Frequently Asked Questions
about the Delaware County Historical Society

Q. What is your Mission?
A. Society Mission: To promote and sustain interest in the history of Delaware County, Ohio, through historic preservation and education.

Q. What is your Vision?
A. Society Vision: To be a continuing, self-sustaining source of, and repository for, Delaware County historical information that fosters life-long interest through community engagement, education, and historic preservation.

Q. Will the Historical Society keep the Nash House?
A. Yes. Current plans are to keep the Nash House as a Victorian house museum of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century for the foreseeable future.

Q. Why isn't the Nash house and library open more and why is it closed all winter?
A. All personnel are volunteers with limited available time. We are always looking for more volunteers to expand our services to the community. The Delaware County Historical Society has no paid staff.

Q. Will anyone be living in the Meeker house?
A. There are currently no plans for anyone to be living in the Meeker House. It will become a Pioneer house museum.

Q. What will you do with the Garth Overlander barn?
A. Current plans are to use the Garth Oberlander Barn as a museum, a gathering place for Society meetings and educational presentations, and as an income-generating, rentable venue for special events.

Q. When will the Historical Society occupy Garth Overlander Barn?
A. Garth's Auctions is currently renting the property from the Society until they relocate. Plans call for the Society to occupy the Stratford Road property after Garth's Auction moves to larger quarters. The Society will continue operate the Cryder Historical Center.

Q. Is the Garth Oberlander Barn available for weddings and special events?
A. No. The Garth Oberlander Barn is not yet available to serve the community as a special events venue. The barn and the Forrest Meeker House are still occupied by Garth's Auctions, Inc. for use as their antique auction facility. The Delaware County Historical Society owns the property at this time, but we have leased the property to the long time auction business for another year until they are able to relocate to another site. We anticipate that the Barn will be available events by 2013.

Q. Why has the Society changed the name of the Nash House to the Cryder Historical Center?
A. The Cryder Historical Center comprises all of the Society's properties at 157-159 East William Street. The Nash House and the Research Library will continue as entities with those names under the umbrella name Cryder Historical Center, which commemorates the many contributions to the Society of the late George Cryder (1924-2002) and Marilyn Moseley Cryder (1931-2010), who turned their passion for local history into many resources that define and detail Delaware County's history.

Q. Will the Historical Society keep the research library?
A. Yes. Current plans are to keep and continue to operate the research library at the Cryder Historical Center, as well as the Nash House museum.

Q. Is the research library open to the public or do you have to be a member?
A. The research library at the Cryder Historical Center is open to the public.

Q. When was the City of Delaware founded?
A. Delaware County and the City of Delaware were founded in 1808.

Q. Is it true there was an Indian village in the area of Lincoln Ave and Mingo Park in the City of Delaware?
A. Yes, the village was called Pluggy's town, named after Chief Te-caugh-ye-te-righ-to, known to the settlers as Pluggy. The Mingo town consisted of perhaps 300 inhabitants from Delaware, Mohawk, Shawnee, Wyandot and Mingo tribes. They lived in long houses and wigwams. More information is available on the Delaware County Historical Society historical marker installed at Mingo Park, at the east end of Lincoln Avenue.

Q. How can I find out when my house was built and if there is any historical information about my house?
A. Delaware County has deed records back to the beginning of county government in 1808. The official deed records are in the county recorder's office and the county archives, which are available to the public. The Society maintains a research library, which has many privately acquired and organized historical resource materials about buildings and land at the Cryder Historical Center.

Q. How can I find information about my family's history?
A. The Delaware County Historical Society has the following resources for genealogical research: Delaware County histories, State of Ohio histories, family histories, church histories, file of surnames, maps, atlases, photographs, slides and negatives, newspapers, obituaries, cemetery records, Delaware County Home records, and census indexes both bound and on microfilm.

Other organizations with valuable information when you research a family in Delaware County include: the Delaware County Records Center (2079 US Highway 23 N, Delaware, Ohio 740-833-2140), the Delaware County Recorder's Office, [http://www.co.delaware.oh.us/recorder/] ; Delaware County Auditor's Office [http://www.co.delaware.oh.us/auditor/ ]; and the Delaware County Genealogical Society [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohdchs/].

Q. Is the Society's picture archive searchable by the street address of the picture?
A. Yes, photos and other archives and artifacts can be searched by address on the computer system at the Cryder Historical Center. In the next year we expect to have our holdings database searchable on the Internet.

