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Journal of the Lycoming County Historical Society, Spring 1984

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Journal of the Lycoming County Historical Society, Spring 1984 } .4 #:# © R"-c N' g ? / \ } r THE JOURNAL OFTHE Lycoming County Historical Society VOLUMEXX SPRING NUMBERONE 1984 JOURNAL of the LYCOMING COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Published Semiannualy in Wiltiamspon, Pennsylvania Museum Office - 858 West Fourth Street Telephone (Area Code 717) 326-3326 BOARD OFTRUSTEES HARRY KING WILLIAM E. NICHOLS, JR. RALPH R. CRANMER Legal Counselor JOHN L.BRUCH,JR. CLARENCE R. MUTCHLER JOHN B. MCMURTRIE Current SocietyPresident BOARDOFGOVERNORS DR. CLARENCE R. MUTCHLER, Preside/zr MRS. JANE INGERSOLL JAMES P. BRESSLER,/sf I,'lcePresfdenr 3rd VicePresident JOHN E. PERSON, 111,2/zd rice Presfdenf MRS. DAWN KEIPER JAMES WEHR, Treasurer Secretal? 1982-1984 1983-1985 MRS. GERTRUDE BITNER MRS. ARLENE HAFER DR.KENNETH E.CARL MRS. JOANNE BENNETT ROBERT SMINK JACK KISBERG RICHARDMIX E. J. DURRWACHTER EX-OFFICIO BOARD MEMBERS JUNIOR LEAGUE OF WILLIAMSPORT M rs. Robert Eckenrode THE GREATER WILLIAMSPORT COMMUNITY ARTS COUNCIL EugeneE. Landon HISTORICALSOCIETY STAFF Mrs. Mabel Never, ExecutiveSecretary JOURNAL EDITOR VOLUMEXX Mrs. Lois Hunton SPRING NUMBERONE 1984 MUSEUM STAFF Director and Curator AndrewK. Grugan TABLE OF CONTENTS Assistant to the ])irector Everett W. Rubendall Gift Shop Manager & Tour Director Gloria Z. Grugan Greetings from the President's Desk Assistant Gift Shop Manager Miriam S. Mix Letter from the Director Foreword Indian Gallery MUSEUM VOLUNTEER STAFF Colonial Exhibit Transportation Exhibit 1 1 14 Reg£stTation Committee Miss June Foresman, Chaztman Museum Floor Plan Maps Mrs. Stanley Bassett Military Exhibit 17 Miss Ethel Ertel Country Store 18 Mrs. Frederick Snell One-Room School 19 Music Exhibit 20 Andrew K. Grugan O/peretz'on M eum Victorian Exhibits 21 23 Publicft) © Public Retat£on}.s Andrew K. Grugan Lumber Gallery Wild Life Display 25 CuTatodat Departments. Hall of Industry 26 Resource Collections 28 General CuTatov Andrew K. Grugan ,4rchaeoZog] James P. Bressler, Chua'oman William Turnbaugh Karen Rickey Ricki Maietta COVER A Tchfves © Records Miss Gladys Tozier, Chz'ef Miss Jean Little A pagefrom the SusquehannaBoom Company's register book is shown. Each Miss Phyllis Briel symbol is an identifying mark incited on all logs belonging to an individual owner and taken from a specific stand of timber. The original register is in the Museum's Educate'on Andrew K. Grugan collection. Fine ,4rls Dr. June E. Baskin InduntT£at Exhibits Francis Maneval ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Mzhe aZs Lewis Harper Bald Eagle Art League members Mrs. Loretta Hessler, Larry Seaman, Mrs. Jane Smith and Mrs. Mary Wilkinson provided the drawings which illustrate this issue. Textiles Mrs. Norman Ingersoll Dr. June Baskin drew the maps, and Miss Gladys Widemire donated the cover Mrs. Patricia Lockspeiser photograph. John Sloan MemoHal Collection Gloria Z. Grugan D. V'incen{Stnifh Cottectiott Harry L. Rogers 5 GREETINGS FROM THE PRESIDENT'S DESK LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR Dear Members Dear Members This is the last issueof the Journal under the supervisionof Andrew K. Grugan who, on April 15,completes fourteen years of service to the Lycoming During my time servedas President of the Societyin 1971-72I becamein- County Historical Society and Museum, two years aspresident and twelve years terestedin working with ''the Journal.'' Since the Spring 1972Journal I have as director. enjoyed seeingthe publication present a wealth of interesting information to Under Mr. Grugan's administration the Lycoming County Museum has our members. As the various galleries in the Museum have become organized become one of the outstanding historical institutions of the country. It has been with hundreds of artifacts donated by our members I have felt an issue of the accreditedby the American Association of Museumsand hasreceived the Penn- Journal should feature these exhibits in such a way that it could be used as a sylvania Travel Award for Excellence, an award which named it one of the top casual guide to the Museum. ten travel related attractions in Pennsylvania. Now when I am about to retire as your Museum Director, I am pleasedthat Mr. Grugan has very skillfully performed the many types of work that this Journal presentsa walk through the Museum displays. It is a guide to the museum direction entails -- researching, accessioning,describing, exhibiting, many interesting collections accompanied by a simple floor plan and illustrated registering newly acquired objects, planning programs, etc. The exhibits prepared with drawings of some of the typical antiques on exhibit. We have a very fine by him have been of the highest quality, meticulously authentic and artistic. accredited museum so I hope that you will keep this issue and use it to explore The specialprograms he hasconducted for adults and children have been both and enjoy your Museummore fully. informative and delightful, his lectures spicedwith his own wry humor and I also would like to take this opportunity to thank all the memberswho charming