Review of 2009 in Bovina History

Municipally appointed historians in New York State are required each year to submit an annual report to their appointing board and to the State Historian. I will be doing that in the next week or so, but I wanted to do some form of a report here.

I've been town historian since the spring of 2004, succeeding my late father, Charlie LaFever. This year was a milestone year as town historian as I started taking advantage of web 2.0 technologies, utilizing Facebook, Flickr and this blog.

I've blogged over the past year about Russell's Store and Heaven on Main Street, the attempt to bring a railroad into Bovina, how Bovina got its name, and a possible murder that took place in the early 19th century.

And I did do things beyond blogging. Bovina did a lot of celebrating this year, and I was very flattered to be asked to participate during Bovina Day in July and Bovina Farm Day in September. The biggest celebration of the year revolved around the bicentennial of Bovina's oldest institution, the United Presbyterian Church. As well as a display, I wrote a new history of the church and participated as a member of the church's Bicentennial committee. And, of course, I reported on all of these celebrations via the blog.

I would like to thank a few people for their support during this past year:

The Bovina Town Board and Town Clerk;
Marjorie Miller, Bovina Town Librarian;
Bovina Historical Society;
Pastor Judi Gage and the Session and Trustees of the Bovina U.P. Church;
Ed and Dick Davidson;
Evelyn Stewart and Donna Weber, Bovina Farm Day coordinators.

So what is coming for 2010? I still have questions to resolve, such as where did the Bovina Associate Presbyterian Church go to? Was Bovina butter served at the White House? Where would the Bovina spur of the Delaware Railroad have gone? I'll keep digging up the answers to these and other questions in the new year, as well as exploring new topics such as Bovina businesses, the town in 1860 and 1910 and Bovina highways. And I'll share it all via this blog.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words and their support in 2009.

Happy New Year!