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July 2005, Volume 8, Issue 4 From the President’s Desk This item would normally be included under the “What’s Been Happening” column, but the response and feedback is too important to edit down to a few sentences and a paragraph. Ellen Avey, a GAMS sixth-grade language arts teacher, called me a couple months ago and asked if the museum could help with the middle school’s local history day on May 12, and specifically the sixth grade’s downtown walking tour. Prior to each grade dispersing into the town and township on different local history day activities, the middle school student body met in the high school auditorium. Using the Greencastle-Antrim pictorial history book as a basis, I presented a Power Point program, which touched on highlights of the Greencastle-Antrim community’s rich history. After this, the sixth graders began their downtown, local history walking tour. Nine board members were stationed about town at historic sites with copies of old photographs. Those sites included the Presbyterian Church, the train station, King Playground, the borough hall building which was originally built as a fire hall, the Antrim House and Town Hall, the southeast corner of the square where the Dahlgren incident occurred, the site of Allison’s Tavern, and the Reformed Church graveyard on South Carlisle Street. The students were well behaved and attentive. After the tour ended, the board members all agreed that it was something that we should do again next year. Ellen Avey asked her students to write thank you notes to the board. They are quite varied in style, from notes written in pencil on ruled paper to artistic construction paper thank you notes, computer generated notes, and even a pop-up. Many students thanked the board members for taking our time to tell them about the historic sites. Some children had never been in a church like the Presbyterian Church – a traditional, mainline denomination church building with stained glass windows and a pipe organ. As a result, a couple of the sixth graders brought their parents to church on the following Sunday. One family continues to attend. All of the following came from simple thank you notes – a great measuring stick with which to evaluate a program. “I think it was a neat way to learn about the clock and the rest of the places.” “History is fun to learn when it’s local.” “Never knew Greencastle had so much history.” “Thank you for showing us about Allison’s Tavern. It was really cool.” “That is very cool that at first King’s playground was a field.” “It was really interesting, and it made history fun.” “Thank you for sharing so much information about King Playground. I always thought that the park was always there and they just updated it. I didn’t know that David King bought the property and then dedicated it to his dead brother, Jerome King. ...now I know what really happened and the park wasn’t always there.” “The day after your presentation to us, my friend and I went to the playground. We looked around us, and actually noticed some of the things you spoke to us about.” “I want to thank you for telling me and my class about the exciting history of Jerome King Playground. I would be happy to tell other people about this historical site in the future.” Wow! This is what it’s all about. It’s making a connection in the minds of our students, getting them to think about the past and connecting it to today, and then having them look toward tomorrow and say, “I would be happy to tell other people about this historical site in the future.” July/August Exhibit “The Ubiquitous Box” is the subject matter and title of the July and August exhibit. The box permeates our daily lives. Webster’s dictionary defines the word box as “1a: a usually 4-sided receptacle with a bottom and often a cover.” The following is the opening of chapter two of The Christmas Box written by Richard Paul Evans, from which I got the inspiration for this exhibit. “It is not my intent to launch upon a lengthy or sanctimonious dissertation on the social significance and impact of the lowly box, well deserved as it may be. But as a box plays a significant role in our story, please allow me the indulgence of digression. From the inlaid jade-and-coral jewelry boxes of the Orient to the utilitarian salt boxes of the Pennsylvania Dutch, the allure of the box has transcended all cultural and geographical boundaries of the world. The cigar box, the snuff box, the cash box, jewelry boxes more ornate than the treasure they hold, the ice box, and the candle box. Trunks, long rectangular boxes covered with cowhide, stretched taut, and pounded with brass studs to a wooden frame. Oak boxes, sterling boxes; to the delight of the women, hat boxes and shoe boxes; and to the delight of all enslaved by a sweet tooth, candy boxes. The human life cycle no less than evolves around the box; from the opened-topped box called a bassinet, to the pine box we call a coffin, the box is our past and, just as assuredly, our future.” That passage says it all. Give some thought to how the “lowly box” plays a role in your daily life. Take a visual inventory around your home to see just how many different boxes you have – whether antique, just old or new. Think about the boxes of your ancestors that are no longer a part of our culture, like salt boxes, candle boxes, spice boxes, tea cadies, and hat boxes. It will amaze and surprise you. The exhibit at the museum is quite an eclectic display. Of historic significance to Greencastle is the tool chest of Gen. David Detrich, one of Greencastle’s early cabinet makers and undertakers. He began his cabinet making and undertaking business in Greencastle in 1829 after completing his apprenticeship. During his 53 years in business he made or helped to make coffins for 3,830 people. The Detrich tool chest is on loan from John Henson. The tool box and woodworking tools of the late Howard Swisher, will be on loan for the exhibit from his son, Bob Swisher, Greencastle. Howard retired in 1975 after working for Moller Pipe Organ for 47 years. The consoles for the organs were made by Howard. Other Greencastle related boxes include a man’s late 19th