Director’s Report

May 7, 2008

 April and May have been a busy time for us.   The open house was April 19 and we had over 100 persons attend.   Unfortunately the elevator was not completed, and is not completed as of this date.   The newest problem is the computer for the opening mechanism.   The elevator is operational, but is not ready for inspection.   The installation crew believes this last problem will be the last.  

The City of Washington’s utility department has set up a display on the second floor of artifacts.   Some are theirs and some are ours.   The photos we have complement this display very well.   An artifact donated by B and W repair yard sparked this cooperation between the City and the Museum.  

Sue Theroff, Jeanie Eaton and John Ruppel worked very hard to get other exhibits updated, cleaned and created for the open house.   Ilene Everman, our part time worker, also helped as well as Sue Hopkins and janitor Bill McBride.  

We have the Freedom Exhibit on display until May 20 on loan from the Indiana Historical Society.  It is on the second floor.   The fundraiser signature quilt is also on the second floor for persons to sign for a 50 cent donation, or quilt themselves and sign for free if they contribute their quilting skills.   The quilt will be used for displays at the Museum.   This might be a good project for a club to participate in while having a meeting at the Museum.   Contact Mr. Sellers to arrange for a meeting.

During the open house we also had our annual meeting and Jim Pirkle, Jack Gainey and Rex Myers were reelected to the Board for a new three year term.   Also, President Dean Dorrell selected Darla Truelove to replace Deborah Kenworthy on the Board to fill out her term until 2010.   Darla is a native of Barr Township with Reeve township roots.   She is a 1974 graduate of Barr-Reeve High School.  The former Miss Schnarr is vice-president of member services for Daviess Martin REMC.  

About 60 persons enjoyed a performance by Gib Young as Teddy Roosevelt, Dean Dorrell as Abraham Lincoln and Tim Wright as George Washington.   A meal catered by Dogwood Catering of Glendale was served.   The Eighth grade class of 1964 at Jefferson School attended the open house and toured the Museum.  Their teacher, Mr. Chuck Carlson, also attended with them.

A reunion, a business meeting and a group meeting have already been scheduled for the Dining Hall room on the second floor this summer.   Contact Mr. Sellers to arrange for a meeting or reunion at the Museum.  

Some work has been done on the upstairs Gill Funeral Home practices Museum wing.   Mr. Pirkle has laid out the floor plan and Mr. Bill Brown plans to begin painting upstairs in both that room and the Mason’s History Room later this week or next week.

The Rail Fest was May 1,2 and 3.  Special thanks to Elke at the Chamber of Commerce and the rest of the gang there for accommodating us for a display and festivities at the Depot.   Prairie Creek Printing did the Rail Fest banners for the street.  Special thanks to the City work crew that put them up and took them down for us.  Also for the crew that dropped the electricity outlet for the vendor at the Depot, and the mowing and cleanup at the Circus site, and for help with the barricades.   Also, to the Holiday Inn Express for donating rooms and for Black Buggy for donating meals as well as Gatti’s Pizza.   The ROTC at Washington High School was a key contributor to our ability to help the model train display crew set up at the Museum.   I want to thank other volunteers and staff who stayed over extra to help out and did extra cleaning.   And thanks to all the merchants and businesspersons and private individuals who bought circus tickets for needy kids.  Also, Tom Gress construction for donating the site, and Jay Armes for being willing to donate his building as a back up site.   The circus was a lot of fun and the steam engine and model trains were fun too.   Next year I want to invite all who have model train displays to bring them to the Museum for a jamboree.  Thanks to all the ticket outlets for helping out also.  

Laverne Graber has asked that we remove the rest of our larger items still at the Jefferson site since he has sold the building.   He has offered the old Coke plant as an alternative storage site and I have accepted.   We will be working on that next week.  

We have not been able to get back to the cemeteries we worked on in the fall.  We are still working with Andre Knepp at Barr Reeve to have his students do service hours to help with this project.  

I plan to change the operating hours of the Museum to 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays to accommodate parents with students who might want to visit the Museum after school.  This could also be a rendezvous point for older students and parents who need a place to meet and cannot stay at the schools.   The lobby area is free to sit in and we do have snacks and drinks available upstairs for an after school snack.  I will need to work this change out with my volunteers, but the plan will begin Monday May 12.   Other hours for viewing can be arranged by appointment.   Saturday hours of nine to noon will remain the same.  

We continue to get lots of genealogy requests and visits.   Today I had a call from a fellow in Chicago looking for early 20^th century farming photos of farmers draining swamps.   I can’t recall any off hand at the Museum but we will be poking around; if you have any at home (up to about 1950) let me know.   He said it was for project about frogs!!!    I must admit I am not green with envy about such a project, nor would I leap at the chance to write a book about frogs.  But I will have my staff of volunteers hop right to it.  

