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November 2005,
Volume 8, Issue 6
From the President’s Desk
It is only mid-October as I write this article for the sixth and last issue of the Allison-Antrim Annals for the year of 2005. It has been a year in which much progress has occurred on the reconstruction of the 1860s German bank barn. The limestone masons have been on site, as of this writing, for three weeks. They have made amazing progress in re-laying the side walls which tie into the back wall of poured concrete. Because of all the door and window openings though, the pace will slow down when the masons start reconstructing the front wall. Every stone of the front wall is a numbered stone, meaning that each one plays an important part in forming a door or window opening. The door and window jams have arrived from Westminster, Md. where they have been stored since dismantling. Taking into consideration that construction timetables are always in a state of flux, the timber framer, Glenn James, expects to begin reconstructing the barn’s timber frame during the winter months.
You can watch the daily progress here, where a photograph taken every four minutes by a video camera is then displayed on the barn project page.
Nine different exhibits have been open to the public during 2005 – Baby It’s Cold Outside, Sweethearts of the Silver Screen, History in Cookbooks, celebration of Carl’s Drug Store’s 180th anniversary, antique needlework accessories, the Ubiquitous Box, Moments in Time, Sounds of Time, Made in Greencastle-Antrim, and antique Christmas ornaments. Only through the generosity of Allison-Antrim Museum’s members and other friends of the museum were these quality exhibits possible. AAMI appreciates the time and effort of those who have loaned their items for display.
Each school year, the ties between the museum and the school district become stronger through the willingness of the teachers to incorporate Greencastle-Antrim’s history into their lesson plans, by utilizing AAMI’s various collections. With the fast growing population of Antrim Township and the large number of teachers who are not native to this area, it is important that our local history be taught to newcomers as well as natives. Greencastle-Antrim’s history is part of America’s history with exciting and amazing stories. Keeping our history alive in the class rooms will insure that the Greencastle-Antrim community’s love of, caring about, and pride in our “hometown” continues for generations, which is what makes Greencastle-Antrim what it is.
Please stop by the museum for a visit during November’s and December’s open houses. You are guaranteed to learn something “new” about our wonderful history, which dates back to 1734 or 1735. Thank you all for making 2005 such a successful year at Allison-Antrim Museum.
Coming and Going
It was with regrets that the board of directors accepted the decision, not to run for another term of office, by long-time board member Marvin Rice. Marvin joined the board of directors in the year 2000. His contributions during board meetings will be missed when his term of office expires on December 31.
Those who ran for the position of director on the October ballot were James Craig, Sean Guy, James Thomas, and AAMI member John Easton. All four gentlemen were voted in for a three-year term, which will end in December 2008. We welcome John Easton to the board and look forward to working with him over the coming years.
Holiday Dinner Meeting
For the holiday dinner meeting, Ted Alexander has booked Edwin Bearss as the featured speaker, who last spoke to our membership in 2001 about the Battle of the Bulge. The topic of Bearss presentation will be "Washington on the Delaware: Winter 1776." The Continental Army faced great challenges in the winter of 1776, with the weather being one of those challenges. In his own inimitable style, Bearss will discuss Washington's maneuvering in New Jersey, the Battle of Princeton, the legendary crossing of the Delaware on Christmas night 1776, and the decisive Battle of Trenton. The element of surprise was the key to Washington’s victory at Trenton. In a very strategic move, in a snow storm, Washington “ferried” 2,500 men across the treacherous, ice filled Delaware River. The mission was difficult; but with no loss of life among his troops, the victory at Trenton boosted the morale of the American troops and energized the cause of the War for Independence.
Ed Bearss is an internationally acclaimed military historian. He is the Chief Historian Emeritus of the National Park Service. Bearss is the author of more than 20 books and is well known as a “talking head” on the History Channel. He has written and speaks extensively on various aspects of American military history, including the American Revolution, Civil War, Indian Wars, and WWII. He is particularly knowledgeable about the war in the Pacific where he served with the U.S. Marine Corps and was wounded in action while charging a Japanese machine gun nest. During his tenure with the National Park Service he was instrumental in developing historical interpretation for War in the Pacific National Historical Park in Guam and the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Bearss has also led tours of the D-Day battlefields in France.
