2025 Hometown HEROES Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS June/July 2025 Page 27 Among other things Donath has done is serving as a chairman of the committee to get Abe Lincoln Statue on courthouse yard. In addition, Freese said Donath arranged to have many names of Civil war deaths in Logan County added to courthouse wall. Freese remembers the remodel of the rear room of the society and said Donath did a lot of work there including destruction, drywall, electrical wiring, ceiling tile, and painting. Freese also remembers when Bill found the old issues of Lincoln Courier all rolled up and dried out. He learned how to restore all these with a long process and ended up digitizing the once missing issues. Now, Donath is adding YouTube programs taken from [the programs on their monthly meeting] Monday nights and posting them for all to see. Though Joanne Marlin has not known Bill as long as the other people that have worked with him, she said, “I can tell you he has a lot of knowledge about history and just a lot of things. He does such a good job on the publication of the Roots and Branches [in addition to keeping up] the website and records and all kinds of stuff.” Marlin said, “He’s very easy to work with. We are very fortunate to have him as our president.” Gary Dodson first met Donath when he went into the Logan County Genealogical and Historical Society building pretending to be an old friend of Donath’s. Dodson greeted Donath by asking how he was and saying it had been a long time since he had seen him. He said Donath was trying to recall who Dodson was. Not long after, Dodson started volunteering at LCGHS and even does workshops on ancestry. Donath’s love of history seems to rub off on those who are part of LCGHS. Longtime LCGHS member Roseanne Coers said “Donath is a man who knows the importance of preserving and promoting history. He painstakingly scans every piece of paper that comes into the center, so it can later be made available on the center computer or LCGHS website or in the Society's files. He [also] videotapes the speaker at our regular monthly meetings and posts it on YouTube.” Coers said, “When MKS closed, a corner of an upstairs room was found filled with old newspaper ads and some articles from the Continue --
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