It wasn’t just the Civil War that was the highlight of Dansville Area Historical Society’s Annual Community Dinner Meeting inside Daniel Goho American Legion Post Saturday. A slate of new board directors, the latest on the Pioneer Park monument and an update on a Museumwise grant were also announced.
At the end of this year, several longtime DAHS board directors will be retiring. New directors starting in the 2013 year will be Corky Schirmer, Ken Holbrook, Salome Farraro, Gerri Waite and Pam Soscia. They will be replacing Jack Jacobs, Al Hawk, Betty and Dick Whitenack and Marie Roberts.
Jane Behnke and Sharon Harris recently joined the board in the past few months.
The society recently received a state grant through Museumwise. Committee chair Nancy Helfrich noted that the recently acquired grant will help the historical society museum develop long range planning, which is in the works.
Board president Jim Snyder spoke about the fundraising for the Pioneer Park monument, which has received a little more than $6,000 toward a nearly $20,000 goal so far. The monument will sit in the center of the park, surrounded by lighting and landscaping, and will commemorate Dansville’s first cemetery there from 1791 to 1888.
Les Buell, special guest speaker for the dinner program, then spoke on “Medicines of the Civil War.”
While a sobering and somewhat gruesome topic, Buell kept the all-age audience of about 60 enthralled for the duration of his nearly hour-and-a-half-long presentation.
Buell has been reenacting as a Civil War doctor for about 25 years, and regularly conducts presentations such as this, typically in schools. He is a contributor to the annual Civil War Days each fall for Dansville eighth graders.
Most of what he spoke about was the treatment of wounded soldiers, plus briefly on the “angel of the battlefield,” Clara Barton, as well as other women of The Civil War.
Buell also spoke about the way in which warfare, and likewise medicines such as anesthetics, had advanced since The Revolutionary War. Although microscopic technology was invented prior to The Civil War, it wasn’t until just after the war that scientists fully understood germs.
Thus, medicines and surgery were often administered through unsanitary means, and with the help of untrained, fellow-wounded male soldiers who, although ignorant of such practices, acted as nurses and anesthesiologists.
He ended the program by speaking about pain killers such as opium pills and other addictive medicines that were available over the counter at that time and into the 20th Century. Addiction to pain killers at that time was known as Soldier’s Disease. He also spoke about other pills now illegal, such as mercury, which was commonly used at that time.
It wasn’t just the Civil War that was the highlight of Dansville Area Historical Society’s Annual Community Dinner Meeting inside Daniel Goho American Legion Post Saturday. A slate of new board directors, the latest on the Pioneer Park monument and an update on a Museumwise grant were also announced.
At the end of this year, several longtime DAHS board directors will be retiring. New directors starting in the 2013 year will be Corky Schirmer, Ken Holbrook, Salome Farraro, Gerri Waite and Pam Soscia. They will be replacing Jack Jacobs, Al Hawk, Betty and Dick Whitenack and Marie Roberts.
Jane Behnke and Sharon Harris recently joined the board in the past few months.
The society recently received a state grant through Museumwise. Committee chair Nancy Helfrich noted that the recently acquired grant will help the historical society museum develop long range planning, which is in the works.
Board president Jim Snyder spoke about the fundraising for the Pioneer Park monument, which has received a little more than $6,000 toward a nearly $20,000 goal so far. The monument will sit in the center of the park, surrounded by lighting and landscaping, and will commemorate Dansville’s first cemetery there from 1791 to 1888.
Les Buell, special guest speaker for the dinner program, then spoke on “Medicines of the Civil War.”
While a sobering and somewhat gruesome topic, Buell kept the all-age audience of about 60 enthralled for the duration of his nearly hour-and-a-half-long presentation.
Buell has been reenacting as a Civil War doctor for about 25 years, and regularly conducts presentations such as this, typically in schools. He is a contributor to the annual Civil War Days each fall for Dansville eighth graders.
Most of what he spoke about was the treatment of wounded soldiers, plus briefly on the “angel of the battlefield,” Clara Barton, as well as other women of The Civil War.
Buell also spoke about the way in which warfare, and likewise medicines such as anesthetics, had advanced since The Revolutionary War. Although microscopic technology was invented prior to The Civil War, it wasn’t until just after the war that scientists fully understood germs.
Thus, medicines and surgery were often administered through unsanitary means, and with the help of untrained, fellow-wounded male soldiers who, although ignorant of such practices, acted as nurses and anesthesiologists.
He ended the program by speaking about pain killers such as opium pills and other addictive medicines that were available over the counter at that time and into the 20th Century. Addiction to pain killers at that time was known as Soldier’s Disease. He also spoke about other pills now illegal, such as mercury, which was commonly used at that time.
