A WEEK AT THE MUSEUM 
(published weekly in the "Prairie Sun" Meade, KS

by Nancy Ohnick

MAY 07, 2012

I am writing this on Monday... we just spent the weekend in Liberal with a booth at the Kansas Sampler Festival. I think I can speak for the others when I say we all had a wonderful time. I had a table for selling books and had record sales.

Rodger DeGarmo built our booth years ago and they take it and set it up at every year at the Sampler. It is a very impressive booth made from old cedar fencing. He and Lila were there representing Meade County Economic Development. Norman Dye, Otis & Carolyn Meredith... and for a short time Janae... manned the Museum/Hideout booth, and LaDonna Meyers and I had our table in the middle. LaDonna came to help me and sign her book, "Cimarron Chronicles." She was a selling machine!

We certainly gave all those people a "sample" of our constantly changing weather! Saturday was HOT, and Sunday was cloudy, cool and windy. There were thousands of people through the Wild West Country tent and we got to tell our story many times. Add that to getting to see all our old friends in tourism and it makes for a great, but exhausting weekend.

I would have loved to stay in bed this morning, but I had promised Jeannie Toews, who teaches in Minneola, that I would open the Museum for a tour of her 4th grade class. They were a small group and great kids! This is our last week for school tours, so we will soon be getting back to normal around here... whatever that is.

One interesting guy I met in Liberal was Ken Weidner from Copeland. He is a re-enactor who does a Cheyenne Indian and gives talks about all their "gear." I told him about our teepee display and my plans to make it better and he gave me some websites to check out. I would like to get him sometime to give a talk... he seemed very interesting. I'm researching the Cheyenne now and learning a great deal... hopefully it will someday result in a great display for the Museum!

MAY 01, 2012

They're here! School kids, that is... the spring school tours have started! I came in on Monday for a tour of Cimarron kids, and have kids from Liberal Tuesday morning and Cimarron kids again Tuesday afternoon. The Dalton Gang Hideout is equally as busy because the groups split up and half come to the Museum, while half go to the Hideout. It will be this way through next week.

The kids are great. So far this year they have been very well behaved and interested. I take them around the Museum and give them my "spiel" then just let them roam around and take a slower look at their favorite things.

Today, between school groups, Al and Elaine Sawyer came in with a box of accessions. They are items from Kay Ross's estate... hats and dresses that belonged to Grandmother Gamble. The items are in amazingly good condition for their age. We will put them with our collections, and hopefully get them out to show some day. I would like to have temporary exhibits of such things occasionally, but I don't know when I will have time to get that started.

We probably won't do many projects around the Museum this year simply because of budget restraints. We did so much last year that we ended up borrowing money which had to be paid back out of this years budget. We will just have to stick to projects that don't require much money. One such project is the Cheyenne teepee display. I got some really great ideas from the archeologist who were here for the KAA meeting last week. Now I want to pull the mannequins into the teepee... dress them a little more "prehistoric" and build a fire ring in the middle. I'm on the lookout for buckskin... crude pottery... and other things the native Americans might have used before the white man came to Meade County and started influencing their lifestyle.

We are also in need of all manner of wigs. I have been washing the dust out the of the "hair" of our people and some of those wigs are just shot. If any of our readers have an old wig or two they don't need... we would certainly take them off your hands!

Don't forget the Sampler Festival in Liberal next Weekend, May 4 & 5. It is rarely this close to Meade County... and trust me, it's something to see! Get more information online at www.kansassamplerfestival.com.

APRIL 24, 2012

We had a very busy weekend at the Museum. Norman felt that the KAA meeting was a great success. We had about 27 archeologists show up and they were a very interesting bunch.

One lady, I believe her name was Marjorie, was very helpful to me. She gave me a lot of advise on how to handle textiles. It started with a little rug in our display case with Indian artifacts. She explaining how to clean it and that I should get a moth-proof spray and spray everything wool that we have in the Museum... I didn't even know that you could get moth-proof spray. She went on, over the weekend, to give me advice for our quilts and all manner of textiles.

