Mikki Schwarzkopf, of Jefferson, presented a terrific program -- in costume! -- to our Greene County Iowa Historical Society on Friday, Oct. 1, detailing the great struggle that in 1920 led to ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That finally gave women the right to vote in this country. Schwarzkopf's program, delivered at the United Methodist Church in Rippey, was rich with detail about how local "suffragists" campaigned for and won the vote by the men of Greene County, aided by the appearances here by many of the national leaders in the women's suffrage movement.

During the program by Mikki Schwarzkopf (in the white dress & hat) that celebrated the centennial of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- giving women the right to vote -- she had other members of the Greene County Iowa Historical Society appear and speak as notable characters in the suffrage campaign here in Greene County. Those included, from the left, Dianne Piepel, appearing as 20-something Carrie Dean Pruyn, who traveled all over Iowa explaining what voting rights were and why they were important; Dale Hanaman, who appeared first as a conservatrive Iowa legislator from Dubuque and then later as the suffrage-opponent Lowrie Smith, editor of the Scranton Journal, and Jed Magee, who appeared twice as Victor Hugo Lovejoy, the legendary editor of the Jefferson Bee, who was an ardent supporter of women's suffrrage.

We all learned a lot of local church history on Friday, Sept. 3, when the Greene County Iowa Historical Society program was "Country Churches in Greene County's Past & Present." The setting was certainly appropriate -- at St. Patrick's Catholic Church-Cedar, the historic and beautiful "oratory" church located five miles west of Churdan. This panel discussed the stories of their historic churches. From left to right are Andy Geisler, of St. Patrick's-Cedar; Karen Lawton, of the former Greenbrier United Methodist; Peg Semke, of Pleasant Hill Methodist, and the three from Trinity Lutheran of Willow Township Sheryl Bielenberg, Ruth & Cliff Jensen.

During the Sept. 3 program on "Country Churches in Greene county's Past & Present," Karen Lawton talked about the sorrow all in the small Greenbrier United Methodist congregation felt when they were sorting through the reality that the time had come to close their church. And they opted to demolish and building, and turn the site into a resting area, instead of letting the building deteriorate. But she got a real lift when Roger Aegerter, the executive director of the historical society and an artist who often features wood in his artwork, took boards from the Greenbrier Church and made two commemorative wall-hangings, and this is one of them.

One of the displays in the new exhibit "Dig it! The 1950s, '60s & '70s" at the Greene County Historical Museum. What could be more '50s and maybe '60s than a yellow Formica kitchen table, Fiestaware dishes, colorful aluminum cups and bowls, and ashtrays? The exhibit continues through the fall and winter.