century collar box, which is on loan from Jim Craig. Purchased at a public sale, an early U.S. mail box that stood on a corner in Greencastle during the early 1900s is on loan from Harry Myers. Also from Greencastle is an early egg box with “J. A. Brown Greencastle, PA” stenciled on the ends and sides, on loan from Gladys Burns. How many remember the milk box and the clank of empty glass bottles being removed in the wee hours of the morning, only to be replaced with full bottles of whole milk with cream on top? A milk box, on loan from Hermione Brewer, and from the museum’s collection, a milk crate delivery box from the Greencastle Sanitary Dairy will be on exhibit. Boxes in the exhibit also include ones which were made to hold spice, tea, salt, candles, crackers, candy, silver, jewelry, hats, shoes, matches, pencils, paints, babies, and more. There is also a music box, cash box, writing box, a box camera, and box woods. What visitors will not find in the exhibit is a toy box, sand box, theater box, or batters’ box. Visitors will be given a scavenger list of clues to search for the various boxes that are part of the permanent exhibits throughout the museum. July Quarterly Meeting At the July meeting, guest speaker and folksinger Judy Cook of Laurel, Maryland will present an unaccompanied, entertaining program of songs, which is entitled “Strong Women, Fearless Men: Songs and Ballads of America's Early Days.” These songs are about the women and men – pioneers, cowboys, sailors, lumberjacks, soldiers, and farmers, who landed on the eastern shore of America and moved westward, until they reached the Pacific Ocean. Some of the selections in the program include Daughters of the Revolution, an entertaining song about sixteen unarmed women who “saved the day” during the American war for independence. In Zebra Dun, a cowboy ballad, the lyrics tell the story of an outlaw horse and an “educated feller.” From the Civil War era, there’s a song about Greencastle’s Dolly Harris, entitled Greencastle Jenny. When General Pickett’s men marched up North Carlisle Street on their way to Gettysburg, Dolly, then a teenager, defiantly waved the American flag from her front porch at the Confederate troops. Just before the troops started to act out their anger at such bold conduct, General Pickett stood up in his stirrups and saluted the Stars and Stripes, averting a riot by his men. Titanic is a song from the Georgia Sea Islands about the famous shipwreck. Born in Virginia, the third of four children, Judy grew up listening to both of her parents sing and, from this, developed a love for music. As she took her place in the folk community, Judy began researching the songs she loved and discovered the wealth of written, recorded, and personal sources for traditional songs and ballads. Judy began performing professionally in the early 1990s. Her first recording of unaccompanied traditional songs and ballads, “If You Sing Songs…” was released in 1998, the same year as her first singing tours. This was followed two years later by “Far From the Lowlands.” She has quickly come to be well respected on both sides of the Atlantic as a singer and propagator of the old songs. See the Calendar of Events for time and place. August Monthly Meeting The guest speaker for the August meeting will be Dennis Frye, the chief historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. His topic of discussion will be “The History of John Brown in Franklin County.” Mr. Frye was scheduled to speak earlier in the year, but due to illness, his program has been rescheduled for August. In 1859, Brown, headquartered in Chambersburg, gathered 20 loyal anti-slavery followers and weapons, which he needed in order to carry out his planned raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Brown stayed at the Union Hotel in Greencastle during June and July 1859 as he traveled between Chambersburg and the Kennedy farm in Maryland, the location from which the raid would begin. While staying at the Union Hotel, Brown signed his name as I. M. Smith in the hotel register. Frye, currently a resident of Sharpsburg, Maryland, was a graduate of Boonsboro High School and received a BA degree from Shepherd College. He was the assistant producer and the chief historical consultant for the movie “Gods and Generals”, which is based on the book of the same title. Frye is a freelance historical consultant and writer and is the author of several books and hundreds of articles on the Civil War. His career resume includes being the former president of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites, a consultant for a PBS documentary on John Brown, and commentator for the History Channel’s program, Civil War Journal. See the Calendar of Events for time and place. September General Meeting Mark your calendars, now, for Thursday, September 8 at 7 p.m. at the Evangelical Lutheran Church for the general meeting. Ted Alexander, AAMI’s historian, has booked a very special guest speaker. You do not have to travel to a university or Washington, D.C to hear James Webb, former Assistant Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy during President Reagan’s administration. Webb will be speaking on his latest book about the Scots-Irish called Born Fighting. The Scots-Irish not only played a major role in shaping the United States, but, were also instrumental in forming the government of Pennsylvania, as it is today. In the 1730s, the adventurous, robust, and rebellious Scots-Irish settled what is now known as Antrim Township as well as the whole of the Cumberland Valley – the area that we call home. Born Fighting is Webb’s first non-fictional book. His six previous novels won wide acclaim and include Fields of Fire, Lost Soldiers, and The Emperor’s General. Webb is also a filmmaker, an Emmy Award–winning journalist, and he has taught literature at the university level. He was a member of the Marines and is a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran. During the Reagan administration, Webb served as Assistant Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy. He currently resides in Arlington, Virginia.
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