Another interesting lady, Becky Nioce, brought us Fillmore Hudson's morning coat and Priscilla Hudson's woven coverlet. Fillmore was Priscilla's son and our clerk of the court dating back to the beginning of our county's history. I got a lot of information on the Hudson family tree. Our Gracland file lists Fillmore buried here, but he's not... and Hattie, his wife, is... but she's not listed. Long and very interesting story, and when it comes from one of the family... priceless! The story was that Hattie died while living elsewhere, but she requested that she be brought back and buried by her mother-in-law. Soon after that Fillmore remarried and he is buried somewhere else. Priscilla died from complications to her lungs from fighting a prairie fire that was threatening to devour their home... she lived for about a year in constant pain and then died in 1893.

After the meeting was over Norman said he took a few of the participants around and showed them some Meade County history sights. He really enjoyed that.

I also took in some interesting artifacts Saturday. In the midst of all the hub-bub of the KAA meeting, Fay Hardaway's daughter, Louetta Shiplet, brought in a wedding dress that belonged to Jenny Van Hoesen in 1884, as well as two little baby dresses that belonged to O.C. and George Van Hoesen in that same time period. I think Jenny was Faye's great grandmother. Pinned to the dress was a sweet little story about her coming out here to the prairie in Meade County as a young bride.

I have had some interesting visitors today at the Museum. Bill Barby stopped by... he had not seen the Museum since the windows were closed up and he's the one who suggested it to the board of directors back in 2008. He liked all the changes we have made. Jack Dufield from Liberal also stopped by with Mason Dufield to show him his grandfather, Sam Gliver whose photo hangs back by the jail as one of our Meade County sheriffs. Jack has mentioned several times he was going to bring me some good "stuff" on old Sam... and he's still saying that. Last, but not least was Chuck Bisbee... Lottie and Clifford Bisbee's grandson. He is a tennis coach and was in Meade for a match and took a few minutes to come downtown and relive his summer visits to the Bisbee home. He had taken a picture of the old "variety store" and I told him I owned that building now... we had a nice visit. Can you imagine as a kid... visiting that dime store and it being owned by your grandparents!

APRIL 17, 2012

It's good to be back working at the Museum again... visitors must know that I have lots of catching up to do, because they certainly haven't been stopping by!

I've been continuing my cleaning... fixing little things in my wake. I cleaned the Sheriff's office yesterday and rearranged it a little bit. I'll have to say it's been awhile back there! I also got some pictures hung in the Goodnight Gallery. Two years ago I started replacing "local art" along the west hall with photographs of old Meade County. My intention all along was to hang the art in the gallery, and now that it is empty again I finally got it done. I figure they can hang there in between other events.

Last week I got in contact with the gentleman who handles the microfilm at the Kansas Historical Society. I learned all the ends and outs of how the microfilming works. The staff at the Meade Public Library faithfully sends them our newspapers which they sort and store until microfilm is ordered. We have film through 2004, so I ordered another roll. He said it would probably hold a year and a half. It takes up to eight months to get this done, so I thought I should get another roll "in the works." I was also glad to find out that we can re-order some of the older rolls that are becoming so scratched they are hard to read. I'm sure that just getting so many obituary books completed will save a lot of wear and tear on the microfilm.

This weekend is the KAA Annual Meeting, which will be held here at the Museum. We plan to hold a reception for KAA members that arrive early on Friday night, then on Saturday, registration will start at 9:00 AM. Norman wants to stress that anyone interested in archeology is welcome to attend this meeting. It would be a good chance to learn who they are and what their organization does. There will be tours of the Museum and Hideout in the morning, and the business meeting will start at 1:00, after a lunch at the Chuckwagon Restaurant. It should be a lot of fun... I will get to meet some people I have emailed and visited with over the phone.

One such person in Becky Nioce. She was working along side Norman last year and mentioned that she had ancestors from Meade. We demised it was Judge W.D. Hudson, but in a recent email she clarified that her great grandfather was Fillmore Hudson (not related to W.D.) who was the Meade County Clerk of the Court in 1886. She has artifacts from this family she wants to donate to the Museum. Her family goes way back to the early days of the county, and I am so anxious to meet her!

Our first school tour is April 27, so it looks like it will be a busy spring at the Museum.

APRIL 10, 2012

In perusing the guest book I see that 34 visitors have toured the Museum since last week. We're not setting the world on fire, but it's picking up. One couple was Bill and Susan Bunyan from Dodge. Bill and Susan were on the original committee when the museum was created. They come by once in awhile and go through ... I'm sorry I missed them. It is
fun to ask them questions about how things came to be.