digressions. Regularly he has guided classesof elementary school have donated their treasuredheirlooms and artifacts to the Museum,all the children, thousandsfrom Williamsport and county schools, through the people who have contributed so many fine articles to the Journal, all the Museum, giving them insight into city and county history and promoting an volunteers who have given so generously of their time - and talents and last, interest on the part of many in returning to the Museum independently. but not least,all the Societymembers and friendswho havegiven me such For six years Mrs. Gloria Grugan has been travel director and gift shop wonderful support during the past fourteen years. manager for the Society and Museum. Those who have traveled with her testify to her helpful and efficient handlingof their tour groups. Sincerely, We are grateful for the very reliable service Mr. Grugan has rendered and also for the capable help given by Mrs. Grugan. We shall miss them. Andrew K. Grugan They have our very best wishes for much happiness in retirement. Sincerely Dr. Clarence R. Mutchler President 7 6 INDIAN GALLERY FOREWORD Although the Gallery contains items scene has been reconstructed in accor- from various parts of North America, the dance with the account given in John emphasis here, as in other galleries, is on Meginness' Lycoming County, lts Local history, as a record of man's activities, includes all aspectsof life. local artifacts. ' 'Local ' ' in this particular Organization and Condensed History for The museum collections, serving to illustrate those aspects,must include section of the Museum means generally One Hundred Years. materials of great variety ... The museum does not collect antiques as such. central and eastern Pennsylvania, rather Although many of its objects are old, valuable, and esthetically interesting, their than specificallyWilliamsport or Lycom- Other outstanding pieces representing prime importance to the museum is that of historic significance, i.e. their rela- ing County. local Indian culture include a fine large stone mortar and pestle and a stone pipe, tionship to the human history of the county. Materials typical of everyday life its bowl carved in the likenessof a wolf. are more desirable than those of exceptional bearing. A tin washpan, symbolic The oldest object in the Museum is the skuH of a 20-year-old Indian; this piece, of a life of toil, characterizingthe many, may be more significant to the museum which dates back some 10,000 years, was Of the exhibits from more distant areas, than an exceptionalpiece of furniture or a fine painting, relating to a select found along the Susquehanna River. the Indian basketsdisplayed high on the and wealthy few. walls of the Gallery are noteworthy. The nature of the Lycoming County Historical Society Museum has not Especially noteworthy in the Gallery Thesebeautiful examplesof the basket- changedsince John W. Strawbridge111, a former staff member, wrote these are three dioramas which cover the local weaver'sart werecollected between 1 895 words in 1969 (JOURNAL, Vol. VI, No. 1). To clarify the relationship he spoke Indian period and which were made for and 1905,generally in the south-western of, betweenmuseum objects and human history, this current issueof the the Museum by James Bressler and a part of the United States,by Miss Cora JOURNAL has been planned as a catalog of the Museum's collections; it will group of volunteers from North Central Anthony. Miss Anthony, a Williamsport Chapter No. 8, Society for Pennsylvania native and a teacherin local schools. amplify identifications and explanationsin the individual exhibit areasand will, Archeology. The earliest of the three traveledextensively in the South-west;she if it achieves its purpose, make the displays more meaningful to those who view also taught for a time in an Indian school them displays depicts a village which existed near Halls Station sometime in the span in that area. The plan of the sections is generally chronological and parallels the recom- of 2000-1000 B.C. The activities shown mendedroute on the Museum map (seePP. 14-16). cultivation of corn, grinding of grain, use A final display casein the Gallery con- of round bark huts -- have beenauthen- tains objects made and used by Eskimos ticated by excavations in the area. of Alaska and northern Canada. Includ- ed are hunting and fishing gear, a A stockaded village of approximately soapstoneoil lamp, a cup shapedfrom a 1400 A.D. is represented in the second musk-ox horn. and knives of various diorama; this group of long houses stood types. Among theseitems standsa carv- in Loyalsock Township, near the ed wooden effigy, an early twentieth- ''Golden Strip '' on East Third Street, and centurygravemarker from Fairbanks;this may have beenthe town of the legendary piece may be of Athabascan Indian Madame Montour. the French-Canadian origin. woman who was captured in 1694at the age of 10 and reared by the Indians and who served as an interpreter between the Indians and the British, before the Revolution. The scenein this display also has been based on artifacts; even the cir- cular grave in which an Indian is being buried, kneesdrawn to chin, is historical- ly accurate.
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