Allison-Antrim Museum

                                     Greencastle, PA

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May 2003, Vol. 6, Issue 3

From the President’s Desk

Dateline:  Greencastle, June 1856 OF POLITICAL INTEREST – George W. Ziegler, local Republican Party leader, is to serve as one of Franklin County’s delegates to the first Republican Party national convention to be held in June.

Dateline:  Greencastle, November 1856 NEW PRESIDENT ELECTED – James Buchanan, a native of Mercersburg, defeated John C. Fremont, the Republican Party candidate for President of the United States.

Dateline: Greencastle, April 1860 LOCAL HAPPENINGS - Last week on April 3,  Jacob P. Stover and his wife, Elizabeth, signed the deed for the sale of 14 acres and 76 perches of their land in Antrim Township to Alexander L. Irwin.   

Mr. Irwin moved to Greencastle in 1855 from Chambersburg and opened Greencastle’s first hardware store on the corner of Center Square and East Baltimore Street. Since his arrival, he has become a prominent and well-known businessman in our community.

Mr. Irwin will soon begin the building of a new house for his family.

Dateline: Greencastle, Sometime in 1860 LOCAL HAPPENINGS – Mr. Jacob Hostetter has opened a grocery at the corner of Center Square and West Baltimore Street. Mr. Hostetter will have the freshest of groceries and staples brought from Baltimore and other cities on his own railroad car.

The Greatest Possible Value for the Least Possible Price: Canned Goods – Sugar Corn 10c., String Beans 10c., Tomatoes 12c., Pie Peaches 8c., Table Peaches 15c., California Apricots 20c.; Roasted Coffees Packed in One Pound Papers Brands Carried – O.K., Lion, Enterprise, Levering’s, Arbuckle’s; Seasonal Specialties – Preserving Kettles, Mason Jars, Jelly Tumblers, Tin Tops, Glass Covers, Sprinkling Cans

Dateline: Greencastle, October 1860 LOCAL HAPPENINGS – Martha (Means) Irwin, wife of Alexander L. Irwin, gave birth to twins on September 30 last week. The twins’ given names are Margarette Belle and Josiah Smith.  Mrs. Irwin and the babies are doing well.

Dateline: Greencastle, Fall 1860 LOCAL HAPPENINGS - Mr. A. L. Irwin, businessman, and his family have moved to Antrim Township and now reside in their magnificent new home off the Leitersburg Pike, east of town outside of the borough limits.

He and his wife, Martha (Means), three of his children from his first marriage (James, 20; Alfred, 15; and Jane, 13), and his five children with Martha (Thomas, 8; Alexander Fleming, 6; Sarah Annie, 2, and twins, Margarette Belle and Joshiah, recently born) will soon be entertaining in their home.

Dateline: Greencastle, March 1861  LINCOLN INAUGURATED  Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4 this past week as the sixteenth President of the United States.

Dateline: Greencastle, April 1861 BIRTH OF SON – Mr. Jacob Hostetter and his wife, Georgianna (Washabaugh) Hostetter welcomed the arrival of a son, Samuel P., last week, on March 26.

DEATH’S DOINGS – Sadly, the young twin son of A. L. and Martha Irwin died in their home on March 29 last in the third year of his life.  Master Josiah was aged 2 years, 5 months, and 29 days.  Private funeral services were held on Saturday in their home. Interment was in the family plot in the Cedar Grove Cemetery in Chambersburg.

Dateline: Greencastle, April 1861  FORT SUMTER FALLS War with the South began on April 12 when Confederate forces began an assault on the federal fort located on Charleston’s harbor. Federal forces surrendered the next day.

Dateline: Greencastle, End of May 1863 NATIVE SONS KILLED AT CHANCELLORSVILLE Mr. Jacob Pensinger received, but two days ago, a letter dated May 7 from Captain Andrew R. Davison, Co K, Pennsylvania 126th Regiment, which informed him of Simon Rupley’s death, his brother-in-law. “He was severely wounded in the action near Chancerllorsville about 11 O.C. a.m. on the 3rd of May and died on the evening of that day in the Hospital of our division. In him we have lost one of the best soldiers in the company and Greencastle certainly one of its best citizens.”  Capt. Davison also wrote news that George Missavy died of wounds he received that same day.  Good news was written that David Pensinger, Jacob’s brother, escaped unhurt.  Those wounded in action were John Gilmore, severely wounded in the forehead but survived; John Robison, Wm. F. Rupert, Scott K. Snively, Jac. Unger and John Beamisderfer were all slightly wounded.  From Co. K, W. H. Snively is missing and supposedly being held as a prisoner.  Jonathan Bowman from Co. B is also missing. 