I am going to be working Frances' days for awhile so she can tend to some medical issues. I am looking forward to getting some "piles" whittled down and some long-over due chores done. I love our new Tack Room, but BOY did those guys cause some dust. Now we are hosting the KAA meeting this month and ... well, our rooms are a mess! I am
trying to clean at least one room a day. I have done the church, the school and bank ... slowing working my way down the west side of the Museum. We will see how far I get, I may be hollering "help!"

I have had several "locals" in today to check out the new Tack Room. Everyone seems duly impressed ... and rightfully so. I talked to Glenn Lauppe today and got a list of all the folks that helped build the room so that I could make a plaque to put on the wall. Those guys deserve a little recognition.

Elmer Friesen came in and asked where we were going on our spring history tour. We haven't announced a tour yet because we don't have any ideas of where to go! We have had such good tours lately they will be hard to compete with. I told Elmer to put his thinking cap on and perhaps we would schedule a tour for the fall. We haven't been to the west end of the county for a long time ... you folks at Plains need to think of some history sites we can visit.

Our schedule this spring is crazy with the KAA meeting on the 21 st, Trash & Treasurers Day on the 28th and then the Sampler Festival in Liberal on the weekend of May 4th & 5th.

I sure encourage everyone to attend the Sampler Festival while it is so close. It will take place in Light Park on North Kansas (where the swimming pool is.) I will be having a Prairie Books booth right next to the Meade County Economic Development -- Museum - - Dalton Hideout booths. If you have given any thought to my suggestion that you vacation in Kansas this summer to save gas ... the Sampler Festival is THE PLACE to get information about what the state has to offer. www.kansassamplerfestival.com

APRIL 4, 2012

I am sitting at home as I write this, so I can’t look at the guest book, but Frances tells me that Museum traffic has really picked up this week. She has been busy with guests, some of which have been very interesting.

We hosted a Dalton Days committee meeting at the Museum last Monday prior to our MCHS board meeting… it was so good to see so many new faces getting involved in our celebration! I think folks will be pleased with all the improvements to Dalton Days this year. Not only will the Meade County Fair Ranch Rodeo be held in conjunction with the event… I heard them talking about a DANCE! It has been many years since we have included a dance, and if memory serves, that used to be one of the most popular parts of Dalton Days.

Our board meeting was short and sweet. We bragged to Glenn about getting the Tack Room finished and the guys for getting the saddle collection moved. There was a little talk about where we go from here, but I think everyone is ready for a rest now. Someone brought up the need to work on the Sunnydale School house and Norman brought up the idea of moving it to our lot north of the Museum and placing all the old implements into our planned Ag Museum… he and I have been talking about that for some time. The board seemed receptive. It is hard to maintain a lot so far removed from the main building and it would make it so handy to actually use the school house… especially for school tours. Norman also discussed plans for the KAA Annual Meeting we will host on April 21. We will have an elite group of archeologist here that weekend from all over Kansas.

April is a busy month. I am working with Victoria Ward and trying to find a Sunday afternoon to host an event with Barry Ward. Since we now have our Goodnight Gallery space empty again, I proposed to her that we set up a projector back there and show the new video they made at the Hideout and Museum… Barry could be on hand to sing a few songs and sell some CDs. Victoria jumped at the idea, we just have to wait until they get the DVD and find a date.
I am looking forward to having lots of events in the Gallery… the Barry Ward music video would be a great start!

MARCH 26, 2012

I counted 39 in the guest book again this week. They seem to come in spurts, at times we will be extremely slow, then other times we will be swamped.

The big news this week is the moving of the Bartlett saddle collection from the Goodnight Gallery into the new Tack Room. Mike Bartlett showed up Monday with two young men and they, along with Glenn Lauppe, made short order of the move. The saddles are mounted on racks with big casters on the bottom. Unfortunately, two longer racks could not make the turn at the front of the Museum and had to be dismantled... this involved taking some of the saddles off the rack and taking them into the room by hand. Two of the racks could just be rolled along. Later, Norman showed up so we had five guys working on the project. I just tried to stay out of their way!

I encourage everyone to stop by the Museum and see the new Tack Room. Glenn Lauppe deserves a big pat on the back for all his hard work. He seems very proud of the room, and rightly so. It certainly enhances the saddle collection which looks right at home among the cottonwood planks.

