The annual meeting of the JCGS was held on Saturday, August 21, 2010 at St. James Episcopal Church in Greenfield, MA. Our host this year was David Lewis. We were 35 strong, happy and excited to be celebrating the 70th Reunion of the JCGS. Our day began with the Board of Governors’ meeting which included our incoming Treasurer, John W. Clough. We were working together to aid the Nominating Committee in their search for new Board members. The Board is thrilled to have several new members join the Board of the JCGS and are grateful to those who are returning to the Board, some in new capacities. After the Board meeting, we joined the arriving members and enjoyed coffee and pastries in the church hall. The general meeting began with our favorite past time of sharing our genealogy with each other. Our President, Bob Lewis, opened the floor with his family line. The Nominating Committee then presented the names and positions of those nominated to the JCGS Board and the members were asked if anyone would like to fill the still vacant seats. Melanie and Ryan Weitz very graciously agreed to be our new Secretary and Member at Large, respectively. Bill Clough (pronounced Clow), very kindly agreed to take the position of 2nd Vice President. A resounding “Yea” voted in the new Board for the 2010-2011 year. Our beloved and outgoing Treasurer, John R. Clough, presented his last formal report to the members. He delighted us with how he became a member and very quickly, a President of the JCGS. He explained that he has been on the Board since he joined the Society and that he became our Treasurer in 1995-1996. We learned that there have been very few Treasurers of the JCGS. John replaced Ardyth Cluff, who was Treasurer from 1980-1996. Edgar Clement was Treasurer from 1974-1980 and Henry Knight held the position for the 20 years prior to that. Amazing, we have been very fortunate to have had these dedicated members and a huge WELCOME to our new Treasurer, John W. Clough, which is pronounced Clow, and a heartfelt thank you to all of our new and outgoing Board members. Our meeting continued with the issues we must work on in the coming year, most importantly, the Errata for Book III. Our new Genealogy Committee has already begun this task and are very excited to have this opportunity to contribute to Book III. If you need to have a correction made to your genealogy from Book III, please contact one of the Committee members. Another issue we face this year is the storing of books, papers, etc from our outgoing Genealogist, Sheila Andersen, and at the time of this writing, a solution has been found and is in the works. Along with this issue, we discussed what to do with old genealogy books. Some of the suggestions were to donate them to libraries (a thoughtful suggestion by John W. Clough, so that more people would have availability to the books), historical societies (mainly Salisbury, MA, a wonderful suggestion made by Melanie Weitz) or perhaps, sell them to book antiquarians (a generous suggestion by Ryan Weitz, in order to generate money for the JCGS) . A very kind idea was made by Alan Fritz, to check with Google about the possibility of having all the books available on line for free. As of yet, no decision has been made. If you have any ideas on what to do with these books, please contact the Historian or the Genealogy Committee with your suggestions. We also discussed cataloguing the books, scrapbooks, etc…as it would be very helpful to have a list of all of the items in the JCGS collection. Margaret Parker volunteered to store some of the above mentioned books and such in a room in her home and Bonnie Rooney volunteered to inventory anything that is stored at Margaret’s home. Thank you both for your very helpful and kind contributions. Langdon Clough passed around an old photo of a little boy enjoying a Clough Reunion. He then asked everyone to guess who was in the photo. It was a picture of our incoming President, David Lewis. Langdon also shared the completed restoration items with the members. Barbara Clough Abbott from Sanford, Maine, was so delighted with the end result of the initial phase of the project, she donated a very generous amount to the Restoration fund. Thank you so very much, Barbara. Lunch was a delightful presentation of lean roast beef, Barbara C. Abbott Presents Langdon Clough with a homemade vegetables, salads and a peach cobbler was the perfect check for the Document Restoration Fund ending to a delicious meal. The tables were covered in lovely burgundy linens. Our compliments and gratitude to the Chefs. Jane Clough from Waltham, MA said, “this was a very upbeat and pleasant meeting, very enjoyable.” It truly was a very memorable and pleasant reunion. Good job David and the lovely people of St. James. In the afternoon, we were entertained by Mr. Drinkwater, who gave a presentation on graveyards and headstones. Mr. Drinkwater began his talk by explaining how his interest in gravestones evolved from doing rubbings to the art of photography, eventually incorporating all sorts of interesting techniques such as the use of mirrors to focus the lights so that even the most worn lettering became readable in the developing room. He explained how the art of headstone carving evolved from the plain and simple sandstone markers of the early 1700’s, to winged skulls (also called “death heads”) carved onto slate. Over time, the simple and rather grim figures began to take on a more human or even angelic appearance as the carvers assumed a more artistic posture. By the 19th century, urns and willows accompanied the Victorian era of design. Then, a return to more simple and classic designs became the norm. In the late 19th century, the development of steam power enabled the cutting of granite to be accomplished with greater ease. Quarries sought new markets for their product by emphasizing its durability over slate or marble. The late 1900’s saw a trend toward more personalized gravestones, with some opting for images of the deceased being etched into the stone. There were lots of comments and questions from those assembled, many about the use of gravestones as an artifact of other than English cultures in New England. It was a very interesting and informative talk. John R, Clough, had a brilliant idea, that both entertained and delighted the members. He raffled off Volume 1 and Clough Stationary to all who were there. It was a free raffle and I think nearly everyone was a winner. Pictured Left: Paula Clough, Jean Clough, Our new Treasurer, John W. Clough, Linda McDevill and Ruth Clough. Linda and Ruth are holding copies of Volume 1 which were raffled by John R. Clough. Photo Right: Bonnie Rooney, Rebecca Harpole, John Clough, Melanie and Ryan Weitz, Bill and Elena Clough and Ralph Black Respectfully, Sheila Clough, Secretary Pro-Tem