Salem Area Historical Society

The SAHS has created an Excel SAHS Archive Database file. This file is a multi-worksheet file where the worksheets define the metadata for the records and contain the metadata for the records. Included in the entry for each record is a thumbnail file of the scanned record.

The Records / Artifacts Review and Cataloguing will be composed of the following main tasks:
• Review the records and artifacts of the SAHS, which are contained in the South Salem Stone
• Organize and catalog the records and artifacts of the SAHS
• Scan or photograph the records and artifacts of the SAHS
• Create the metadata for each record/artifact and enter it into the Excel SAHS Archive Database file
• Make the records and artifacts of the SAHS available online via the SAHS Website and/or at a kiosk
• Create and/or Update the Instruction Files on how to maintain the SAHS Archive Database file

This project involve the researching and documenting the farmers and farming techniques Salem Township from 1825 until 1900. The first American settlers of Salem were John Dickerson, Joseph Dickerson and Mrs. Amy Dickerson, all natives of New York, who left Seneca County in 1825, and located on land in sections 13 and 14, in the fall of that year. In 1827, Dickerson built the first log barn ever erected in the township, and three years later (1830) constructed the first frame barn. The goals of this project are:

• To create a plan for the Exhibit on Salem Township Farmers and Farming History from 1925 to 1900
• To create the content of the displays for this exhibit
• To identify the equipment to be included in the exhibit
• To write a grant proposal to fund the acquisition of the displays and equipment
. To create and procure the Banners for the exhibit
. To hang the exhibit in the Dickerson Barn
. To maintain the exhibit in the Dickerson Barn

This project involves the procuring and documenting the oral history of the South Salem Stone School. In 1827, the Territorial Legislature of Michigan passed a law that required every township in Michigan with fifty or more inhabitants to employee a schoolmaster “of good morals to teach reading, writing, English, French, arithmetic, spelling and decent behavior.” A school was built of unhewn logs on the corner of North Territorial Road and Curtis Road in 1829. In 1857, the Salem School District No. 3 built a one-room stone schoolhouse on the opposite corner to replace the log school. This South Salem Stone School was used continuously as a one-room schoolhouse for 110 years. In 1964, the Michigan State Legislature passed Public Act 289, whose goal was to eliminate primary school districts in the state through a process of mandatory annexation. In September 1965, the South Salem Stone School voted to be annexed into the Plymouth School District. That school district closed the South Salem Stone School after the completion of the 1966-67 school year. At its closing, it was the oldest existing school in Washtenaw County.

Since it has been 50 years since it closed, it will soon be too late to undertake an oral history of the school. Currently, SAHS has contact information for over 15 students and one former teacher. This project would involve researching and expanding a contact list for oral history interviews, preparing for the interviews, conducting the interviews, writing a summary report and archiving the project.

Maintain the 1857 one-room stone school house, South Salem Stone School District #3, that was used from 1857 to 1067. It is part of the Jarvis Stone School Local Historic District and is the headquarters for the Salem Area Historical Society.