Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Genealogical Society unveiled its new book, “Sweet Home: A History in Pictures,” Saturday afternoon at the Jim Riggs Community Center.
“This book will bring back lots of memories for many people,” said emcee Dave Holley. “It costs less than two tanks of fuel and takes readers back to a time when the city worried about how to keep down the boards that composed the sidewalks.”
Terri Lanini, chair of the committee that assembled the volume’s contents, said the book binder was able to get 101 copies to the society in time for an open house Saturday to introduce the book.
“I am so relieved,” Lanini said. “Another 200 will be here in a week or so.”
The society worked on the project for more than a year, Lanini said at the event. “We originally had 250 pages. It ended up being 300 pages, and we still had to cut some out.”
The book contains nearly 1,500 photos of Sweet Home history. It was created as a fund-raising tool for the society, but it’s also meant to remind people of where this community came from and where it started.
It features photos of pioneer families, the logging industry, businesses and much more.
“I think it’s great,” said Mayor Craig Fentiman. “It’s well done. It’s well put together, a very, very nice book. To the community, it just kind of puts everything together in one place.”
“It’s very awesome,” said Corky Lowen, who worked on the committee. “It’s just so much history. People are going to be looking at it, like Dave said, years from now. I’m very pleased with how it went.”
The society gathered photos from individuals all over Sweet Home and all over the nation.
Among the people donating photos was Bryan Elliott, the great-grandson of Roy Allen Elliott, who wrote the first history book about Sweet Home, “Profiles in Progress.”
Elliott, of Kent, Wash., attended the open house with his family.
His great-grandfather was a park ranger in Detroit, Elliott said. “He decided to just write a book of history about Linn County.”
That included a section on Sweet Home.
The Elliott family is related to the Russell and Malone pioneer families, Elliott said. “I’m kind of still learning the history.”
The Elliott family hasn’t been in the area for decades, he said. His grandfather was a World War II veteran who earned a law degree and joined the FBI. He settled in Coos Bay, and Elliott’s parents grew up in Coos Bay, but when he was a child, his father would bring him to the Sweet Home area, where his great-grandfather lived his entire life.
“It’s really interesting,” Elliott said. “I’m kind of a hometown type of guy. I’d probably fit in well here.”
Elliott became involved in the book when Lowen was looking for photos, he said. She has a friend who now lives in Keizer. That friend knew a family member of Elliott’s, ultimately leading Lowen to contact Elliott for photos, some of which also appeared in his great-grandfather’s book.
The book is available through the Genealogical Society Library, located at 13th and Kalmia and open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. most days. Call the library at (541) 367-5034 for further information. It is priced at $75.