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For the last 27 years, the Manchester Area Historical Society has produced an annual historical calendar featuring scenes, events and people from Manchester and its four surrounding townships. The calendar is produced locally, is sold by area merchants, and the proceeds help the Society in its mission to complete the local historical record. As we begin production on our 28th calendar, we once again call for your help. Yes, it's time to rummage through those old trunks and dust off those old photo albums again!

The theme for the 2011 MAHS Historical Calendar is "footprints on the sands of time," and we will feature people, families, businesses, groups and professions that have made a positive difference in the lives of Manchester area residents 50 years ago and beyond. If you have historical photos, artifacts or information relating to this theme, please contact Reno Feldkamp, (734) 428-8571, Doug Howell at (734) 428-9040, or contact us right here. Help us make this calendar a memorable one.

Sit down by the fire with your laptop and get ready to read some interesting tales of Early Manchester! Parts 2 and 3 of "Shopping in Downtown Manchester Circa 1835," "The Bank of Manchester," "Manchester's Old Burying Ground," and "The Kief Family in Manchester (Part 1)" have all been posted. Just visit Early Manchester and start reading. Many thanks to Ray Berg and Alan Dyer for making this important original research available to all of us!

In previous articles, Ray Berg looked at the life and accomplishments of Major John Gilbert, the founder of Manchester, and how he platted the original village and built the first water-powered mills. He now picks up the story with the three Fargo brothers: Stephen, James Harvey, and Alonzo, and studies the development of the Fargo & Fargo General Store, the first mercantile operation in Manchester. The article is in three parts, the first part posted today.

Ray Berg's articles on John Gilbert, "founder of Manchester," have been posted here (and are searchable)! Just see "Books" on the right side of this page (or the History page) and click on "Early Manchester" to display a table of contents listing all of Ray's articles. Check back often because we reprint the articles not long after they appear in M.

Manchester area residents have learned some surprising things about their beloved area recently, thanks to Ray Berg. Berg has been doing research and has printed several articles in M, Manchester's Magazine over the last months. Now you can read them online, right here! The first article, "Manchester and....Lexington?" has already been posted in our History section, and others will be posted soon. Thanks, Ray, for sharing your love of Manchester area history with all of us!

Help us make the 2009 historical calendar a success! The theme will focus on how we used to live (50 years or more ago). We're especially interested in stories and photos of area residents taking part in church, school or community events, recreational activities, work or business activities, farming and more. How about spending some time over the holidays looking through some of those old photo albums or diaries and see what your grandparents and their grandparents used to do? Then share what you find with your community and help build our local historical record!

The new MAHS site is up and running and you can help us build it! You are welcome to browse most of our content (including photo galleries) anonymously, but if you'd like to participate by submitting stories or photos, you must first create an account.

To create an account, click Create new account. You will be asked to enter a valid e-mail address, and after you submit your account information, you will soon receive (at the address you gave) a temporary password along with instructions on how to complete registration.

Once you have signed in with your assigned temporary password, make sure to change your password to something secure that you can remember. You can change your password at any time by clicking My account > Edit. Our site will remember you if you have cookies enabled and allow your browser to remember your sign-in credentials, but you can always sign out by clicking Sign out.

After you have created your account, just click Create content to start submitting your stories and photos. We're looking forward to hearing from you. (Please see the History page for our editorial policy.)