This year’s holiday dinner meeting, which is open to the public, will be held at Mrs. Gibble’s Restaurant on Wednesday, November16, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Guests will be served an all-you-can-eat banquet meal which will include salad, roast turkey, roast beef, baked ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sugar snap peas, corn fritters, rolls, choice of drink, and vanilla ice cream, for $17 per person, which includes tax and gratuity. Reservations are requested by Sunday, November 13.
Please join us for this rare opportunity to hear one of America’s most renowned historians speak in our own hometown. Reservations are being accepted by calling Bonnie at 597.9325. Reservations are not required if only attending the speaker’s presentation.
November Open House Exhibit
“Made
in Greencastle or Antrim Township” is the focus of the November open house
exhibit. A number of items made in Greencastle or Antrim Township are already
part of the permanent
exhibits. They include the clover header; a Henry S. Walck grain cradle; cast
iron stove made by J. B. Crowell; a chest of drawers with mirror made by
Augustus Shirey, a cabinet maker and undertaker in the 1800s in Greencastle; a
flat-belt driven buck saw made by the Flinchbaugh Manufacturing Co. circa 1910;
a nursing rocker made by Pearl Conrad’s father Bruce Angel; handcrafted in his
shop, a tall mantel clock made by David Warren. In addition, other objects made
by local craftsmen will also be exhibited, such as Frank Feather carvings; a
cherry cabinet mantel clock made by the late Ira Lesher Sr.; a lap dulcimer and
baby cradle made by Earl Harbaugh; a scale model of one of Rescue Hose’s fire
engines made by C. Robert Swisher; a very early Moller organ made in
Greencastle, prior to the company moving the business to Hagerstown.
Additionally, October’s antique clock exhibit will still be on display.
Heritage Christmas Open House and Exhibit
The special holiday exhibit is antique Christmas ornaments from the collection of Anne Gobin, McConnellsburg, stepmother of AAMI director, Pam Ott. Items in the collection, which originally belonged to Gobin’s mother, date back to the late 19th century. Pieces include blown glass, die cut, and cotton batting ornaments. There’s sure to be something that delights and amazes each visitor.
In addition, the 1860 museum house will be decorated in the style of the Civil War era, during the mid-Victorian period. A de la Robia fruit arrangement, greens, an old-fashioned cedar tree with dried fruit, gilded walnuts, gingerbread cookies, antique candle holders, and Civil War flags will take the visitors back to a much simpler time. Under the tree, in running order, will be the Carl family Lionel Standard Gauge train. Upstairs, in the children’s room, the Carl family toys from the turn of the last century and Craig family toys will be displayed.
On Friday evening, December 2, AAMI will participate in Greencastle’s Heritage Christmas by having open house from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Luminaries will light the way to the front entrance and Dr. Terry Musselman will join us in period costume to entertain visitors with traditional holiday music played on dulcimers. Light refreshments will be served.
Grandparent/Grandchild Quality Time
While attending the annual American Association of State and Local History conference in Pittsburgh in September, board member, Rebecca Elgin, attended many sessions. It was a great networking opportunity to meet colleagues and she has brought back many new ideas.
One of the ideas involves grandparents and their grandchildren. Either visiting or volunteering at the museum is an ideal way to introduce the younger generation to the benefits and value of volunteerism in their community and is an excellent opportunity to spend quality time with each other.
For more information on how you can introduce your grandchild(ren) to the museum, please call the museum at 597.9010 and leave a message for Rebecca or you may email her at relgin29@earthlink.net.
Volunteer Hours
Throughout the year, several survey forms are received from different national and state organizations. Most survey forms ask for the number of volunteer hours, which is difficult to answer for AAMI because there is no time clock to punch. The Past Perfect software which the museum purchased a couple years ago does have the capabilities of recording volunteer hours. But we need your help when you volunteer in any way, whether it is docent hours, open house hours, making refreshments, putting open house signs out, making calls for volunteers, etc.
Your volunteer hours will help to more accurately answer survey questions. In addition, when some grant applications are completed, the total number of volunteer hours each year is awarded a certain number points in the final evaluation of the grant proposal. Your volunteer hours have multiple benefits for the museum.
