The Shepherd History

Journal
News from the Shepherd Area Historical Society
October 2007 Vol. 1, No. 1 http://www.historicshepherd.com PRICE FREE

Inside
2 Contents 3 Cover Story 5 News in Brief
2 The Shepherd History Journal

Contents
3 Cover Story The Shepherd
History
5 News in Brief Journal
The Shepherd Journal is published monthly by the
5 Membership News Shepherd Area Historical Society for its members.

6 Museum News
Mission
6 Community News 1.Inform readers about the activities and goals of
the Shepherd Area Historical Society
7 Meeting Information 2.Explore and discuss the rich history of Shepherd
and its surrounding community
3.Encourage the study of history
8 Photo Gallery 4.Serve as a record of major events

The Staff
Larry Noyes, Publisher
Jon Morgan, Editor
Joyce Noyes, Associate Editor

Correspondence
Comments, questions, news tips, articles,
photographs, and letters to the editor may be
submitted using the following:
Email:
webmaster@historicshepherd.com
Postal Mail:
The Shepherd Journal
P.O. Box 532
Shepherd, MI 48883
Phone:
(989) 828-4038
Website:http://www.historicshepherd.com

Shepherd Area Historical Society

Board of Officers Joyce M. Noyes,
Larry G. Noyes, President Secretary
Clayton Lyon, Vice President Loretta Koester,
Treasurer

Trustees
Jack C. Adams Newell Oren
Sarah Ayris Deanna Saunders
Max Berry Susan Sazima
Rose Cohoon
october 2007
Cover Story
Shepherd History goes Online
Shepherd Area Historical Society to unveil new website
Top: The Homepage for the Shepherd Area Historic Society
welcomes visitors and displays the latest article. Bottom:
Login screen for the Member’s Only section
3
Isabella County residents now have a
web resource to turn to for information
about the Shepherd’s two museums,
local historical society, and of course the
village’s rich history. The website will
be introduced to members and visitors
during the next meeting being held on
October 8 at 7 p.m. inside the Shepherd
High School’s media center.
The new website, accessible at http://
www.historicshepherd.com, features
a news page, Member’s Only section,
downloadable membership form as
well as information about the Little
Red Schoolhouse and the Powerhouse
Museums. The site also links to an online
calendar, bulletin board, discussion group
and blog. Jon Morgan, society member
and designer of the website, will answer
questions as he demonstrates the
website’s different features.
Background
Anyone who paid attention to
the promotional material which
was distributed by the Shepherd
sesquicentennial planning committee
during the last year and a half might
recognize the historical society’s new web
address as the former virtual home of the
Shepherd Sesquicentennial website. This
is because the website for the Shepherd
Sesquicentennial has been replaced by
the newer website for the Shepherd Area
Historical Society.
There were a lot of reasons why
the web address was reused for the
society. First of all, the phrase “Historic
Shepherd” seemed to fit with the
society as well as it did the Shepherd
Sesquicentennial (plus it was much
 4 The Shepherd History Journal

Cover Story

simpler than expecting people to correctly spell

“sesquicentennial”). Second, “historicshepherd.
com” had been associated with the Shepherd
Sesquicentennial and has now hopefully become
commonly known around the community. Last
of all, this seemed like the best use for the web
address following the conclusion of the Shepherd
Sesquicentennial celebration.

Anatomy of the Website

The pages on historicshepherd.com are broken
up into four distinct areas: Navigation, Banner,
Sidebar, and Content. The navigation bar along
the top is shaped as tabs and labeled with
straightforward action words: home, learn, browse,
interact,visit,join,attend,donate,shop, and help. The
words indicate each section’s purpose. For example,
clicking on the learn tab takes you to information
about the society, the attend tab focuses on the
society’s meeting schedule, and join provides
information about how to become a historical
society member. This navigation bar stays the same
except when members click on the “Member’s Only”
link towards the top right of the page.
The Banner will always tell you where you are
inside the historical society website and offer an
explanation about the different sections. Just below
the banner and to the right is the Sidebar. The
sidebar contains additional links that allow you to
navigate within a specific section of the website.
As you navigate through the website, the
information you access will appear in the Content
area of each page. Whether its photos, lists, web
links, or general information, it will always appear
in the content area of the webpages.
Target audience
The Shepherd Area Historical Society’s website
is directed towards a wide assortment of potential
visitors. This includes society members, residents of
Shepherd and the surrounding area, genealogists,
teachers interested in taking a field trip to one of
the society’s museums, and former residents of
Shepherd. The website needed to be informative,
educational, and persuasive at the very same time.
A Member’s Only area was created to improve
communication with existing members and entice
visitors into joining the society. A “News and
Announcements” page, under the Browse tab,
displays a wide variety news about upcoming
events, meetings, and other notes about history.
Both the Powerhouse and the Little Red School-
house are featured in their own sections on the
website
The Visit section of the website gives information
about the society’s museums.
Another consideration was how to make the
website interactive in an age when input is just
as important to web users as the information
they find on the Internet. The Historic Shepherd
website offers visitors several opportunities to
ask questions, leave comments, or contribute to
a dynamic stream of information. Non members
can post a message on the free bulletin board at
http://bulletinboard.historicshepherd.com. Society
members can also leave messages on the bulletin
board or subscribe to a private discussion group.
Every visitor is welcomed to visit the society’s
weblog at http://blog.historicshepherd.com where
they can respond to the articles which have been
posted there.
Visitors can also contact a society officer using
the Member Directory or by sending an email
message to webmaster@historicshepherd.com.
Plans for the Future
No matter how much is completed on the
website, it will always be a work in progress. Plans
are in the works to add a section where visitors will
be able to purchase one of the society’s fundraising
items, and another section which will answer
visitors’ questions about the website. There are
always new articles to post, new photos to upload
into the galleries, and events to change in the
online calendar.
october 2007 5

