A collection of old photographs, news clippings and ads for Blooming Grove businesses through the years has been put together by the New Beginnings Family Fellowship. Copies of the book are available for $20.
Courtesy photo
 

‘The Grove’ remembered in book
By Deanna Plemons

History has a way of slipping through the cracks between each generation, if someone doesn’t take the initiative to preserve it.

Days gone by from Blooming Grove have now been preserved, and are available to share with all Blooming Grove residents. The members of New Beginnings Family Fellowship have compiled a book of 131 pages full of old photographs, stories, and advertisements from old Blooming Grove newspapers.

Members of New Beginnings first put together a cookbook, as a fund-raiser while building their new church facility on State Highway 22. Along with the mouth-watering recipes they collected, about 75 old photos were also included. Over 1,000 copies have been sold thus far.

“It was popular demand that made us do the second book,” said Diane Richards of New Beginnings. “We were asked to do more pictures and history, and we worked on it about two years. It is finally completed, but it took a lot longer to put together than the first one.”

The church sent out letters asking people to contribute photos or historical information. Photos were sent from all over the United States, from as far away as California, and one 90-year-old gentleman drove to Blooming Grove from Dallas to offer copies of his original bank certificates from the old banks, now closed, in the area. The pictorial history covers the years between 1889 and 2005, with sections broken down into decades.

“We focused mainly on earlier years, because so much of that history is being lost,” she said. “We tried to get as much information as possible on the early years.”

The pictorial history book is available for purchase at $20 per book, and would make an ideal Christmas gift for current or former Blooming Grovers. The sales from this book will also benefit the church.

“We included the photos in the cookbooks to help sell the cookbook, and so many people loved the pictures and wanted more of that,” she said. “When we first did the cookbook, we thought we might sell 300. We’ve had to keep re-printing the cookbook (to keep up with demand). The pictorial history just came out, and we’ve already sold 200.”

Along with the photos are included ads from three former Blooming Grove newspapers, including The Rustler.

“I think 90 percent of those ads had to do with cleaning out your bowels,” Richards laughed. “I’d just get so tickled going through there reading those ads about little kids and their bowels — it was just hilarious.”

One ad from D’s Cafe proclaimed, “If your wifey can’t cook — Don’t divorce her! Eat here and keep her for a pet.”

There is one section devoted to Blooming Grovers who lived to be 100 and over, another section on Blooming Grove mayors, and yet another dedicated to people who won state competitions in sports, acting and more.

For more information, or to purchase a book, contact Diane Richards at (903) 695-2330 or email her at [email protected]

“We didn’t duplicate photos,” Richards said. “You’ll still want to buy the first one because it has photos in it that aren’t in the second book. If you want the real history, you’ll want both.”

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Deanna Plemons is a Daily Sun staff writer. She may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].

Corsicana Daily Sun