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Welcome new members DeVaughn Williams, David and Bonnie Bentz and Ralph Harnishfeger!
Here are our upcoming events for the rest of the year. Mark your calendars:
-- Oct. 7: Spaghetti dinner takeout fundraiser at the Sons and Daughters of Italy, 5-7 p.m. Tickets, $10, are available from board members and at the Heisey Museum.
-- Oct. 11: Roadside Research: America 250 Edition by Joby Topper from 2-4 p.m. at the Poorman Gallery.
-- Nov. 22: Billy Raymond Readers Theater
-- Dec. 13: Holiday Open House
From the Collection
By Kathy Arndt
Prime Researcher
Last month's column about Lock Haven schools involved a lot of research so I chose an easier topic for this month: the Heisey House collection and its stories. We begin our tour just inside the entrance with a very large, decorative timeclock used by the "office girls" at the New York and Penn Paper Mill/Hammermill plant. We still haven't figured out how it worked so any help would be appreciated.
Next, we enter the east parlor that originally was two rooms when the house was a boarding house owned by Captain Henderson and run by the Devling family during the 1830s and 1840s. There are several stories we tell in this room. There's one about the large Victorian-like object framed on the wall; and the story about a black man, William "Billy" Raymond who, by joining the local Ambulance Corps as a cook (although he's wearing a uniform in the regimental photo, not a cook's apron), became one of the first to integrate the US Army during WWI. We tell the story of his army experiences, his involvement in a famous Broadway play and the contributions he made to life in Lock Haven after he returned to the city when the Depression hit.
We tell of Jerry Church, the acknowledged founder of Lock Haven, and his connection to the house, his treehouses and his violin. We also have a Presidents' corner featuring an early President's bedside table, a photo of the funeral train of President McKinley that stopped in Lock Haven and how it was honored by the students of the First Ward School (now Robb School), and a recently discovered postcard bearing the signature of another well-known President. As we walk down the hallway to the dining room, we pass some more documents signed by well-known political figures.
In the dining room, we often introduce our guests to the paintings of Annie Snyder, her history, and her interesting sales techniques. We have a large collection of the Salona native's paintings donated by the Shadle family, Bobby Maguire and others. Now we enter the small kitchen with a table set as it might have been in the house's boarding house days. In this room, we relate stories about Fort Reed and the Great Runaway, flax, tobacco, trolleys and the connection of an egg crate (not the original egg crate) to Mad Magazine. In the summer kitchen, added to the house in the 1850s, we relate the stories of the whiskey bottle found inside the chimney, dairy farms and shoe repairmen.
Now we head into the west parlor where we have an early painting of E. Water Street, a wagon dating back to before the Civil War, a conch shell demonstrating how the canal men signaled their arrival at a lock and a flag made by the great-granddaughter of a more famous flag maker.
We then head to the second floor where there are several photos of the canal and the Jay Street covered bridge. We have a few stories about these early landmarks. The tour may include a look into our research room/library and our collection room. We then head to the adult bedroom with Billy Raymond's Lincoln bed, some fans as well as a paper describing the language of the fans. The children's bedroom features a rope bed, a type of bed that may have inspired a well-known bedtime saying. The bedroom also includes toys, clothing, shoes and a large doll house. On the wall are Pennsylvania Dutch frakturs commemorating births, deaths and weddings.
In the hallway are our cabinets holding our gun and sword collection. Here you will hear the stories of how the gun stock on a gun was broken, the existence of a spy gun and the connection of a Japanese sword to the building of WWII submarines in Wisconsin. Our last room on the tour is the upstairs bathroom. In this room is a claw foot tub and examples of shaving equipment and water pitchers and basins that may have been found in a boarding house room.
Bonnie Gradel, Elaine Miller and I often conduct the tours. We each have our own favorite items in the collection and our stories we share. Tours are free but donations are always welcomed. The museum is usually open every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. but will be closed from mid-December to the end of January. If you are interested in the history of the area, please come to take a tour, hear our stories and share your stories with us.