Thomas County Historical Society

Brief History of Thomas County Historical Society

           On October 5, 1959 W. D. Ferguson and Mrs. B. V. Dimmitt met with a Leisure Hour Club committee to discuss the possibility of forming a historical society in Thomas County.

           Moving quickly on November 12, 1959 more than 75 people interested in forming a historical society met and elected officers and directors. The Thomas County Historical Society was created as a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit organization with the purpose to collect photographs, artifacts and histories of the region. After the first officers were elected they honored 39 individuals who had come to Thomas County in covered wagons. During their monthly meetings they discussed the need to preserve photographs, documents, diaries, letters, accounts, books, etc. The directors asked members to bring these items in to either the Farmers and Merchants Bank or the Thomas County National Bank for storage in their vaults.

          The possibility of a permanent building to store historical documents was discussed in early 1960. A committee was appointed to raise funds and acquire an appropriate site for a building to house the Thomas County Historical Society and the Colby Public Library. That dream became a reality when Pioneer Memorial Library was dedicated on January 24, 1964 at 375 West 4th Street in Colby. Pioneer Memorial Library housed the Historical Society until 1979 when it outgrew its shared space and moved to 1525 West 4th Street.

          Meanwhile, the Thomas Historical Society purchased 24 acres of land just north of I-70 midway between Exit 53 and the proposed Exit 54 at what became 1905 South Franklin Avenue. This site was developed to include a sod house, a 1916 red barn, a one-room school, a 1930’s-style farm house, a country church, the new 21,500 square foot museum building in 1988, and in 1992 the former Foster Farms barn – billed as the largest barn in Kansas.

         The Thomas County Historical Society continues to thrive today thanks to the generosity of its loyal membership and the support of the community. 

 One of the nickel-size pins presented to Thomas County covered wagon pioneers.

Sharing Our Resources 

         

           Most of the documents, books and photographs in the archives are available to the public for genealogy or local history research or sometimes just to settle a discussion started at the coffee shop. The public archives area is located off the lobby in the main Prairie Museum of Art & History Building. One of the visitor services staff will be glad to give you a tour and tell you about the available resources to get you started in your research. 

         (Click photos to enlarge)

          Our non-lending library contains many volumes of interest to researchers and a comfortable area to work. Our book collection includes local history publications, family histories, high school yearbooks, phone books, city and rural directories, and much more.

          These files contain microfilm of virtually every newspaper printed in Thomas County and also U. S. and Kansas Census records for Thomas County. There are also clippings of obituaries and clippings of common research topics arranged by category. This often saves the tedious and time consuming task of going through reel after reel of microfilm. Volunteers have also created card catalogs of birth and marriages. directing you to the issue of the newspaper containing the information you want. A catalog of cemeteries and burial plots is also available. Also shown is our copy center with a quality color copier/printer/scanner.

           At Thomas County Historical Society, microfilm isn't a thing of the past! We have a state of the art microfilm reader connected through this computer. From this work station you can view quality images from the film, print, save to a flash drive or CD, or send as e-mail. One of our staff will be glad to help you learn to use this amazing piece of equipment.

           This area is used to store bound issued of our newspapers. Because of their fragile nature they are not available to the general public. 

          These boxes contain more recent newspapers waiting to be sent to the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka for conversion to digital format and binding.

          This collection of books is used by Prairie Museum staff and serious collectors seeking to identify or research artifacts. Subjects cover a large array from art, glassware, clocks, clothing, toys, and much more. There is also information in this section about artifact, document, and photograph preservation. 

          Our vault is a temperature and humidity controlled area for the storage of documents and photographs. It is considered a non-public area because many of the items are old and fragile. It may look like chaos, but each item is cataloged with a call number similar to the Dewey-Decimal system used by libraries. Items are placed in acid free archival envelopes, then placed in file boxes or cabinets.  The scope of items trickles down from state to county to towns within the county. The focus obviously is on Thomas County and the people and places in the county. Some of the sub-categories are county & city officials, agriculture, buildings, businesses, schools, churches, clubs and organizations, and families and individuals.

              Documents found in these files could be letters, deeds, journals, account books, birth or marriage certificates, family stories, etc.  Nearly everything paper!

           The photo print collection housed in these file cabinets covers the same categories as the document files. In addition to photographic prints, there are also files containing movie film, slides, negative and video and audio tapes. With the shift from to film to digital photography, the collection now also includes CD's and DVD's. The challenge with digital files is labeling and identifying each photo.

          Another great resources for visitors to Thomas County Historical Society and Prairie Museum is our gift shop. Our shelves are filled with books of local history, local publications, and books by local authors.