Local History & Genealogy
Grafton-Area Local History Collection
One of the missions of the Grafton-Midview Public Library (GMPL) is to collect, preserve, digitize, and make historical materials accessible to the community. The collections mostly cover the Village of Grafton, Grafton Township, Eaton Township, and other areas within the library service district (Midview School District). These items are valuable for local historians, genealogists, community members, and anyone interested in the history of the area. GMPL uses Biblioboard to house and display our historical collection online for everyone to access and everything is openly accessible with no login required. We believe the value of these items means that everyone should have open access to the collection. The digital collection contains photographs, documents, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, and other resources. GMPL also has a physical collection of materials on the second floor of the library building in the Doris Wildenheim Local History Room, accessible when the library is open.
Grafton Walks
From the path of the 1965 Palm Sunday Tornado to the oldest home in the Village of Grafton to the famous gravesites of Butternut Ridge Cemetery in Eaton, explore your community with our walking maps. Enjoy a new Google Map each week centered around a historical theme. Click on a theme below to open a map. What will you discover?
Old Main Street and Downtown Grafton
1965 Palm Sunday Tornado and Fires in Downtown Grafton
We're exploring the most fascinating people and places in our community and everything in between with our new podcast: Postcards from Grafton. We're getting updates about the Old Grafton School, chatting with local author Renee Durkee Atkinson, exploring a Civil War era murder, sharing Library memories, and more. New episodes drop weekly on Mondays and our first season runs through August 9, 2021. You can find Postcards from Grafton in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Pandora, and more. Visit our official podcast site at postcardsfromgrafton.podbean.com. We want to hear from you! If you have an idea for an episode or question you'd like us to explore, email us at postcardsfromgrafton@gmail.com.