Before he took his tools home, Glenn also mounted the picture racks to the new wall that was formed when we closed off the east windows. This looks so much better... seems a lot more sound... and frees up a lot of floor space. We moved a showcase and our baby buffalo around and came up with a pleasing floor plan for the lobby. I don't want to get ahead of myself, but it seems like things just might get back to normal around here. I know Glenn made the remark he was ready to get back to the ranch!

With the Gallery free, I plan to have some events and temporary exhibits. Larry Lemaster was in last weekend and as we visited about it we came up with several ideas... a Dick Brown art exhibit... a quilt show... a Larry Beard art exhibit... just to name a few. Hopefully, we can get a copy of that music video Barry Ward made last week and show it on our projector back there. As you can see the ideas are flowing!
All in all... things are progressing nicely at the Museum.

MARCH 18, 2012

I was right about the nice weather... we've had 32 visitors since last week! It's sure nice to have a little traffic around here. I suppose it helped this week that Kansas was having spring break.

One couple that came in this weekend was from Liberal. The group included husband, wife, a teenage girl and a little boy about 8. The father and the girl had both been through the Museum on a school tour when they were in 3rd grade! They still recall that tour as a good experience... that's what makes it worthwhile.

Our big excitement for the week was Barry Ward coming in on Thursday to shoot part of a music video in the Museum. Janae brought her camera and got some great shots of the crew working. There were several costumed extras wondering around the Museum, including our own board member, Don Wilson. The video goes with the song, "Eli Crow" from Barry's new CD titled "West of Dodge." In the song, the singer is the son of Eli Crow, who is a wanted man. He sees a wanted poster in "Miller's store" of his father with a price on his head. I guess that's why they were shooting in our general store. They also shot in the blacksmith's shop and the livery stable. They also shot at the Dalton Gang Hideout the day before. Barry's CD is excellent, and full of songs that he has written himself. Check it out on www.barrywardmusic.com.

I had a note here from Janae... she has finished the obituary book for the decade of 1950-59. That makes 4 decades she has done! What a gift to Meade County. She will now go back to the decade of 1910-19, to fill in that blank. Frances has already provided her with copies from the microfilm... it's a real team effort.

I spent a couple of days at Graceland Cemetery last week looking for gravestones to answer some of our questions. You know I have started to get my energy back if I could do that! It was a fun project and I had lots of corrections to our cemetery file. Like I told Alma, "You can't argue if it's etched in stone." My experience led me to sit down at my computer and draw a new map of the cemetery.... one that would be a little easier to hunt graves by. If anyone wants to take a look at it, I have posted it on www.oldmeadecounty.com, in a new section titled "cemeteries." I think I will post the PDF files of all our cemetery lists on the website. There are many sites that have them, but it would be an excellent way to share all this work we have been doing, and a way to make the site more valuable for anyone researching Old Meade County.

Speaking of the website... I also posted a new story that Frances wrote titled, "The Flood of 1955." There are lots of us who remember that flood but few of us write our memories down. Frances did an excellent job of telling her family's story. Check it out!

MARCH 13, 2012

Visitor count seems to get worse every week at the Museum... we only had seven this week. Hopefully the beautiful weather will bring them in.

We ordered fire retardant for the tack room which should be in today. Bud Bartlett, who owns the saddle collection going into the new room, requested this and even offered to pay for it. I don't blame him... those walls look like they are built out of what matchsticks are made of! This is the last step, folks, we will be moving the collection into the new room soon.

I asked Frances if anything exciting was going on. She said she was through printing obituaries from the microfilm on the "teens." For some reason we started in 1920, and forgot all about the decade of 1910 through 1919. She and Alma have moved on to the 1960's. We had a book on that decade, but it does not include Plains and Fowler... and our copies do not include the name and date of the newspaper from hence they came. Our girls are kind of persnickety about those obit books... I'm sure they will figure out a way to make that decade proper.

I worked four straight days this week. Alma and I finally got her corrections to our Graceland Cemetery file copied over... and I have even been out on the "hill" trying to find the answers to some of our questions. The rest of my time I spent trying to catch up on things. I didn't get done, but made a dent.

I guess Barry Ward is coming to the Museum this week to shoot a part of music video. We gave him the run of the place... we welcome that kind of publicity!

MARCH 5, 2012

We have had all of twelve visitors through the Museum since last week... not much to brag about. I did, however, make arrangements with a teacher from Cimarron to host their entire third grade early in May. If nothing else, we will have plenty of "kid traffic" this spring.