Visit the Daviess County Museum next time your in downtown Washington.

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March/April Director’s Report

 April 2, 2008

 The elevator project continues on.   We are waiting for a replacement door and a few other electronic parts that are missing.  In the meantime the doors we have are being installed and the trim work continues.   I have used the elevator with the supervision of the installation crew.   But it is not quite ready for public use.   Maybe next week.

 Jim Pirkle has submitted a rough draft plan for the Gill’s room upstairs.    We hope that Butch White will begin working on that project soon after the elevator is completed.   Mr. Brandon Leslie has completed the closet in the Gill’s room and done some additional work on the flooring.   We took the projector screen down and I am having it painted and installed in the dining hall for use there.  

 A community service worker cleaned the Mason’s History room in preparing it for painting.   Bill Brown will do the painting of that room with materials donated by Sherwin Williams.  

 I continue to labor to find an uninterrupted amount of time to work on the Quickbooks budget data.  

 The SIDC planning grant through the County Commissioners is set for a hearing on April 14.   Bids are due on April 11.  

 I’ve collected most of the phone solicitation money for the circus tickets.   The Rail Fest Circus project is May 1 and will be at the Gress property on Maysville Road and Oak St. just south of the railroad tracks.  Posters and advertising will soon be up and about.  

 The Indiana Historical Society will deliver the “Freedom Exhibit”, a traveling exhibit made available to County Museums, on April 15.   It will be on display during the open house and through the Rail Fest activities.

 As soon as I can get to it I will travel to Dubois County Museum to get some office-wall sections to be used for our displays and around our stage area.   Our colleagues in Jasper have made these available to us.

 Hudson Office Solutions have donated a Sharp AR207 copying machine to the Historical Society.   It was a used unit retrieved from Crane.    It was valued at $625.   The machine we had was left over from the Jefferson Museum and has become an artifact.  

 Paid staff member Ilene Everman has continued to work on organizing the archives room.  She and volunteers Sue Theroff and her daughter Jeannie Eaton have been working on exhibits.   We have a new exhibit on 4-H (which could be added to by local 4-H clubs), and they have been working on the coal and military exhibits as well as the high school sports exhibit.   John Ruppell stops in from time to time to contribute his talents and skills to our needs.  Speaking of coal, I had a very interesting talk with Gabbie Love at his car cleaning business on old business 50 about the properties of cannel coal and the history of  Cannelburg.   Mr. Love is a metal detector enthusiast and he had a cup full of objects he had collected that were of great interest.   We have samples of cannel coal in the Museum.

 With the warmer weather we will be venturing out to the cemetery projects again (if it dries up that is.)   We need to do some follow up work at Hudsonville, and we are still well into the Harris Cemetery project on the Steve Craney farm south of Cannelburg.   We have several other cemeteries on our radar screen for future projects.

 We continue to get inquiries in about genealogy and other historical research topics.   I continue to hold off on the kitchen renovation project until the elevator project is completed.   Our gift shop is open and we have postcards and t-shirts available as well as some printed material and books.  

 We had the Beginners Homemakers Club visit amidst the construction mess.   They toured the Museum.   We also had the Wide Awake Club visit the Museum.   Contact me if you want to arrange for your Club or Group to have a meeting at the Museum.   Tours are available.  I am also available for public speaking engagements for your club or event.  If you are near downtown and looking to kill time, stop by the Museum.   The lobby is free to all.   

 Submitted April 2, 2008 by Director of the Museum, Vince Sellers

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Jan. 31, 2008

Director’s Report to Board and members

             The elevator project is high on our list of things to be concerned about.   I am told that actual installation of the elevator will begin on Feb. 4 and the installation will last about two weeks.   I am hopeful that this schedule will be the reality.  Bill Brown will be working on the painting project in the dining hall during this time also.  He has already had the wainscoting painted and repairs made to the walls.  I have had the ceiling repaired in one spot and we have attempted but failed to repair it in the southwest corner.  The lobby has been painted; some repairs remain on the trim work and staircase with the lighting fixtures to be restored to their original look and working order.  We continue to look for donations to the elevator project to offset our costs, which are substantial.   

