Tracy Drane, Em Miller and Charles Beason represented the Forney Historic Preservation League this past weekend, along with the Kaufman County Historical Commission and the Terrell Heritage Society. They helped at the KCHC booth and the antique railway car. The FHPL would like to thank the KCHC for allowing us to join them. It was a lot of fun, and we hope that if anyone missed it this year to be sure and get there next year. If only for the Texas Twisters!

On Tuesday, April 7, FHPL President Sarah Pinson Harp and Boardmember George Venner signed the title to purchase the Anderson-Clayton Building at 202 S. Bois d'Arc in downtown Forney.  The building is adjacent to the hardware store which was purchased by the FHPL in 2008. Both buildings will be used for a future museum.

The FHPL members have been speaking with several architects who have experience working on historic structures. The architects will help renovate both the hardware store and the funeral home. Some issues have been found on the funeral home building that need to be addressed, but as of this writing they seem minor. As soon as these fixes are accomplished, the museum's collection will be moved from the museum's current location in the City Hall building to the former funeral home location.  This will work as a temporary location until the hardware store has been renovated, a process that will begin as soon as possible.

Currently, we are looking for items to be donated to the collection. If you have items from Forney's past - photos, furniture, tools, textiles, etc. - that you would like to give to the museum, please contact Tracy at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Right now we are specifically looking for photographs of the front of the two museum buildings. We would like to see older photos so we can return the buildings to their original look. We will take high quality scans too!

Thank you!

On Thursday, April 2, members of the Forney Historic Preservation League visited the 2nd grade students at Claybon Elementary. The students were learning about their local community.  Em Miller and Tracy Drane talked about Forney's history and brought items to show, including a bow and some arrowheads, cotton, a branding iron and other items. The students asked some very good questions too! 

Thanks to 2nd Grade Teacher Jenny Mullin for setting this up and allowing us to meet the kids. It was a very fun experience!

Article from the Forney Post:

http://www.forneypost.net/community/2009/04/03/claybonlearnsforneyhistory.html

Tuesday night, March 10, 2009, Forney Cub Scout Pack 1007 visited the Spellman Museum of Forney History. The boys and their parents, and even a couple of sisters, visited for about 30 minutes and looked at the artifacts on hand. They were very well behaved and asked some very good questions about Forney's past. They really seemed to enjoy the visit, and I know I enjoyed having them there!  Great job kids!

Tracy