We have several events coming up this spring. on April, 21st, we will be hosting the KAA (Kansas Anthropological Association) for their annual meeting. Norman Dye, our president, is a member of this group and is very excited about having their meeting here in Meade. We plan to put on a reception the evening before and doing all we can to make their members feel at home. Get information about the KAA on-line at www.katp.org.

The weekend of May 5 & 6, we will be taking part in the Kansas Sampler Festival, held this year (and next) in Liberal. We put up a massive booth that houses the Museum and Dalton Gang Hideout as well as the Meade County Economic Development Committee every year at this event. It will be a real treat to have it only 40 miles away. I will have a booth next to the Meade County booth, selling the books I publish. I did this when the event was in Garden City several years ago and had a great time. Check out this event on-line at www.kansassampler.org/festival. I wrote before about making Kansas your vacation destination... well, that's what this event is all about.

The ranch must have called Glenn and his crew back to work... the tack room hasn't seen much action lately. Bud Bartlett has offered to loan additional items for the room, such as "tack" to hang on the walls. Glenn said he has figured out how to make a rack for the displays so that the items will be secure. We can see the room will fill up fast... it will be a great addition to the Museum. We have set a moving deadline of April so we can have our gallery free of saddles for that KAA reception... the pressure is on!

FEBRUARY 28, 2012

I came by the museum today to write this... didn't seem to me that much has gone on this past week but there are signs of life here... Glenn is putting some finishing touches on the saddle room and Frances is busy at the microfilm machine.

The saddle room is pretty much done. We have a door into the Museum lobby and a secure door going out to the rest of Building B. Saturday Rebecca and I both worked so that she could clean. We had a lot of construction mess to clean up. She took the shop vac to the new floor, dusted all the cases, then vacuumed the Museum. I cleaned the lobby and the office... we still have to dust everything in the Museum... it's hard to believe how that dust gets around.

Looking at the guest book, we've had 22 visitors since last I wrote. That's not bad for the middle of the winter. I had an email from two elementary schools in Liberal and they have already made plans for school tours in early May.

Marc Ferguson came back from the Southwest Kansas tourism meeting with a box of  free books. They were published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and are titled "Birds of Cimarron National Grassland." Morton County must have been giving them away. They have information about the Grasslands, but their bird study encompasses all of southwest Kansas... so if you are a bird watcher, you might want to stop by and pick up a copy of this book while they last. The photos are black and white, but the book seems to have a lot of good information... and they are free.

I am starting to get back to working on family files. I have a lot of information put aside waiting for folders to be made. I can see this will be a never-ending process. The old file cabinet I found in the closet has afforded me four full drawers for family folders... I finally got frames put in the drawers for hanging files and now I am progressing slowly. All our projects seem to work this way... obituaries, cemeteries, photos... we just keep plugging away. My problem is I keep hopping around from one project to another, not getting any of them done. I think I'm trying to insure there will always be work to be done here at the museum!

FEBRUARY 22, 2012

We have a door! The new tack room now has a door from the Museum lobby… it looks just like a barn door and is stout enough no mule could ever kick it down! Glenn and his crew have been working tirelessly all week and they are just about done. The room looks awesome.

Now Rebecca is going to have to get to work, because those guys have made a royal mess. It might be a good thing that traffic at the Museum has been a little slow… we have been apologizing a lot, but what a treasure we will have when we get the Bartlett saddle collection moved into the new room!

Since I haven’t been around much, I asked Frances what has been going on… her answer was, “Not much.” She has been busy printing out the obituaries from the “teens,” 1910 through 1919. For some reason we skipped them when we started the project of getting the obituary books up to date. She is complaining because there wasn’t many deaths in Meade County back then… maybe we can have a skinny notebook for that decade.

The spring issue of “Kansas!” magazine is in the gift shop. The theme of this one is “enjoying outdoor wonders” and has articles about biking, kayaking, and horseback riding all over the state. If gas prices go up like they say they will this summer, a Kansas vacation might not be a bad idea. This magazine gives you great ideas for places to travel.

Remember that the Museum is also your tourist information center. We have brochures from all over the state as well as several Kansas travel guides. Save gas… vacation in Kansas… let us help.

FEBRUARY 13, 2012

Looking at the guest book there has been very little traffic at the Museum this past week. We have been busy... planning and executing the Annual Banquet and Meeting... but all the excitement is over now so it's time to get back to business.

