The April meeting of the Foresgville Historical Society opened at 6:10 P M . Those present were : John Anderson, Verna Blanc, Brian Bower, Lavon Covington, Ron Davis, Janet Dove, Ed Fulkerson, Don Fulkerson, Virginia Hughes, Penny Hutten, Ruth Marra, Phil Marcucci, Florence and Warren Templeman

The meeting opened with presentations by Ed Fulkerson and John Anderson. They told stories of their lives and families from their years in the area, giving us some fascinating insight into the history of Forestville and other Rissian River towns. They each fielded questions from the audience as well, Ed brought along a cash box his great grandfather had used in 1930. He also had a large format vintage book about the River Area towns. The Fulkersons gave land for the Fulkerson Cemetery in Santa Rosa where they once lived. Ed also talked about an iron jail that Monte Rio once had iron with just two cells and tiny diamond-shaped windows.

John brought lots of old pictures to share with us and talked about Anderson Road, named for his family. His great grandfather came here by oxcart across the plains from Kentucky and Missouri. John read to us from the diary his great grandfather kept on the trip. He mentioned teamsters used to take two days to pull timber by ox teamcart from Guerneville to Petaluma. There were 8 oxen in the team. John offered use of some of his pictures for our calendar if we found some we would like for that purpose.

The hour was well received and taught us some interesting facts.

The business meeting followed the presentations.

The secretary read the minutes of the last meeting which were approved as read. The treasurer reported that we have a balance of 2,622.24 in our account. We will need about half that for the publication of our 2004 historical calendars. We want to sell them at the Youth Park Carnival and Parade, so we will have a calendar/carnival/parade meeting at 6:30 p.m.April 30th, at Food for Thought ( unless Don calls to tell us otherwise) to discuss content and printing of the calendar, whether we will enter a float in the parade, and who will run the booth the first weekend in June. There will be a $50.00 fee for the booth. Virginia Hughes made a motion we spend the money for the booth use, Florence Templeton seconded the motion and it was carried. . Virginia said her grandson would do the graphics for the calendar again. We need to have the project printer-ready by May 15th.

President Don Fulkerson spoke again about locating a permanent home for the Society. He has purchased land at the Hilton Resort-Campground and suggested placing a building there. We considered the proximity to the River and thought maybe higher ground would be a better place for a museum and meeting room so artifacts wouldn’t be lost to floods.

Bryan suggested using an old train car for our meeting room and museum, similar to that at Duncan’s Mills. Don and Ed will look into this possibility. Lavon also suggested that there is an acre at the youth park that might be used to locate a portable building for the society. Bryan’s father has done museum work, so Bryan will bring museum information to the next meeting.

Four new members paid dues this evening, Ed Fulkerson, John Anderson, Ruth Marra and Bryan Bower. Don did the publicity for the meeting, bringing us a larger audience and these four new members.

There was a suggestion that we consider group field trips in the future

Our next regular meeting will be on May 21st.