Brothers Tom (left) and Rick Morain took a Greene County Historical Society audience on a tour "of 160 years of Greene County politics in about 45 minutes," on Friday, Nov. 2, in a program at the United Methodist Church in Scranton. They called their presentation “Greene County Politics Thru The Years: The Pendulum Always Swings.” Tom is a top Iowa historian who is still on the faculty & staff at Graceland University in Lamoni in south central Iowa. Rick, of Jefferson, is the retired publisher & editor of the Jefferson newspapers, and he still writes the weekly "Geenery" column for the Jefferson Herald.

The Greene County Historical Society, meeting Friday, Oct. 5, at the United Methodist Church in Rippey, heard the story of the largest gathering of people in county history -- the 2-day "Agri-rama U.S.A." which attracted more than 150,000 people when it was held in September, 1966 on several farms just east of Jefferson. That event, like a farm progress show, also included the state and national plowing competitions for that year. Sharing the stories were (left to right) Steve King, a native of Rippey now living in Ogden who is a national plowing champion; Robert Huber, Rippey native now living in Cedar Falls, whose father Lawrence Huber was an avid plowman and coach; John Bass, now of Fontanelle, Ia., who lived on one of the farms where Agri-rama was held in '66, and Roger Norgren, of Rippey, who is also a national plowing champion.

Ada Ross, of Jefferson, secretary of the Greene County Pioneer Cemetery Commission, spoke Friday, Sept. 7, at the Greene County Historical Society program held at St. Patrick Catholic Church, Cedar, located west of Churdan. Ross reported the county has 10 "pioneer cemeteries," defined as having five or fewer burials in the last 50 years. At least three of the cemeteries were plowed before the commission became active in the year 2000, but now all have been restored as completely as possible. The commission, which receives funding from the county's board of supervisors, is charged with overseeing the protection and preservation of the pioneer cemeteries, where many of our earliest settlers are buried. Ross is shown here with a county map showing the location of the pioneer ceremonies.

The Smithsonian Institution's "Hometown Teams" exhibit was on display for six weeks in late summer at our Greene County Historical Museum in Jefferson. The national part of it explained the role of sports in our society, and there were also terrific displays of local sports history. One photo that caught our eye was this one of old Jefferson High School's state champion half-mile relay team in 1930. We asked if there were five runners on relay teams back then, but Rick Morain, son of Fred Morain (the relay member second from left), said he believes a couple runners here rotated in and out of the 4-man combination, depending on what the team wanted to accomplish in any particular meet. More than 2,000 people toured the exhibit durings its stay, which was coordinated by the Jefferson Matters Main Street program and the historical society.

One of the six "History Chats" that the Greene County Historical Society presented during the Greene County Fair in July covered the amazing life and sports career of the late Jim Doran, of the Paton area. Despite going to a high school in nearby Beaver that had no football, Doran became an All-American in the sport about 1950 at Iowa State College and an All-Pro in the National Football League. Moderators for the discussions were Chuck Offenburger and Jerry Roberts of the historical society, shown here on the left and right. Special guests for the Doran chat were Bernie Saggau, who was briefly a teammate of Jim Doran at Buena Vista College before Doran transferred to Iowa State, and his son Jim Doran Jr., who farms near Paton and who had his own distinguished football career at Paton-Churdan High and Iowa State.