When you have the occasion to do volunteer work for the museum, please call Bonnie at 597.9325, so that your hours may be recorded. Thank you for your time and effort.
Photographs for GA Revisited
Ken and I are considering writing a follow-up book to last year’s “Images of America – Greencastle-Antrim” pictorial history book. It was only days after the deadline when the photographs and text were sent to Arcadia, that more never-before-seen photographs found their way to the archives of Allison-Antrim Museum. We feel they are significant enough to include them in another book, “Images of America – Greencastle-Antrim Revisited.” If all goes as planned, the next book will be released in 2007 for the next Old Home Week.
We are again looking for and asking for more photographs. We would like to include photographs of Greencastle and Antrim Township that extend into the 1960s and perhaps 1970s. The photographs can be of businesses and family life during those decades, or anything you think would be of interest. Again, the photographs will be on loan to AAMI and after scanning into the computer files, they will be returned to their owners.
Please call Bonnie at 717.597.9325 if you have photographs or know of anyone who may have photographs.
Who, What, When, Where and Why?
Who were they?
The answer to September’s Who, What, When, Where and Why, is the Franklin House cornerstone on North Carlisle Street. Hilkiah.R. Gaff and James Shirey dismantled the frame structure that they bought in 1879 and built the current three-story brick building. Initially, the brick hostelry was called the Crowell House, in honor of J. B. Crowell. It’s name later reverted back to the Franklin House. In the 1790s on the site of the Franklin House was a log-structure tavern owned by John Besore.
Do
you know…
why the intersection of East Baltimore Street and Allison
Street is called Cleveland Square?
Library Shelf Additions
- AAMI member Nancy Rice has given a copy of her Master’s thesis to AAMI, which is entitled, A Historical Study of the Enoch Brown Indian Massacre. Rice’s research revealed that the first printed account of the massacre was published in Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette on August 9, 1764. The manuscript is a well-researched, 33-page study of an incident that occurred in Antrim Township on July 26, 1764. The massacre of Enoch Brown and his students is part of our history that has been recorded in American history books for generations.
- A DVD copy of the NOVA presentation entitled, “Saving the National Treasures” has been added to the museum’s library shelves. The video account chronicles the story of the most recent and immediate past preservation efforts to save the original documents most important to the history of our nation – America’s Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights.
- Two books, The Signers – The 56 Stories Behind the Declaration of Independence by Dennis Brindell Fradin and Wives of the Signers – The women behind the Declaration of Independence excerpted from The Pioneer Mothers of America, first published in 1912.
Recent Acquisitions
- The tool box which was made by the late Howard Swisher of Greencastle and the tools with which he made Moller organ consoles for 47 years, were given to AAMI by his son, C. Robert Swisher, Greencastle.
- Numerous late 19th century mourning pieces which were worn by Martha Bawden Miller (1837 – 1908) including three black lace shawls, two black beaded necklaces, and a watch fob of black jet beads which belonged to her husband Nathan Miller, both of whom were the great-grandparents of Alice and Tom Brumbaugh. Also included in the acquisition are two fans and a tintype of Thomas Brendle. Gifts from Tom and Alice Brumbaugh.
- From William Wolfe, a ten gallon, hand-blown glass Erlenmeyer distillation flask (missing the cork), circa 1900. It is displayed with the Carl’s Drug Store collection.
- A buck saw which was made by the Flinchbaugh Manufacturing Co., Greencastle, during the early part of the 20th century. The saw is still in working condition and was bought at an East York County public auction in 1960 by Norman Heindel. It returns home to Greencastle from Windsor, Pa. A gift from Ed Heindel, son of Norman.
Website Inquiries
· A request for photographs of Frank Feather carvings was made by the Catoctin Center for Regional Studies at the Frederick Community College. They are in the process writing a book about folklore and folk life which will be published in 2006. Photographs were supplied to them.
· Someone from the west coast who is doing genealogy research contacted Allison-Antrim Museum because her grandmother was born in Antrim in 1889 and was baptized in St. Mary’s Church in Blossburg. Curiously, this is the third inquiry the museum has received in the past year about Antrim, Pa., a small town in Tioga County, which is included within Wellsboro’s zip code area.