Madison Historical Society Celebrates 100th Anniversary At Bottle Hill Day
The Madison Historical Society has a booth at Bottle Hill Day almost every year, where they get to sell books on the town’s past, recruit members, and hold raffles for the Madison-grown honey they receive. But this year, the air felt a little bit different.
When walking around town, you may have noticed various green, red, and blue banners hanging up everywhere you went. Those banners each displayed a person or landmark that was important to Madison’s past, and included names such as William A. Stoddard, a former Madison resident who was Abraham Lincoln’s third secretary; Betty Bumgartner, the first female mayor of Madison; and the Luke Miller house, which still stands today.
In addition, you may have seen the display at the Coldwell Banker building, which showcased various artifacts as well as black and white photos of Madison landmarks. And if you’re really invested in Madisonian history, you may have attended historical society member Doug Simon’s library lecture on the history of the organization, which was held back in September.
All of these sightings and events didn’t happen by coincidence, as they were put up by the Madison Historical Society in celebration of the organization’s 100th Anniversary. After a century of recording Madison’s history, it’s only fitting that they showcase these things as a way to “remember the town’s citizens, landmarks, and history”—as they put it themselves.
Then, aAs one final act of commemoration, the historical society put out their booth on Bottle Hill Day to let the entire town know of their remarkable achievement. Throughout the day, hundreds of people flocked to the historical society stand, where they got to learn more about the organization, enter in the honey raffle, and guess the number of gummy bears in a jar for a chance to win the whole thing.
As I’ve been volunteering for the Historical Society over the last two years, I had the opportunity to help run their stand at Bottle Hill Day. Following the event, I interviewed Madison Historical Society President Virginia Laughlin on the centennial. You can read it below:
Y: How did the 100th Anniversary celebration make this year’s Bottle Hill Day showcasing different from previous years?
G: Last year our big news story was the expectation that we were finally going to secure a place to open our Museum. This was and is a very forward thinking event. The planning and building of the museum will continue into the future. In planning our Centennial celebration, we focused on what came before. We were looking back to our beginnings and why and how the society was established.
Y: How did people react when you told them it was MHS’s 100th anniversary?
G: I think most were very impressed that we have existed for so long. Madison has a rich and long history and those who are interested in it, appreciate that we exist to maintain a record of the town.
Y: Why did you decide to put up the banners across town/the displays at Coldwell Banker?
We wanted to bring our 100th Anniversary to the town in a very public way. We wished to raise the public profile of the Society. In addition to the banners of historical people, places and events and the archival display in the Coldwell Bank window, the Society was the lead article in the September issue of “Madison Living” and the Madison Library featured the Society in a lecture about our history in September. And then we used Bottle Hill Day to top off our celebration.
Y: How does it feel to be part of this organization which has kept track of Madison’s history for 100 years?
I am very proud and honored to be the President of the Society during this momentous occasion. I thank everyone in the organization who helped to organize our year long celebration. And I am grateful to all those who came before us, who saw the need and had the desire to record and maintain the history of our wonderful town.
The Madison Historical Society was founded back in 1922 in an effort to save Bottle Hill Tavern, one of the town’s monumental landmarks that was originally going to be torn down. Now, they are located at the Madison Public Library, where they keep various forms of town records.