Sunday, September 29 – Mercer County
The 2019 Annual Meeting of the Hopewell Valley Historical Society
Sunday, September 29, 2019, 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Titusville Presbyterian Church, Heritage Room, 48 River Drive, Titusville,
The Annual Meeting will open with a business meeting for HVHS. Members will be asked to vote on a slate of officers and new trustees. After the business meeting, Pam Cain will present a program based on her experience conducting the historical society’s House Lineage program in the 1980s and 1990s. Her presentation will discuss her methodology for doing the research, with examples, and include some of her interesting findings. The HVHS “house plaques” on more than 100 Hopewell Valley properties were a direct result of Pam’s research.
Pam served the historical society as treasurer and valued board member for many years. The society was founded in 1975 and early on planned a house tour. Pam and her husband Fred were then living in a Pennington house built in 1839, which they had carefully restored. Pam wanted to learn more about house history, so she got involved in the house tour. Under the direction of the late Phyllis D’Autrechy, archivist for Hunterdon County and noted local historian, she learned how to do the necessary research. When HVHS embarked on the House Lineage Program, Pam discovered that she could do the research while raising her infant daughter. Pam’s extensive research usually began with the deed and titles of the property. She also examined historical maps, census records, tax records, newspapers, church and cemetery records, and went wherever else her research took her in tracking down the first owners or builders of a building.
Pam's research was a valuable help in the preparation of the book, Hopewell: A Historical Geography by Richard Hunter and Richard Porter, published by Hopewell Township in 1990. Bring a guest. Refreshments will be served.
