I wasn't sure but some of the subjects looked familiar, so I kept the pictures in an envelope on my desk, hoping someone might come by and identify some of those smiling faces. No such luck.
A few weeks later I received a letter from Vi Edom who was spending the winter in Portsmouth, Va., with her daughter, and enclosed were two pic tures and a letter from a lady in Oregon asking if she knew who the people were. Would you believe they were the same as the copies I had so I sent a note off to Vi explaining to her about the request I had? So I put these with the others and placed them back on my desk to wait and see.
Not more than a week later I met A.G. Aidridge from Ozark, Mo., on the street and he explained he had brought some old pictures of the Protem area with him and asked if I would like to view them and of course I did. As we sat in my office looking through 15 or 20 fine old pictures and him explaining to me who, what and where, there before me was an 8 X 10 of the very same picture that Vi and I and the store had been confronted with. I sat there gazing at it and almost laughing when A.G. ask what is the problem?
So I reached over and handed him the pictures I had and he nearly fell out of his chair, wanting to know where and why I had them and so on. I explained the story to him, and asked if he knew these people and he said, "Yes, I know everyone of them, their names are written on that piece of paper right here. Thirty people from the past, some still living that were attending a hearing in regard to a mur der that was committed on December 23rd, 1926, near Protem, Mo.
Needless to say, I was very pleased to send Betty Thomas in Hood River, Oregon, the names for the picture she had and a letter from her expressing her gratitude has been received.
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