Bemis Historical Society works to preserve history
JACKSON, Tenn. — The Bemis Historical Society was founded in 1998 and has been keeping historic artifacts.
“If you don’t have a group or a society together to stimulate one another and keep everybody on the same page, you’ll end up with a lot of people sitting around talking and forget about it the next day,” said Joel Jackson, Chairman of the Bemis Historical Society.
The historical society meets every month to talk about and keep the history of Bemis alive.
“We do preserve the meetings on tape and video, and have been since 1999. So we have a lot of old history on VHS,” Jackson said.
Jackson says one of the biggest pieces of history is the building where they meet.
“That was our major artifact. We have thousands of things here to talk about, but the building itself is the main thing that we wanted to preserve for the people,” Jackson said.
Inside the building they have different historical items from Bemis.
“We have all the JB Young High School graduating pictures. We have a lot of artifacts that are a part of the mill operation, and each one will bring back a memory to someone that worked in a mill,” Jackson said.
Jackson says each artifact inside has a different meaning to everyone that visits.
“Each item here has a story. When we start to do a tour I’d ask them, ‘How much time do you have?’ And they would say, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ I’d say I can give you a 15 minute tour or I can give you a three hour tour. There’s enough stuff that I can give you a three hour tour,” Jackson said.
If you would like to learn more about the society and when they meet, click here.
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