Daines Famiy gathers  at OSA to film for visual history of Newel Daines

From March 1978 CVN

“Attorney Daines, of Preston/Logan, died in 1959 at the age of 64. Arrangements were made with me [Hart] by  Preston family member, Lois D. Griffeth. In charge of tech filming and sound was a son, Atty. S. R. Daines, of Logan, assisted by his sister, Beulah Daines Burgoyne of Salt Lake City. Present as spectators and participants were Lydia Daines Smith, wife of Harold Smith of Logan, and Newel’s widow, Verna Rainey Daines, formerly of Star Valley, Wyoming.

            “Various family members posed at specific places where things pertaining to Newel’s life occurred, or where Academy or other memories could be recalled … Lois on he front steps, beneath the great carved stone corbel, reciting her first memories of her older brother, how he came home from World War I and how he gave her a warm hug; Lydia, against the double doors of the heavy auditorium entrance, recalling stories of Newel doing this over here and something else in another area of the room, and later, elsewhere, discussing some of the songs popular in her brother’s era and which were danced to at the Academy; Verna, recalling Newel’s story where he and Charley Cutler plotted to steal some of Dr. Cutler’s chickens for a gala fast.

And since I have been working on the restoration, and since I was named after Newel Daines, I was also drafted into the action… reposed near the podium I built from Central School doors, saying a few things about the closeness of the Daines/Hart families, and also a little about the Story of the Academy.

            “Later the troupe went to other places in town to do more segments, including one at the front porch of the classic old Joseph S. Geddes place on Second East and Oneida – now the Lois D. Griffith home. [In 2012, this is where Kathy Kunz’s home has been built.]

            “Otherwise at the Academy: We are again doing window work, replacing cracked panes on the main floor. We have completed the old Faculty Room, and adjacent office of the principal. A key has been turned over to the county DUP captain, Anne Clements, so that she and her group can transform the space into their first-ever, very own County Camp headquarters. Publicity shots will soon show the ladies hard at work.

            “Window replacement has now shifted to the room across the hall, to the east, to take care of the last stages of this big job. This old classroom, which Madison Merrill told me last summer was once the Academy Library, will eventually become the memorabilia Room of the Oneida Academy and its successor, the Preston High School.”