One Way We Honor Our Veterans

We have an ongoing project here at our library. It's called the Catherine M. Bryant Veterans History Project. It's housed in the Ellen Payne Odom Genealogical Library, in the south wing of the Moultrie-Colquitt County Library. I know that's a lot of names and words, but the Project is one of our most precious collections...a collection that reminds us daily of what our veterans have done for us.
It all started in 1992, when a member of the Moultrie High School Class of 1939 was working on a veterans display at the Moultrie First Presbyterian Church. She thought, How great [it would be] to have a reunion honoring veterans of the classes of 1937 through 1940.
The four classes approved the idea and all veterans were asked to send copies of their wartime pictures. Many were received. A very successful patriotic reunion was held in June 1994 to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the Allied Forces Landing in Europe on June 6, 1994.
After the reunion, the steering committee approached the director of the Odom Library, Melody Jenkins, about creating a veterans' memorial to include all veterans who served honorably from the Civil War to present day. The project was approved. All veterans' pictures from the reunion were given to the library for permanent record. And the Moultrie High School Class of 1939 donated $700 to start the project.
The person with that first thought of a reunion to honor our veterans was Catherine M. Bryant. She worked for the library for 61 years as our Genealogy and Administrative Assistant. Catherine passed away last year.
Everyone knew Catherine's greatest library love was the Veterans History Project. And because it was her desire that veterans be honored and never forgotten, the Veterans History Project was placed in the genealogy library. She worked hard for years to raise money to support the project and acquire information about as many veterans as she could to add to the collection. Because of her dedication and appreciation of all veterans, the project was named for her.
At this time, the genealogy library is conducting a Veterans Survey in an effort to locate all military personnel - past and present. To be included in the Project, an information sheet is required. All records and/or pictures must be identified. Forms are available at the Odom Genealogical Library.
We're also working toward creating a list of the names of veterans for whom we have information, with the possiblity of publishing that list on our website. At the present time, we've compiled 113 notebooks with information on over 15,000 veterans.
The Veterans History Project is an important part of our heritage. If you have information you'd like to contribute, please contact the Ellen Payne Odom Genealogical Library at 229-985-6540 and ask for Ann Glass, Project Chairman.

When Bibles Were Family Treasures

A phone call came to me the other day. Our local bookstore owner said he'd received a large family Bible and wondered if the library would like to have it. I referred him to Irene, our genealogist in the Ellen Payne Odom Genealogical Library, who I felt would be very interested.
This morning I decided to see if Irene had accepted the Bible. Sure enough, there it was sitting on her desk. A dark cloth-bound Bible, it is 9 inches by 11-1/2 inches with a 2-1/2 inch spine. The first copyright date was 1923 and the last 1936. On the back of the title page is a stamped blue ribbon that states: Awarded the Blue Ribbon at the Texas Centennial Celebration, Dallas, Texas 1936. It is a New Standard Reference Bible.
Someone had filled in the family members' military service records, Domestic and Foreign Service records, as well as Discharge. It has a Family Register with the names of grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren, along with births and deaths filled in.
I sat with the book in front of me. When I touched it, I felt I was touching an actual piece of time and history.
Someone had written loved ones' birthdays on the second page of the inside cover. The third page was a picture of a painting in color titled The Creation of Light - After Dore's Black and White by Max Bihn with a 1912 copyright.
The presentation page read: To Lillie Mathis by her husband Brady Mathis in Moultrie, GA.
As I turned the pages, I realized it was not necessarily a "study" Bible, but a treasure-keeper of family history, as well as the page from a favorite Sunday School lesson, a newspaper clipping of a relative's 60th wedding anniversary, and special bookmarks.
The Bible had ended up at our local bookstore. It made me wonder - was this one of the dearest possessions someone took with them to a nursing home? Or had it been forever on someone's buffet in the dining room? Whose hands were the last hands of a family member to touch it? Why wasn't it with family now? So many questions.
I sat and looked at the frayed cover with thin strings hanging off of it, the spine's binding broken from the front cover, the yellowed pages. I felt as if we should give it a proper burial, but it's such an important piece of history. Someone's family history!
When I asked Irene what she was going to do with it, she said she'd make copies of the family records to place in the Odom Library, then she'd put the Bible in a box in storage along with the two or three others she has.
Maybe someone out there will recognize these names recorded in the Bible: Brady Connie Mathis and Lellie Strawder Mathis, James and Beatrice Ricks, and George Howard Hiers, Jr.
If so, a treasure of your family history is at the Odom Genealogical Library, right here in Moultrie, Georgia.