News in Brief
Membership News
New Members
The Historical Society added several new members
between the months of July and September. The
cemetery walk we held during the Shepherd Ses-
quicentennial celebration in August created inter-
est in both Shepherd and the Historical Society.
Newell and Lois Oren
Our new members are:
design could be improved by making it the
Name Level same size as a standard business card, and
Jon Morgan Regular adding a logo. Contact information for the
Louie Holliday Regular society such as a general email address,
Greg Lyon Regular the website address, and a general phone
Dean Stalter Life number could also be included along the
Patti Sandel Regular bottom.
The following are examples of what
our card looks like now (top) and, for
Newell Oren recognized for comparison, a copy of the card being issued
community involvement by the MAC3TV organization.
Friends, family, and community members gath-
ered together at the Shepherd Methodist Church
a few weeks ago to wish a fond farewell to Newell
and Lois Oren. Newell and his wife recently moved
to Jackson to be closer to family members. Larry
Noyes presented a special plaque to Newell on be-
half of the Shepherd Area Historical Society. New-
ell previously served as president of the Historical
Society and is currently a trustee.
Birthdays
Lisa Noyes will be celebrating a birthday on Octo-
ber 18.
Plans are in the works to honor each member for
their birthday. Keep watching this spot for birthday
announcements in the future. In the meantime,
contact Jon Morgan at 828-4038 or webmaster@h
istoricshepherd.com if you have a birthday coming
up in October or November.

Membership Card Designs

There has been some discussion lately
about redesigning the membership cards
for the historical society. The current card
 6 The Shepherd History Journal

News in Brief
Left: The Power-
house Museum
Right: Hanson
Hardware

Museum News Community News

Powerhouse News
Plans are underway to video record a tour of the
Powerhouse museum. This would provide us with
a training resource as well as something that could
be shown when the museum is open to the public.
Stay tuned for more information about this project.
Contact Larry Noyes if you would like to arrange a
tour of the Powerhouse Museum.
Send suggestions or ideas for the Powerhouse
museum to webmaster@historicshepherd.com.
Little Red Schoolhouse News
Recently I happened to be talking to a friend of
mine when she mentioned that she was going
to be holding a lunch with a “Little House on the
Prairie” theme. I immediately suggested that she
could include a visit to the Little Red Schoolhouse
as a related activity. This just seemed like a great
chance for a group of people to take advantage of
the one room schoolhouse museum that we have
right here in our own community.
Contact Larry Noyes if you would like to schedule
a tour of the Little Red Schoolhouse Museum.
Send questions and comments about the Little
Red Schoolhouse museum to webmaster@historic
shepherd.com.
Hanson Hardware celebrates 25
Years
The Shepherd Argus reports that
Hanson’s Hardware is celebrating its 25th
Anniversary this month.
An article published in the October 3rd
issue of the Argus stated that “owner Brian
Hanson took over the business (formerly
Bradly Ace Hardware) in 1982 and has
continued the tradition at the corner of
Wright and 2nd.”
Kids are invited to “Live out Loud”
at the Shepherd United Methodist
Church
The Sunday School program at the
Shepherd United Methodist Church includes
a worship service geared for children and
then thirty minutes in sunday school. The
program, titled “Living Out Loud” began in
September and is open to kids of all ages.
Sunday school begins at 9:30 a.m. and
lasts for an hour.
october 2007 7

News in Brief
Fire Station Open House
Computer Training Classes
The Veterans Memorial Library is offering
free computer training courses through out
the entire month of October. The following
is the complete schedule. Take special note
of the “Internet Genealogy” class being
taught on the 25th of October. For more
information about the classes call 773-
3242 ext. 33.

Date Time Class

2 1 - 2 p.m. Mouse & Keyboard The Shepherd Fire Station hosted its annual fire
prevention awareness open house on Sunday Oc-
3 2 - 3:30 p.m. Basic Computing tober 7. Visitors were given the chance to ride in a
4 1 - 2:30 p.m. Cards w/Publisher fire truck and go up in a firefighter’s lift.
8 6:30 - 8 p.m. Windows Basics
9 2 - 3:30 p.m. Basic Word
10 6:30 - 8 p.m. Google
11 10:30 - 12 p.m. Intro. to Excel
15 1 - 2:30 p.m. Intro. to Powerpoint
16 10:30 - 12 p.m. Basic Internet
17 6:30 - 8 p.m. Digital Photos
18 2 - 3:30 p.m. Email
22 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. Free Software
23 2 - 3:30 p.m. Internet Searching
24 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. eBay The fire engines were put on display during the
25 10:30 - 12 p.m. Internet Genealogy Shepherd Fire Station’s open house on Sunday
29 1 - 2:30 p.m. Spreadsheet Budgets
30 2 - 3:30 p.m. Blogs/MySpace Meeting Information
October’s meeting of the Shepherd Area Historical
Society will be held at 7 p.m. inside the Shepherd
High School Media center. The special program will
be a demonstration of the society’s new website at
http://www.historicshepherd.com. Members of the
community are invited to attend.
Future meetings will be held inside the Powerhouse
museum on the following dates. No meetings will
be held in January, February or March.

Date Special Program

11/12 TBD
12/10 TBD
8 The Shepherd History Journal

Photo Gallery
Shepherd 2007 Homecoming