Q. Are the Historical Society finances in balance?
A. Yes, the Society is fortunate to have had good leadership and community support over the years, leaving us with a very solid financial position. The recent opportunity to acquire the Meeker Homestead (currently occupied by Garth's Auctions) by donation from Tom and Carolyn Porter gives us the ability to greatly increase our outreach and visibility to the community and improve our financial position at the same time.

Q. What does the Historical Society need ? Money ? Volunteers ? Items ?
A. The Society needs all of those things in order to serve the community by increasing awareness and knowledge of history. Money is required to pay the bills to operate and maintain our facilities. Volunteers are currently the only way we have to provide programs and perform research for the community. Items of historical interest are always welcome, specifically furniture and artifacts related to life in Delaware County in the early years of the nineteenth century, which will enable us to outfit the new 1812 Meeker House Museum.

Q. What are the Historical Society's long term plans?
A. The Society's current long term plans are to use our assets, enthusiasm and facilities to greatly expand outreach into the community, increasing the awareness and appreciation of our history and heritage. With the acquisition of the Meeker Homestead we should have the ability to use the house museums and barn to help generate revenue to make that goal a reality.

The Society's goal of hiring a manager/director to organize and direct our volunteers and manage the special-events venue as an income-producing asset is closer than ever. We have written a strategic plan, including a marketing plan. We have a new logo and are poised to better communicate with the community to fulfill our mission. We have a strong board with a wide variety of talent continuing to do detailed planning for the future.

Q. What government funding does the Historical Society receive?
A. The Society has received a vital annual grant from the Delaware County Commissioners.

Q. Are my donations tax deductible? Many Nonprofits (250,000) lost this status from IRS on 6/2011. Are you 'OK'?
A. Yes, donations are tax-deductible. The Society is a 501(c)(3) organization. The Society is in good standing with the IRS and state of Ohio. Our tax return can be viewed on our website.

Q. What organizations does the Historical Society partner with?
A. The Society is a member of the Ohio Historical Society, the Ohio Local History Alliance, the Ohio Museums Association, and the American Association of State and Local History.

Locally, we collaborate with the Delaware Area Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Delaware, the Northwest Neighborhood Association, for example the Ghost Walk on October 15, and the Women's City Club, for example, the holiday home tour coming up in December.

Q. What else have you been doing the past year or so?
A. We adopted a revised Constitution to better manage in the future. We dedicated our Nash House Victorian museum and research library as the Cryder Historical Center, in honor of George R. Cryder (1924-2002) and Marilyn Moseley Cryder (1931-2010), long-time leaders and hard-working volunteers who were highly respected in the community. We have started to catalog our collections and plan to make this catalog available via the web this coming year.

Q. What active projects is the Historical Society working on?
A. Digitizing photos and other archives; inventorying all of our artifacts. Watch for our new book on Delaware history, Delaware and Delaware County will soon to be released by Arcadia Publishing. Share your e-mail address with us and we notify you when it's ready.

Q. How is the Society funded?
A. The Society has historically been funded by a small-but-vital annual grant from the Delaware County Commissioners, by membership dues and donations, and by prudent management of a modest endowment portfolio. With the acquisition of the Meeker Homestead, the Society has, for the first time, an opportunity to operate an associated, income-generating business that will enable us to expand our educational programs, create new museums (or museum displays) make greater use of our museums, and increase our community outreach and visibility.

Q. When was the Historical Society founded and who were the founding members?
A. The Delaware County Historical Society was incorporated in 1947. Articles of Incorporation were filed with the Ohio Secretary of State on November 3, 1947: The incorporators were Wilbur J. Main, John McClure Snook, and Genevieve Cole. Wilbur Main was our first president. Early meetings were held at Ohio Wesleyan, Asbury and St. Paul's church in Stratford. An earlier organization, the Delaware County Historical & Archaeological Society, was active from 1906 until 1910 .

Q. Does the Historical Society accept any donation or is there a vetting process?
A. The Society can accept any donation that is historically related or useful to our mission, and practical and manageable.

Q. How is the Historical Society planning to get the money to run/maintain the Meeker/Garth's/Oberlander site on Stratford Road?
A. The Society Board believes that the property can be self-supporting if managed prudently. The large stone-end barn, already developed and used for large gatherings and events, will be used as a revenue-generating special-events venue when not being used for Society events, as well as serving our Education mission as a museum.

Q. How many members are there in the Historical Society?
A. 300 and growing

Q. How can I communicate with the Delaware County Historical Society?
A. A good way is via e-mail: info@delawareohiohistory.org (for library research questions: librarian@delawareohiohistory.org). See our brochure for more information. Check us out on the Internet at: www.delawareohiohistory.org.