Brief History of the Prince Edward Historical Society and PEC Archives
1983
The Prince Edward County Archives was established in October 1983 under the authority of Bylaw 1568, which established the mandate and activities of the Prince Edward County Archives. Since the late 189Os Prince Edward Historical Society volunteers had accepted documents about local history for preservation. By 1983 they had acquired a large collection which was placed on deposit in the newly established PEC Archives located in the Old Picton Courthouse & Jail on Pitt Street Picton. PEHS volunteers operated the Prince Edward County Archives during the summer months organizing the collection and fielding inquiries about local history.
1985-86
After being active for over 80 years, the Prince Edward Historical Society was formally incorporated in 1986 with charitable status. In addition to operating the PEC Archives, the PE Historical Society encouraged local authors to research and write about local history.
2009 -2010
In 2009, the Prince Edward Historical Society officially gifted the collection, formerly on deposit, to the PEC Archives. In that same year that the PE Historical Society approached the library to take over the Archives and in 2010 it became official. On February 14, 2010, the last of the Archival records were moved out of the jail to the newly established archives, a department of the Prince Edward County Library in the Wellington Branch Library in Wellington. The PEC Archives became a year-round operation with a full-time staff member employed to run the research facility. This change made the collection more accessible to the public and improved the of long-term preservation of the documents.
2009
Another highlight of our work was the reprinting of “The Settler’s Dream”, A Pictorial History of the Older Buildings of Prince Edward County. In 2008, the municipal Council formed a working group to explore the reprinting of the “The Settler’s Dream”, a monograph which documents the architectural history of Prince Edward County. PEHS was part of that working group and after months of work, the “The Settler’s Dream” was reprinted in 2009 as a standard edition along with a deluxe special edition to celebrate the 225th anniversary of the arrival of the Loyalists. With their original mandate accomplished, the working group disbanded and reformed to research the civic addresses of the properties, (civic addresses did not exist when the “The Settler’s Dream” was first printed in 1984). A “Property Location Key” for “The Settler’s Dream” was first 1st published 2013, with a 2nd printing (2015), and a 3rd (2021).
The PEH Society continues to support the publication of local history with two new publications in 2020 – “A Journey of Faith – A History of the People and Communities on the Rednersville Circuit Prince Edward County” and “Seven on a Mat” the story of seven air men shot down in the Netherlands in WWII and the Prinzen family who housed and protected them from the Nazis. Ben Prinzen, a son of the family, immigrated to Canada in the 1950’s and is a well-known entrepreneur in Prince Edward County.
We also work closely with the Prince Edward County Library and Archives and the Prince Edward Museums; co-hosting speakers, special fund raisers and celebrating local history during Heritage Week in February.
Our web site was redesigned in 2021 offers a platform to showcase our publications, old and new, events and will offer contain the link to our “Historic Plaques” web site which is currently under development.
Revised February 2022.