Oral histories recorded, preserved

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Students from Columbus State Community College’s Delaware campus, Delaware County community members, and representatives from the Delaware County Historical Society will be getting together on Dec. 12 to celebrate their semester-long effort to record and preserve the oral histories of Delaware County residents.

In the first half of the semester, Columbus State students in Dr. Nancy Pine’s “Oral Histories” themed composition course interviewed 10 individuals chosen by the Delaware County Historical Society who live in Delaware County to gain insight into life in Delaware County in times past.

The students recorded and reflected on their interviews, sharing their collected information with the historical society, and then wrote papers based on an item, fact, or story from the interviews that interested them. Topics students chose to explore in their research projects included train travel, farming, small-town life, urbanization, and historical events of various decades.

This semester was a pilot run of Dr. Pine’s course, but due to its success, Pine and the historical society plan to continue the course in future semesters as long as there are people with stories to tell and students interested in listening to and recording those stories.

Next semester the project will focus on residents of the Lucy Depp area, and some local high school students plan on joining CSCC students during the interview process.

Anyone who has a Delaware County story to tell and would like to participate in the Delaware County Oral History project should contact Karen Cowan or Susan Logan at [email protected] or call 740-369-3831.

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