We were very pleased with the Annual Banquet. We had a record crowd, the meal was excellent, and the speaker was informative as well as entertaining. Fowler holds the prize now for attendance... we will have it in Meade next year so we will have to work on getting our numbers up there!

The Tack Room is coming right along. The boys busted through the wall after they made the room secure, and now they are working on a ramp for the entrance from the Museum... then all that's left is building a door. I told Glenn it looked like he was "building this by the seat of his pants," and he didn't argue! I am anxious for moving day when the saddle collection moves into its new home.

I have been busy digging through all the things that piled up when I was on "sick leave." Email, bills, and paperwork don't stop just because you do. Alma and I have a system on the Graceland Cemetery file... as she makes changes the database in her computer she marks them with red... then we sit together and change "the master file" at the Museum. We are getting somewhat caught up, but not quite there yet.

Frances got the help of Ruby Deaver on the Fowler Cemetery file... what a treasure trove of information! It is so gratifying the way everyone chips in to help. We know that one day we will get all this done, but right now it still feels like a daunting task.

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

For mid-winter, it's been a busy week at the museum. Glenn is just about done with the
Tack Room and is working on the doors now. We moved the furniture out of the way and Norman took down a display from the wall... we're ready to break through!

After the board meeting the other night, the guys moved the Hargett barbed wire collection over to Building B and we discussed the idea of hanging the photo "leaves" on the wall... something I've wanted to do ever since we got the windows closed up. The board was agreeable, so it looks like it might happen. The lobby looks rather empty now, but we are very excited about getting a door into the Tack Room.

We had our Board meeting a week early because of the Annual Meeting on Saturday. We finalized plans for the event and came up with 122 meals to order. If we have that many show up, I think Fowler will hold the new record for banquet attendance. When we had the event at Plains last year our count was 104. The Heritage Award will be going to a family in the Fowler area so that boosted our count quite a bit... it's a big family.

Otis Merideth brought an entry form for the Pancake Day parade with him to the meeting. He is going with his antique car, so after some discussion, we told him he would have to represent us as nobody else had time to go.

I have been back to work some full days. I get worn out, but it is good to be back in the Museum. First I had to get all the end-of-year chores done, and now I have been able to get back to working on files, etc. The girls have been diligently working on obits and Alma has been busy updating the Graceland Cemetery file.

I went out to Graceland the other day to change out a sign and it was so nice, I ended up driving around a little. I had to laugh at myself... I was reading grave stones and saying to myself... "oh, that's a familiar name!" Through this experience we are ALL getting acquainted with many of Meade County's deceased.

JANUARY 24, 2012

I worked a little this week… got much needed end-of-year books done and hosted a tour of several women from Plains on Monday. They were ten ladies from Laureate Beta Sigma Phi Sorority, and I couldn’t have asked for a nicer group. Being from Meade County, these ladies were really interested in the Museum and we had a great time.

I have learned a lot more about the old Meade State Bank building since last I wrote. It seems that when the bank merged with the First National Bank in 1937, the building was rented out to various businesses. My dad, Bob Feldman, recalled that the City offices were in the basement and at one time, the farm office was on the main floor. Marrs & Twist was located there long before the bank closed and Roy Twist told me a little bit about the fire and how it affected them. The fire took place in the late 1960’s… I’m still trying to narrow that down to a date before I start looking on the microfilm at the old newspapers.

I went ahead and finished my note card with the bank photo on it. In my description, I just put that it burned in the late 1960’s. We now have quite a selection of those note cards with the old Meade County photos. If you are a history buff, you might check them out… I’ve used a few when I knew the recipient would appreciate the subject.

We are in the final stages of our Annual Banquet planning. Remember, it takes place February 4^th… 6:30 pm at the grade school in Fowler. We will have to have our meal count about a week in advance, so get your tickets now! You may get them at the Museum or Hideout, or call the Museum at 873-2359 to turn in your reservation. We will also take credit card sales over the phone.

I want to challenge folks in Fowler…. when we had the banquet in Plains last year we had a record turnout. Fowler is known for “town loyalty,” and we expect a good crowd.

I heard Glenn working on the Tack Room when I was at the Museum Sunday afternoon. He is trying to meet his self-imposed deadline of the banquet to get his project done. I am excited for the new room as well as having the gallery empty again. We have been talking about different events we can have in the gallery. One of my favorite ideas is a Sunday afternoon talk series. We have so much history to share! We could have musicians in, maybe some cowboy poets… let me know of you like the idea and if you have something you would like to share.