            Brandon Leslie has been working on a closet project next to the elevator on the 4^th floor.   He will also complete the doorway into the closet on the third floor, and do some other repair work on the fourth floor.   He and janitor Bill McBride did some finish work on the gas heater installed in the office.   Perry Knepp from A & R Hardware did the installation work on this project.   He had to return due to gas leaking into the office; it turned out it was a faulty regulator valve.  However, in the process of troubleshooting the problem we determined that we needed access to the west wing basement.  The entrance to the basement is no longer accessible through Daily’s.   So we used the jail crew under the supervision of Rick Robinson, deputy, to knock a hole between the basement under the Demolay Room and this west basement.   Interestingly, there was a window where steam pipes went through that we were able to knock out to allow a person access.  Why a window was in the basement bricked up is a mystery.   An old Pepsi bottle was found in the basement along with another beverage bottle of the half pint variety. 

            A & R continue to work on the water fountain project and also in repairing fixtures in the second floor restroom.   There is some electrical work also that they are working on in the fourth floor/attic area.  

            Haag Heating and Cooling repaired a steam pipe that was leaking in the DeMolay  Basement.   We discovered this leak while seeking access to the Daily’s basement.   It

was minor work.   

            Sherwin Williams on East Main St. in Washington have donated the paint to repaint the Mason’s History room on the fourth floor.  This includes the polyurethane to seal the cabinets where the Mason’s stored their uniforms.   This will seal the acid from leaking onto our artifacts.   Thank you Sherwin Williams.  

            Artifacts continue to come in.  Vic Dicanio’s things are very interesting.  Pat Brochin brought in some Epsom area photos from the estate of Hubert “Cotton” Miller.  He was a 1935 graduate of Epsom High School.   I am still looking for yearbooks and clothes and other artifacts from the area high schools.   We have lots of Hatchet things; I need things from the other schools.  The Alma Wichman estate yielded some more artifacts in newspapers and Saturday Evening Posts.   In a 1936 Post there was a folded insert from a farm magazine that Henry Wichman probably put there for a farm show that had all the 1936 model cars and trucks at the show.  They included several cars I had never heard of.  It is on display in the lobby.   Also on display in the lobby are yearbooks, photos and newspapers about black history in Daviess County, and the Ku Klux Klan.   This is to celebrate Black History month in February.   It includes an account on how the Democrat Party elected a black man, Ben Perkins, to the post of Madison Township clerk in the 1856 election.    

            Sue Theroff has volunteered to help around the Museum.   She is a descendent of the Stephenson’s who operated the Underground Railroad station south of Washington featured in an earlier newsletter.   Jeannie Regan Dinius had asked for an Underground Railroad coordinator for Daviess County to spearhead research on this topic.  I have asked Mrs. Theroff to be that person.   Ms. Dinius is the statewide coordinator for the project.

            Delbert Miller of Dutchland Construction has completed some roof repairs at St. Patrick’s Rectory building.  There is still lots to do on the roof and the building.   We are looking for donations for the Corning project either in money or time.   Delbert did a nice job on the Sum’s building east wall repair in downtown Washington.

            The microwave radio signal tower on 800 East has been knocked down and is being cut into scrap.  I remember when it was built.   Obsolete communications technology.   One could see that tower from Montgomery and from Whitfield.   It was very near my homeplace. 

             I attended a workshop put on by the Indiana Historical Society’s Jeff Harris on Volunteers.   The workshop was Jan. 28 in Indianapolis.  

            Several membership forms have been received, including several from the mailing that went out with the Chamber of Commerce letter in January.   Businesses are asked to consider becoming a Benefactor or Sustaining member to the Society.   Membership forms can be found at www.daviesscountyhistory.org   or stop by the lobby to fill one out, or email me at dchistory@sbcglobal.net to request one.   Donations can also be made to the Society through the Community Foundation by designating the money to the Stella Mulholland Bogner endowment fund.   Contact Jeannie Fields at her office downtown; envelopes are also available in the Museum lobby.  

            I plan to work on a yearbook of changes in Daviess County in 2007.  If anyone wants to suggest changes to be included contact me at the Museum or bring in some photos.  

            There is always a need for volunteers to help us at the Museum.   If you have some time and some interest please stop by.   We are open from 9 a.m. to 3 pm. Weekdays and nine a.m. to noon on Saturdays.   We are available for groups to meet here (especially so after the elevator is completed) and I am available as a speaker.  

            Two of the more difficult stories I have heard in recent weeks involve two veterans.   One, from WWII, recounted a battle on Sept. 19, 1944 in Holland.   In a five or six acre field during the course of the day 600 Germans and 300 Allies lost their lives in a ravine on the acreage.   The fighting in Holland was as bad as on D Day according to this 101^st Airborne veteran.   The other veteran was in Vietnam.   He was here on Jan. 30 and was telling me about his experience in Vietnam.  He was injured and in the hospital for much of his two year stint.   While he was in the hospital, the outfit he was in was wiped out during the Tet Offensive on Jan. 30, 1968.   He also recounted that while they were in camp on another day he was on the perimeter guarding the camp and his group gathered in the middle of camp to plan a foray into the jungle.  While they were gathered a mortar shell fell amongst them, killing eleven of his friends.  