Capt. Davison wrote asking Jacob to inform Rebecca Rupley, Simon’s wife, of these sad events. Rupley was buried near the division’s battlefield hospital.

Dateline: Greencastle, May 1866 RE-INTERMENT SERVICES HELD  The remains of Simon Rupley, who died of wounds received at the Battle of Chancellorsville, were exhumed from his burial site near the battlefield.  Isaiah Ilginfritz. veteran of the Civil War and comrade of Rupley, knew of his burial place and returned to Chancellorsville to recover the remains and escort them back home to Greencastle. Sgt. Simon Rupley was buried in the Reformed Church graveyard on May 17 last week.

Dateline: Greencastle, 1867:  ENGAGEMENT ANNOUNCED Mr. Scott K. Snively, veteran of the Civil War and school teacher in Antrim Township, has asked A. L. Irwin’s permission to wed his daughter Miss Jane. E. G.

 

The above fictional, newspaper “clippings” are articles that might have appeared in Greencastle’s weekly newspaper during the Civil War era.  In actuality, I have based them on information that has been gathered through research and has been discovered in recent archival purchases and artifact donations to the museum.  The purchase of the Simon Rupley letter along with the many other archival pieces that were for sale from the Carl estate contain information that is unique – only to be found on the 140-year old, yellowed paper of the unknown contents that were sold in box lots.

Deeds, census records, family genealogy, newspapers and history books, letters, envelopes, receipts, and a circa 1860 wooden cash drawer from Hostetter’s Grocery contributed to the pieced-together vignette of happenings about town.

If you know of a “Rupley” letter in your attic or box of family archival pieces, please share the contents of it with the museum.  If you aren’t sure if it has any historical significance, ask someone to look at it.  Old photographs also have stories to tell.  Be very careful when cleaning out or down-sizing.  There may be an event in an individual’s or family’s life that was intertwined with someone else’s that’s here-to-for been unknown.  Or, what was considered to be “everyday” a hundred years or more ago has long since been forgotten.  Those happenings need to be recorded for our history.

 

May and June Exhibit        to exhibit

An exquisite exhibit of vintage hats and bonnets from the collections of Becky Manifold, Greencastle, will be on display for both May and June at Allison-Antrim Museum. Visitors will travel through a chronological timeline display that will show the evolution of ladies’ hats and bonnets from c. 1770 – c. 1970 - two centuries of chapeaux!  

One can only theorize what the original reason or reasons were for the invention of the hat.  Warmth, status, and attractiveness to the opposite sex were, more than likely, a few of the rationalities behind the appearance of the hat.  A Neolithic cave drawing from 4,000 B.C. shows women riding astride longhorn cattle wearing elaborate turbans. Susan Langley says, “Ever since, the hat has reflected not only the mood of its wearer, but the spirit of its time.  Hats were the crowning glory, the pinnacle, the grand finale of an outfit!”

Dress fashion, hairstyles, and history greatly influenced the design of hats and bonnets. The difference between a hat and a bonnet is that bonnets tie under the chin and hats do not. The earliest of the 39 hats in the exhibit is a c. 1770 – 1800 green silk “drawn” calash-like bonnet. The calash was originally designed to be worn over the high hairstyles of the 1770’s.  It was collapsible and folded flat; whereas the drawn bonnet, with horizontal brim supports, could not fold flat. A very popular style, it continued to be worn by women until at least the 1830’s!

Thirty-eight other unique hats - including a silk Quaker bonnet, straw hats, a leghorn bonnet, poke bonnet, horsehair hat, and many more – will be displayed throughout the museum.  Enhancing the hat and bonnet exhibit will be antique hat pins and hat pin holders and vintage perfume bottles from the collections of AAMI member Gloria Pugliano.

Visiting ladies, young and old, are invited to wear their own hats (vintage or new) and return, just for a short time, to the not too distant past when fashion dictated that a lady would not have left the house without a hat – and gloves.

