Town and Country Public Library launches Elburn Oral History Project

ELBURN – When Elburn's library last embarked on a program to welcome longtime residents to preserve their words of wisdom on tape, Mary Rowe Campbell was a village resident and college student.

It was 1973. Campbell said she recalled thinking it was a pretty fun idea.

“I thought it would be so great, that those old guys could tell us so much,” she said.

Campbell recently laughed about that thought. Amy Vidlak Girmscheid, the history and genealogy collection coordinator for the Town and Country Library District in Elburn, has launched a similar program this year. Campbell, who turns 61 this year, is participating, and she is thinking maybe those who were part of the first effort really weren’t so old.

Girmscheid is working on the Elburn Oral History Project, an effort in which she has scheduled "hourlong interviews with local residents to learn about the history, families and personalities that make the Elburn area great," a library newsletter stated. It's part of the mission of History Keepers, a volunteer group that will promote and support local history and genealogy initiatives at the library.

The project recently got underway, and Campbell was one of the first to sit down with Girmscheid. Village President Dave Anderson also has an interview scheduled, and Girmscheid said she continues to add more. The idea is the interviews will be completed and made available on the library's website, www.elburn.lib.il.us. Girmscheid said the interviews should be completed by the end of the summer.

As part of the project, Girmscheid is having the 1973 interviews transcribed, with the idea that they could be available in a different form, such as the website. Since that project took place, the interviews were available only on cassette tapes, and people had to listen to them at the library. Mary Lynn Alms, the library’s executive director, said library patrons didn’t seem to know the tapes were available.

“We haven’t had anybody ask for it for a long time,” she said.

Alms said the current project will help accomplish a significant goal of preserving history. This effort promises to be followed up with a push to promote awareness of the project, as well as the updating and increased availability of the earlier project from the 1970s. Girmscheid said her interviews will last about an hour, and she will plan follow-up sessions, as well.

“It’s very exciting,” Alms said.

Campbell said her family can trace its roots to Elburn dating to the 1830s. She said she talked about her family history, as well as how life was different when she was growing up. She talked about how drivers routinely would make a U-turn when they approached downtown to park on a certain side of the street. She said traffic wasn’t a big concern, and many rural roads were made of gravel. She said it seemed easier for young people to get jobs in their own communities, so people stayed together more.

She said she likes a lot about Elburn today, including more shopping options.

Anderson will have much to talk about, as well. He points out that “I was born here, and my father was born here.” Anderson will be able to talk about running the grocery store in town before Jewel opened, as well as subjects such as the Elburn Lions Club, the Elburn Village Board and more. Anderson said it is good for new residents to learn about Elburn’s past. He said he urged such residents to keep in mind one word, “patience.”

“I would ask them to take their time about saying we need this and we need that and have the patience to see and ask why the village does this or why the Elburn Lions Club does that, why the legion does that and why the PTA does this,” Anderson said, adding they should “find out what the driving forces behind them were before making a decision that we’ve got to do this.”

Bill Grabarek, an Elburn village trustee and a board member with the Elburn Friends of the Library organization, said he has been interested in the history of the village. He said it helps provide a “stronger sense of place and community.”

“I’m big on it,” Grabarek said. “I’m big on genealogy. I’m big on all of that stuff.”

Grabarek added the library’s successful referendum in 2006 makes such efforts possible. Otherwise, he said, Girmscheid’s position wouldn’t exist.

“It made all the difference in the world,” Grabarek said. “The result is a place that has become really a community gathering place, really the brain center, almost, for our area. It’s produced so much citizen value for the dime we got in the way of the increase. This type of stuff is, I think, stuff that people can say, hey our tax dollar has produced something really valuable.”