            Every day should be veteran’s day.

         

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Director’s Report

Dec. 13, 2007

 Building maintenance issues are always ongoing.   We are dealing with faulty urinal valves in the second floor restroom.  Perry Knepp continues to work on several projects through A & R.   We are replacing the heating unit in the office with a more efficient and safer unit so we may have heat in the room.   I have place pans of water on some of the heating units to try and add humidity to the air (currently at a 35 percent level in the archives room).   I have also started a humidifier unit in the archives room to try and address this issue.   I will be looking to buy some humidity monitors as suggested by Jeff Harris, the Indiana Historical Society Museum adviser who recently toured the building.   Jeff also suggested painting all wood that has recently been installed in the storage areas and on the north wall of the Mason’s History Room.  Also, the cabinets need to be sealed with polyurethane dull coat to keep acid off artifacts in the history cabinets.

Two community corrections persons have been working on sealing windows on the second floor, south face.  Brandon Leslie has built a storage cabinet from the wall to the free standing cabinet that was in front of the pocket doors in order to secure it.   It will also need painting as well as the pocket doors on their east face and the area exposed by moving the cabinet. The cabinet that was in the third floor hallway was moved upstairs and it was placed in the area that is to be a closet next to the elevator.   Flooring had to be added, and the jail crew under Rick Robinson’s supervision and with the help of community corrections volunteer Brandon moved it into position on the north wall where it fits as if it was built for the spot. Brandon also assisted in helping volunteers and our staff with the Christmas decorations.  My family has donated the tree (it was an extra one we had).

Also, John Ruppell has helped organize the accession room on the third floor, and he helped move the cabinet away from the pocket doors on the fourth floor.   He also worked on sorting through boxes on the fourth floor. He has worked on restoring and cleaning the skeleton and the casket we own. He has placed a plastic covering over the casket to seal it from the outside dust and air.   We are waiting for the elevator to bring her back.  I believe John has named it Lucy because he believed it is female.  Ray Beeker thought of it as a male and named it Thomas Jefferson.

I presumed to proceed with painting the photo room at the top of the stairs while the elevator section was being painted.   The workers offered to do it for $300 plus materials.   The ceiling is painted black.   It was easier to go ahead and do it while they were at it.  You will also notice that in order to make the painting of drywall look right the painters painted to corners instead of just stopping where the construction was done on the second and third and fourth floors.   Along the same lines I might suggest that when they paint the elevator in the lobby that we ask them to submit a bid and paint the entire area.  This will help with the open-house.   I need suggestions on what to paint the metal ceiling in the lobby.   Black?   Off white?   Another color?

The handicap restroom is, for all practical purposes, finished.   There are a few minor items to attend to in it.   Buchanan’s, through Ellerman, reinstalled the heating unit in the restroom.   A new light fixture was added to the hallway to that restroom.   I plan to add doors to the third floor hallway area where the closet will be located above the elevator machine room.   We have the doors already from the closet that used to be on the second floor in the dining hall.  

The repair of the second floor restroom was completed in Daily’s east wing section.   It will not leak again on her furniture.   The Mason’s have donated the book shelf that was wrapped in plastic in the kitchen.   We moved it to the gift shop area.   Other improvements have been made to the gift shop area.   The archives room repairs have been completed and changes have been made to accommodate the space available.  

The cook stoves were moved to the room above the boiler.   The cabinet that came from the third floor and was stored in the kitchen was moved in the kitchen to against the wall to create a more open space.   We have been cleaning the kitchen area in preparation for the kitchen grant work to be done.   The book shelves in the former doorway to the archives room are completed by our janitor, Bill McBride.   Perry Knepp, just today, installed the new heating unit in the office.   He also is working on the urinal problem and has fixed the south one and is going to work to fix the other two.

We have had several new members join lately and old members rejoin.   A church group has asked about volunteering and helping at the Museum.   Suzanne Hawthorne is sending five Hatchet students to do service work (25 hours all together) next week.   Susan Zipperle has asked us to work with her on a SINE grant to do oral history research work.   Andre’ Knepp at Barr Reeve is working out paperwork for some of his students to do volunteer work on cleaning up a cemetery in Barr Township on the Craney Farm (The Harris Cemetery just south of Cannelburg).   We are waiting for better weather after the holidays.   A nice 45 degree dry day with no wind would be in order.   I’d even take a 35 degree day.