Please note that Allison-Antrim Museum will be open on Sunday, May 4, 1 – 4 p.m. The museum will not be open on the usual second Sunday of the month to allow AAMI’s volunteers to enjoy Mother’s Day. 

On Sunday, June 8 during open house, in addition to the vintage hat and bonnet exhibit, an outdoor tea will be held on the lawn of the museum grounds.  Reservations for the tea ($2 per person for AAMI members and $3 for non-members) are requested by Wednesday, June 4 by calling Bonnie at 597.9325.  Visitors may also participate in the game of croquet on the lawn that afternoon.

 

May 8th Monthly Meeting

Robert B Swift’s presentation will focus on “The Mid-Appalachian Frontier”.  This talk covers the mid 18th century in Pennsylvania – colonial life and culture in the Cumberland Valley, Indian life, the work of the Moravian Missionaries to bring about peace with the Indians, the French and Indian War and the Pontiac War. 

Swift is the author of The Mid-Appalachian Frontier: A Guide to Historic Sites of the French and Indian War. A native of western New York, he has been interested in the colonial frontier since childhood.  Swift has been a working journalist in his adult life and is currently State House Bureau Chief for Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. at Harrisburg.  He lives with his wife Judy and sons David and Brian in Grantham, Pa.

Light refreshments will be served following the presentation.  The meeting is free and open to the public and the facility is wheelchair accessible. 

 

Recent Acquisitions

  • Three Greencastle-Antrim Carl’s Book Store postcards – the National Hotel on the southwest corner of the square, Moss Spring, and the drinking fountain (now located at the King Playground) given to Greencastle by the “Old Boys Reunion” of 1914

                     A gift from Pauline Rinehart

  • One aerial photo of the west side of Greencastle, three copies of the 1954 plot layout (Orchard Circle) for the Orchard Realty Company, one list of the original lot owners with addresses, the history of the Willowbrook Dairy, one pastel picture of Route 30 (possibly of the Fort Loudon area) and one oil painting of the Martin’s Mill Covered Bridge both painted by the late Elizabeth “Libby” Gordon Foust, wife of the late Paul R. Foust

                                    Gifts from Ray Mowen

  • One 1911 Calendar advertising piece for E. W. Pensinger Hardware Store, Center Square, Greencastle, one photo of Edgar W. Pensinger, one chestnut brown leather bank envelope with E. W. Pensinger embossed in gold. Edgar Pensinger was the father of Harold “Penny” Pensinger, the late husband of Evelyn Pensinger.

 

Advertising pieces: two ink pens (one hammer and one screw) from Antrim Building and Farm Supply; one 1965 calendar with photograph of Martin’s Mill Covered Bridge (Chambersburg Dairy); one First National Bank thermometer; Foust’s Drug Store photo development envelope; one Nellie Fox Bowl wooden nickel; one E.L.M. Department Store $1 wooden nickel; one 1964 Belle’s Dry Good’s “lucky” penny; one Greencastle Exxon key ring; one Earle G. Miller Insurance key ring; one Yingling Insurance Agency blue pencil; one Winger Plumbing and Heating nail clipper on key ring; one Elliott and Snyder refrigeration, electrical, plumbing, and heating red screw driver; one J. B. Lindsay 30th anniversary pry-type bottle cap opener

 

Local election handouts:  one Otto Beckner home memo pad; three pencils (one each) Gideon Hartman, Paul Bricker, and Jones, Shuman, Cordell and Peterson

                                  Gifts from Evelyn Pensinger

  • A copy of Pennsylvania – A History of the Commonwealth published in 2002 by Penn State University Press                                     A gift from Alice Brumbaugh
  • The wooden cash drawer from J. Hostetter’s Grocery which was established in 1860. This is the same year in which Alexander L. Irwin built the museum house.  The grocery business was the predecessor to Hostetter’s Department Store.  The drawer contains two square compartments evidently used to hold the ink bottles and a grooved resting place for the dip pen.  Other compartments were probably used for money and receipts.  The top is slanted for easy writing.

 

The cash drawer was bought in a box lot at a Maryland auction by Barbara Camera.  She then searched the internet for “Hostetter’s” to see if she could find out any information and the museum’s website came up.  She emailed with questions about its history and Louise Mowen researched the file cabinets in Besore Library and put together a nice folder of newspaper articles and ads.