JANUARY 17, 2012

I sit at home as I write this… still on the mend. I did get to the museum this weekend for a short visit and back on Monday for a little bookkeeping. I get stronger every day.

At home I now seem to have the time to work on some history. In creating some new note cards from old Meade County photos I was led down one rabbit trail after another while writing a paragraph for the back of each card explaining the photo. Though I had a great old picture of the Meade State Bank, I kept running into conflicting information on my search for a description. None of our books have anything of the fire that destroyed the building that housed the bank and sat on the southeast corner of Fowler and Carthage Avenue. I know this happened when I was just a kid, but in my research, I find the Meade State Bank merging with the First National Bank in 1939… wait a minute… I wasn’t even born yet! Either my memory is faulty or there was more than one Meade State Bank. Can anyone tell me when that fire was?

Another photo led me down the trail of the Edwards Family. This would have been Nancy Dye’s ancestors who had a farm between here and Fowler. We visited that place a few years ago on our history tour… they moved from their sod house into an frame house that was a  hotel they moved from Atwater. Great old pioneer family. I had two photos in my collection of their farm… one of which is an excellent threshing operation. This led me to researching the family and working on a page for them on www.oldmeadecounty.com.

I can see it will take a trip to the Museum just to get some of my facts straight. I can’t wait to get back to working on my files there. I have Alma helping me with genealogy and all those tubs of photos to go through… I’d better get me strength back.

I looked over the guest book at the Museum and saw that Rebecca was at least a little busy over the weekend. One of her visitors Sunday was Nolan Sump who will give our program for the Annual Banquet February 4^th. He called Marc at the Hideout and told him he was through… he had been at Beaver to give them the same program for their meeting! What are the odds that Beaver would choose the same guy?

There was an article in the Beaver newspaper, shared with me by Larry and LaDonna Meyers, that their Historical Society now has all their signs up to mark the Jones and Plummer Trail through Beaver County and even the Texas Panhandle. This is certainly good news… the trail is now marked all the way through. I will have to check with Kim Goodnight to see if Ford County has completed their sign on Mulberry Creek… when they do, the trail marking job will be done! Good job.

JANUARY 10, 2012

It’s good to be back! Heart surgery kind of put me out of commission, but I’m home and on the road to recovery. A few days after I got home Rebecca took me to the Museum to do payroll… she cleaned while I did some books. Yesterday we were closed so I went in and did some more catching up…. the girls were great while I was gone, but there are just some things I do that nobody knows about!

We had our monthly board meeting last night. Frances and I met early and finalized the menu for the annual banquet coming up on February 4. The menu will be brisket, scalloped potatoes, mixed vegetables, bread and cherry cobbler. This will be at the Fowler Grade School Cafeteria and catered by R&K Catering of Meade. We are looking forward to meeting in Fowler this year and we have chosen a family for the Heritage Award that has ties to Fowler.

Glenn was at the meeting with some great news… the tack room is almost done! They have put the old corrugated tin on the outside walls that was donated from the Salmon farm and they only lack a couple of rows of planks on the west and north walls. Reuben Bartel donated some insulation he had left from his shed construction… thanks Reuben! It’s time to make the doors and finish off the entrances and we can move in. Glenn took us over after the meeting and showed it off… it is a sight for sore eyes. He and Sherman Overbay deserve a big pat on the back for all the work they have put in on this project. Our Bartlett saddle collection will look right at home in that room.

Marc reported on Dalton Days which will happen on June 25 and 26.. They will be meeting next month and have set that meeting as a deadline for all the good ideas they have received. They will only use the ones that have a plan and a committee in place to implement the idea because they have to make a schedule and start publicity. The theme for this year’s event is “Wild Wild West” so that leaves lots of room for fun events and promises to be a grand time.

When I went to the office I found a map that Janae had made showing where all our visitors came from in 2011. It is very nice… I showed it to the members of the board last night and it was quite the subject of conversation. I plan to hang it on the wall for everyone to see.

I want to thank the staff for filling in for me while I was gone… they even wrote my article for the “Prairie Sun.” Thanks, girls, you’re the best!

2011 "Week at the Museum"

2010 "Week at the Museum"