Delbert Miller of Dutchland Construction is to be commended for fighting for restoration of the brick wall at the Meredith instead of putting up metal siding.   Delbert is also helping us with the leaking roof at St. Patrick’s Rectory.  He has promised some action on that front before Christmas.   In the meantime Brandon Leslie and myself have done some patch work and tried to use tubs and plastic to catch the water leaking through the roof.   Black Beauty Coal Mine rep. Patrick Pullman has agreed to write a letter of support for the project.   The Sellers family has personally pledged $300 so far for this project.   I plan to write a letter soliciting help from other Corning families who live in the area or anywhere.   Maybe there is a “Bill Gates” Corning native who might step up and help us out.   I have asked St. Peter’s Council to officially have the electric bill switched to us as of Dec. 1.   There are no other utilities involved at this time.   They are set up for propane, but there is no tank there.   Tommy Kleckner of the state Historic Landmarks group has taken an interest in this project and plans to help us with it through the local group.   He has asked for a meeting to be set up.   I have been told that Indiana University has made free legal service available to 501c3s and would aid us in applying for a separate 501c3 status for the Corning project if the Historic Landmarks group will not step up to the plate.

Speaking of these types of projects:  Rod Wright has asked for assistance in restoring the school house he owns on Apraw Road.   I am looking at resources to help him and would ask for suggestions on this.

We will be returning to the Hudsonville Cemetery in the spring to do some more work there.   I plan to time that about when the mushrooms are up.   The Harrison Township Trustee has asked for the bill for this project and I have prepared it and will deliver it soon if not today.   The Barr Township project has a much lesser bill, but I can submit that also to Bob Showalter.  Floyd Hedrick, Brandon Leslie and I have made inroads on the Harris Cemetery, but much more work needs to be done.   Harris was a manager of the coal mine at Cannelburg in the 1888 atlas.

I am saddened by the passing of my good friend, Jimmy Gregory.   He was active in the NFO when my father and uncle were active.  He promoted alcohol as a fuel alternative back in the 1970s for farmers to use in production and was way ahead of his time.   One of his more interesting projects was putting a chevy engine on a WD45 tractor.  I was one of the first persons to see this odd contraption running down the road.   He will be missed.  I had planned to get him on tape but the opportunity has passed. Jim Ritterskamp continues to work on the Lugar Project.   I plan to buy a tape player that will allow us to make duplicate backups.   Jim recently turned in a tape from Mike Healey, who is of a younger generation, but still of interest to the Museum.   We hope to tape all veterans and add their stories to the Museum, including our most recent.

Santa Claus was in the Museum on Dec. 7 and we had a nice turnout.   Expressions by Tina Photography shop took photos for those who wanted it.  She has promised some shots of the big guy in the red suit for our archives and advertising. Santa will be making an appearance this Saturday at the Plainville Restaurant, European Kitchen.     

Mary Smith has informed me that she and Ralph’s home on highway 50 near Wendy’s Restaurant will be going on the historic register.   She has offered her assistance in helping us work with other buildings.   J.R. Crew has asked that we look at the Bird Cage, which, I believe, is the oldest gymnasium in Indiana still in active use as a varsity venue (six feet short of regulation).   Of course, Knute Rockne came to visit Washington Catholic in 1931 immediately before his death.   The other buildings to consider, and there are several to consider, would be the old County Home and the St. Patrick’s Rectory building.   The old school house south of Odon would be another.  

I have written a grant for $7,500 and submitted it to Vectren.   No word on it.  The target is an air conditioning unit.   I have been in touch with Kevin Maerkl at Wal Mart about their grant process; renewal is on Feb. 1.   Also, Darla Truelove has kept me informed about the Roundup grants at REMC and I will be applying for another there.   El Paso Gas is not looking for any grants at this time.   Black Beauty will write a support letter for a grant through the Foundation in the next cycle for St. Patrick’s rectory project.   The  History Channel is offering a grant again for education programs and that is in my radar screen.  

 The Elevator Project is at a standstill until the actual unit and doors are delivered.  Architect Josh Palmer expects that after Jan. 1.

Ilene Everman continues to be a great asset to the Museum.  She has worked diligently to reorganize and categorize the archives room.   She has been working on registering new items into the Museum and checking on already registered items against our records to see if they are accurate.   She spotted some archival quality scrapbooks at Big Lots and we bought them out in Vincennes and several from the Jasper shop.   She also bought a sketch book with archival quality paper we can use for backdrop paper for newspapers and other paper artifacts.  

We are making progress every day.   But there is still lots to do.