         A gift from Barbara Camera, Olney, Maryland

 

 

Recent Purchases

  • 1863 Simon Rupley letter, a paperback copy of “Sketch of the 126th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers  1869” and many other papers from the Carl estate
  • A trade card for Clippinger and Speilman, Greencastle, dealers in Rutland Stove Liners
  • A 1954 Omwake and Oliver Calendar given as a free premium at Christmas to customers.  It has a sizeable Lockhart print entitled “Finding the Bluebird of Happiness” which takes up about two thirds of the calendar.  A little blond girl of about 10 years holds her baby doll while looking up at a bluebird.  This Lockhart print is not one of the common Lockhart prints.
  • A 1934 reproduction Fox Buick calendar from 1979.  The dates were the same in these two years but the ads and the monthly calendar sheets are all from 1934.

 

 Website Inquiries

  • From New York City, a referral request for document restorers and conservators for several typewritten letters signed by Franklin Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt.
  • AAMI’s November 2002 exhibit of antique baskets, buckets, and firkins was found during an internet search and prompted an inquiry about firkins that were recently bought by the emailer.
  • From Akron, Ohio, someone doing research for a documentary on the Scot-Irish asked to speak with a local historian about the Scot-Irish.  This request was referred to Ted Alexander.
  • And yet another question about milk glass Easter eggs as the result of the 2001 Easter exhibit shown on the museum’s website.

 

What’s Been Happening

  • Frank and Louise Mowen and Bonnie conducted a tour of the museum on March 26 for the United Methodist’s group, The Prime Timers.
  • On April 15, as part of the April White House Wooden Easter Egg exhibit and open house, the museum welcomed Greencastle-Antrim’s Head Start class of 18 children for Allison-Antrim Museum’s first egg roll on the back lawn. Each age group (three, four, and five-year olds) rotated through their egg roll race while one group watched and the third group toured the exhibit inside the museum.  Each child in Kay Witmer’s class received their own AAMI wooden Easter egg as a souvenir.  The eggs were autographed by numerous dignitaries in the community – Mayor Robert Pensinger, Dr. Duff Rearick, Greg Hoover, Bob Crider, and Two Nuts and a Bolt and the Belsnickles (Dody and Russ Clever).   Luwana McDonald of Greencastle, AAMI members Nancy Rice, Jenine Grove, and Pam Ott were on hand to help.  Traditional hardboiled eggs (used for the egg roll and one to take home) were colored by AAMI member Kelly Scott.  A great time was had by all – even the adults.
  • Jim Craig, Isabelle Barnes, and Nan Flaherty conducted a guided tour on April 22 for the Chapel Pointe Retirement Community from Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The group then had lunch at the Antrim House.

 

New Email Address

Bonnie Bingaman, AAMI’s resident genealogist, has changed her email address to ancestorhunter@yellowbananas.com. If you have been looking for genealogy information for awhile, come to a dead end, and still can’t find what you’re searching for, contact Bonnie at either her email address or at 717.597.9080.

 

Calendar of Events

Sunday, May 4, 1 – 4 p.m. and Thursday, May 15, noon – 3 p.m.:  Open House – Vintage Hat and Bonnet Exhibit

Thursday, May 8, 7 p.m., Evangelical Lutheran Church: Monthly meeting – Robert B Swift’s presentation will focus on “The Mid-Appalachian Frontier”. 

Thursday, June 5, noon – 3 p.m. and Sunday, June 8, 1 – 4 p.m.: Open House - Vintage hat and bonnet exhibit and on Sunday, an outdoor tea and croquet on the lawn.  Reservations for the tea ($2 per person for Allison-Antrim Museum members and $3 for non-museum members) are requested by Wednesday, June 4 by calling Bonnie at 597.9325. 

Thursday, June 12, 7 p.m., Evangelical Lutheran Church: Monthly Meeting - The History of the First National Bank; speaker to be announced.

Thursday, July 10, 6:30 p.m., Quarterly Meeting, Antrim House Restaurant: Dr. Allan Powell will speak on "Conococheague: Its meaning and Place in Our Local History and the Mystery of the Hessians at Fort Frederick."

Dinner reservations are requested by Monday, July 7 by calling Bonnie at 597.9325 or email.