ABOUT THE SOCIETY | Preserving local lore

President: Richard S. Scarsella of Boardman, an educator in Youngstown City School District.
Other officers: Helen Bair Owen, vice president; Margaret Grace, secretary; and Barb Smith, treasurer.
Mission statement: To keep the rich McGuffey legacy of citizenship, conservation, character and literacy alive.
Piece of history: Presented the first public display of the McGuffey Family Archive, which includes letters written by the McGuffey family, at the Melnick Museum at Mill Creek Park in 2002.
Background: Founded in 1961 and incorporated in 1968, the society is the last chapter of the National Federation of McGuffey Societies.
ABOUT ITS NAMESAKE
William Holmes McGuffey was born in 1800 near Claysville, Pa., and raised on a farm in Coitsville Township from the time he was 2 until 17. He was educated at a parson's school on Wick Avenue by the Rev. William Wick. McGuffey's father, Alexander, made a path to the school that's now called McGuffey Road.
He became an ordained minister and graduated from Washington College, Washington, Pa., in 1826. He was a professor at Miami University in Oxford and president of Cincinnati College and Ohio University in Athens. At the time of his death on May 4, 1873, McGuffey was the ranking professor at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va., where he is buried.
ECLECTIC READERS
More than 122 million copies of the "Eclectic Readers" have been sold. McGuffey was paid $1,000 for his work according to his contract. The small sum came into sharp contrast to the widespread impact of his readers, but McGuffey was interested in humanitarian efforts and indifferent to money.
McGuffey published "Eclectic Readers" in 1836 as an anthology series. Topics were citizenship, character, conservation and the importance of literacy for salvation. The books were updated by William's brother, Alexander McGuffey Jr., to help keep them contemporary.
Since their publication, "Eclectic Readers" have never gone out of print and have been printed and read by more Americans than any other books except the Bible and Webster's dictionaries.
The readers were a source of education for farmers, urban poor and immigrants for generations, and were used in public, private, church and missionary schools. They promoted tolerance toward Native Americans and equal education for women, and offered selections about death.
They used phonics and open-ended questions, and gave directions for instructors on teaching. They also popularized the poem, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."
WILDLIFE PRESERVE
The McGuffey Wildlife Preserve is located on McGuffey Road in Coitsville Township. Facts about the preserve:
The site of the McGuffey family farm is 78 acres of pastures, woods and trails. The family "Indian lookout" atop a drumlin remains visible.
In 1966, a historical marker was erected by the U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service and the site was declared a National Historic Landmark. Both honors were made through arrangements by the William Holmes McGuffey Historical Society.
The property was deeded at no cost to Mill Creek Metroparks in 1998. The society endowed the park with $15,000 for improvements and care of the preserve.