It’s Time for a Clean-Up!  Old Macedonia Cemetery

Saturday, February 18th @ 8 a.m.

• Photo by Cass County Front Porch (Mason Darrell Barrett, Sam Higdon, James Penny)

 

When: Saturday, February 18^th, 2017 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Where: Old Macedonia Cemetery on the west side of the Linden Cemetery

Bring: Gloves, wheel barrows, and garden implements

Refreshments: Water, coffee, hot chocolate, and donuts.  Lunch will be provided

Spread the word! Invite your family, friends, students, customers, and non-profit groups who are interested in preserving the Old Macedonia Cemetery and its historical significance to Linden.

Can you help?

Call or email Mason Darrell Barrett (205) 267-2112  professorbarrett@msn.com 

or Sam Higdon (225) 603-8536 sam.higdon@lindenheritage.org to get on the list. The Linden Heritage Foundation is supporting the activity.

Along with five local Main Street enthusiasts, Linden’s new Main Street Manager Allie Anderson attended the invitational Texas Main Street Training 2017, held in historic Georgetown on January 24 and 25.  Participating in these excellent training sessions were Linden Main Street Manager Allie Anderson and supporting volunteers Anna Dewell-Eddings, Ruth Halleck, Catherine Knapp, Sue Lazara, and Joe Lovelace.  Others invited for the training were representatives of the City of Buda, also entering the program in 2017, and a small number of other Texas cities with new Main Street staff and/or volunteer leadership.

 

Linden representatives were impressed with the professionalism of the Texas Main Street Program staff and left Georgetown more excited than ever about the future potential of our own special, historic downtown.

 

 

Since 1981, the Texas Main Street Program has demonstrated tangible positive impact by bringing visual improvement and economic viability to historic town centers.  Texas Main Street Program staff are public servants trained to provide effective individualized services to cities winning this designation. The program offers technical expertise, education, state and federal resources, and individualized staff support in accord with the National Main Street Four Point Approach™ of organization, design, economic vitality and promotion:

 

Organization:  Community partnerships lead to even more successful preservation-based revitalization.

Design: Guided by a town’s own unique physical assets and local heritage, the design staff produces professional solutions geared to an active district that maintains authenticity.

Economic Vitality:  Identify new market opportunities for the commercial district, find new uses for historic commercial buildings, and stimulate investment.

Promotion:  Marketing activities are built around a unified, quality image of the business district as the center of activities, goods and services.
Texas Main Street communities range in population from 2,000 to over 300,000. As a group, these 80+ cities have added about 35,000 jobs and 8,700 new small businesses to the Texas economy – reporting also more than $3.2 billion of overall reinvestment, most of it privately funded.

 

NEXT STEPS:  The Linden Main Street Advisory Board is forming committees and inviting broad community participation in those committees.  Local Manager Allie Anderson will lead a local Advisory Board Training program on January 31 to review and reinforce some of the key learning from the Georgetown sessions.  Finally, late next month, State Main Street Coordinator Debra Drescher and a team of her key staff will be spending a few days in downtown Linden, working toward an individualized Plan of Action for our local Main Street program and downtown development.  Like the Georgetown training, this personalized assistance is given at no charge now that Linden is a designated Texas Main Street City.

Sam Higdon, (Foundation President), welcomes members to the Second Annual Meeting of the Membership.  Photo by Jo Anna Duncan

 

The Linden Heritage Foundation met on January 14, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. in the Courtroom of the Historic Cass County Courthouse in Linden, Texas.  30 members and 7 guests were present and in attendance when Mr. Higdon called the meeting to order.  The first agenda item was the report of the Nominating Committee comprised of Jeanie Stevens, Wanda Burns and Sandra Westbrook Skoog.  Ms. Burns proposed the committee’s selection of 5 names as a slate to replace the expired terms of 5 Directors.  Mr. Higdon asked for additional nominations from the floor, and upon receiving none, the quorum present voted.  Unanimously elected for three (3) year terms to the Linden Heritage Foundation Board of Directors were:  Jana Clinkscales Bounds, John Knapp, Ron Calhoun, Joe B. Lovelace and Sandra Westbrook Skoog.

 

Following the election of the Directors, Jana Clinkscales Bounds, presented the financial report for the Foundation.  The Foundation began the FY2016 with a fund balance of 19,316.91.  At the end of FY2016 the fund balance was $26,928.01 with $7,473.52 being restricted for the Firehouse Project.

 

Upon acceptance of the financial report, Mr. Higdon called upon Sue Lazara to report on Foundation activities.  Ms. Lazara provided a handout of recent achievements including updates on the Firehouse Restoration Project, Texas Preservation Trust Fund Grant, Linden’s successfully qualifying as a 2017 Texas Main Street (a recognition bestowed by the Texas Historical Commission), and major research to justify State Antiquities Landmark (SAL) status for Linden’s 1856 Dungeon with Iron Cage, part of the first Cass County Jail;  similarly, justifying SAL status for the 1856 Old Veal Brickworks, which used slave labor to produce local brick for the 1856 county Jail, the 1861 Cass County Courthouse and other early buildings in the town.  Ms. Lazara also provided members present an opportunity to join a committee by distributing a Linden Heritage Foundation Sign-Up Sheet.

 

The meeting was adjourned.

 

Official minutes of the meeting will be posted to the Documents section of the Website once approved.

 

A reception was held for all at the close of the Annual Membership meeting.

 

 

Board Members Joe B. Lovelace and Anna Barber with Linden Heritage Foundation Charter Members  Nigar and Sain Alizada who run a family-owned translation agency in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, a small country on the shore of the Caspian Sea, the world’s largest lake.  Photo by Jo Anna Duncan

 

 

 

 

Gary Pinkerton, Author of Trammel’s Trace: The First Road to Texas from the North.  Photo by Jo Anna Duncan

 

Following the reception 52 (members and guest) enjoyed a presentation by Gary Pinkerton about his new book, Trammel’s Trace: The First Road to Texas from the North.  It offered a glimpse at Trammel’s Trace as a ‘smuggler’s back alley’ into Northeast Texas.  The path of Trammel’s’ Trace across Cass County is documented, both in the original headright surveys and with the support of fellow “rut nuts” who have a significant amount of reconnaissance on the ground with landowners.  It entered Cass County at Epperson’s Ferry on the Sulphur River and exited the County just West of Avinger, TX. More information about the book and this historic road is available at trammelstrace.org.

 

Mr. Higdon announced a Clean-Up Day at the Old Macedonia Cemetery (located on the west side of the Linden Cemetery) for Saturday, February 18, 2017 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and invited all to attend.  Food and refreshments will be provided.

If you need a record of your membership payment or donations to the Linden Heritage Foundation, login to NeonCRM (our constituent management system) at https://lindenheritage.z2systems.com and use the pulldown menu in the upper right corner to choose either “My Donation” or “My Membership” to display a complete record of your transactions.  Choose “Logout” from the same menu when finished.

If you do not know your Login Name and Password, you can recover the information by clicking on the “Send Recovery Email” link.  Please use the recovery option rather than creating a new account.

If you have a questions, please send an email to ContactUs@LindenHeritage.org.

#LindenHeritageFdn