New Orange County historian looks to the future
Cornella Wendell Bush wants to make treasures more accessible to the public, By Ginny Privitar Goshen Cornelia Wendell Bush has been hard at work since becoming the new county historian. New U.S. and Orange County flags snap smartly outside the 1841 Courthouse in Goshen. Reproduction urns planted with mountain laurel, donated by Bush and her mother, welcome visitors. Inside, the historian’s office has undergone a spring overhaul: File cabinets have been cleaned out, display cases cleared and furniture moved to accommodate the new historian’s working style. Bush spent a week sneezing from all the dust. At the same time, she received many well wishes from old acquaintances she hasn’t heard from in a while. Bush grew up in Monroe but spent most of the last decade in North Carolina. Bush is impressed with the beauty of the historic courthouse. Most of the ornate tin plate on the walls and ceilings originates from 1895, when the building was restored. She hopes in time to bring the interior closer to the glory of that time. “I keep seeing new things about it that are wonderful,” Bush said. “You look up at the ceiling, and the tinware’s just fabulous. There’s this wonderful open spaciousness to it. And it’s a very solidly built building.” One goals is to make the research library, especially the Civil War collection, more accessible to people. “I don’t think a lot of people know what we have here,” she said. The collection will continue to be housed in the courthouse as long as there’s room enough. Items not central to the collection may be moved elsewhere to free up space for bookshelves. Many paper and print records, books, photos, newspapers, video tapes and slides are being digitized, which will also free up space while making the collection more accessible to the public. Historical materials will eventually be available online. Bush also hopes to make the first floor of the courthouse handicapped-accessible. The building will be open on the first Saturday of the month, from 9 a.m. to noon, to accommodate people who cannot visit during the week. The genealogical society and its collection, also housed in the building, will also be open. Bush is now going through the collection to see what’s available and what might need to be augmented. She will be promoting Civil War history at first. Historical groups and Civil War re-enactors are welcome to use the upstairs courtroom for lectures and programs. A mock trial is already planned. The main floor will be available for rotating displays by different historical groups.
Some history about the new historian
Monroe - Cornelia Wendell Bush’s history-loving family can be traced back hundreds of years. As a child, she and her grandmother, Meta Smith Bush, visited Donald Clark, the historian at the time, in his office at the old courthouse.
Her grandmother’s older brother, Roscoe Smith, collected historical artifacts and buildings. He founded Museum Village and the utility company that later became Orange & Rockland.
Bush herself became an historic preservationist and genealogist. In 1994 she worked on the Monroe Centennial and was an early organizer, along with former Village of Monroe historian Charles King, of walking and bus tours of Monroe’s historic buildings. The work of the centennial committee and others evolved into the Monroe Cheese Festival to showcase local history. Bush also helped establish Monroe’s historic district.
Another of her goals is to promote “cultural tourism” as a way to bolster the local economy. She wants to attract tourists to visit the county’s historic sites and other attractions, and to sample the fare in local restaurants.
As if this wasn’t enough, Bush has another big plan: to write a new history or encyclopedia of Orange County. The last extensive history was published in 1908.
In the meantime, warm welcome awaits anyone who wants to learn more about local history. Whether they have roots in the county going back hundreds of years, or whether they have just moved in recently, the magic of discovery awaits.