October 2009

2. The chicken house roof is completed. Cedar shingles were installed. Thanks to Lincoln Mason from the Mason-Lindhart Funeral Home for buying the shingles for both buildings.

3. The Mill Farm House foundation at the NE corner is going to be repaired.

4. A computer and necessary software will be purchased to compile and record many of the records necessary for us to function more efficiently and effectively.

5. A metal door will be installed in the Indian room to achieve increased security.

6. The gutters on the house need to be cleaned and some windows need to be caulked.

Our income for September was $8,916 (for the Fall Fling, interest income, and donations) and our expenses were $9040 (LP gas for heat, insurance, repairs and grant expense).

News From Your Museum Director:

I was pulling my winter vest out of the closet this morning when the thought hit me that this cold and rainy weather may have been a big factor in why we usually close our museum on the last day of September. I can’t believe how lucky we
were to have the very last beautiful and warm day of the season be the Sunday
we held our Fall Fling.

Speaking of our Fall Fling – what a wonderful and successful event it was. The weather was great, albeit a tad windy. The horses, sheep, llamas and puppies drew an appreciative crowd. The antique quilts on display in the Hardy Church looked beautiful in the golden light of the main church. Donna Day stood in her garden talking with the people strolling through. There were all kinds of pies on sale in front of the Clancy Building thanks to the many members who were kind enough to donate them. Inside the Clancy the military and research rooms were open for people to filter through. The Humboldt Knitters had a great day, a fact proven by the number of children walking around with knitted caps on their heads. Carolyn Logan wove on our new loom, talking about the process with interested spectators. Big Horn was a hit as usual, especially with the boys, the Beekeeper looked high tech in her white coveralls and head gear. The basket man had several baskets that caught my eye; the carpenter had folks waiting in line to bore holes in lumber and the newly cleaned and oiled tools showed off our Red Barn to its best advantage. The Boy Scouts were grinding up apples for their cider at a fast pace, under the watchful eye of Frances Williams. The Girl Scouts, dressed in calico prairie dresses, had folks waiting three deep around their table for a taste of their freshly churned butter. Sounds of country music floated through the air and as folks walked through our museum you could hear them exclaim how they “never knew” we had so many things to see. It WAS a great day.

Questionnaire: Don’t forget to give us your thoughts on Carolyn Logan’s 5 year plan (included in last month’s newsletter). Letters, emails, phone calls or just dropping by the museum are all good ways to let us know your views on what direction our museum should be heading in the future.

In other news: We will continue to store textiles. We will continue to improve our gift shop, next season look for museum shirts and hats, cards and Gotch items. We will continue to clean and improve our displays

Happenings

We held a brown bag luncheon for the U.C.C. Fellowship on Thursday, October 1. The ladies brought a brown bag lunch and ate in the house while I showed them our collection of baby clothing.

Red Hats of Ft. Dodge took a tour of our house on Friday, 10/2 and promised to come back to tour the rest of the museum.

St. Mary’s second graders postponed their tour due to bad weather.

10/9 Wedding at the Hardy Church

10/17 Iowa Girl Scouts Victorian Tea for 25 girls from all across Iowa. I sure could use some help this day because there are enough girls to run two sessions. Call me if you can help.

Ongoing Quilt Classes by Jeanne Raine in the Hardy Church Basement

11/18 Democratic Women Program

12/7 Member’s Only Christmas Open House 7:30

12/13 Public Christmas Open House $3 each

--Connie Overby

Update on our Telephone Book Collection

Our Historical Museum has a marvelous collection of Humboldt telephone books, starting with one that came out before 1905. We are happy to report that donors have given us telephone books from 1916, 1920, 1925, 1931, and 1932. Our next one is 1946.

These directories are a fountain of information about who lived here and when, and are especially helpful to those who are researching downtown businesses or families.

We are looking for missing telephone books to fill in where there re none. If you happen to hav any of the following Humboldt telephone directories, please consider sharing them with us.

Any telephone books before 1946, and 1947, 1948, 1951, 1953, 1955, 1958, 1959, 1964, 1991, 1992, 19952, 1996, 1999 and 2000.

Thank you, Pat Baker

More Items of Interest from the Accession Committee

A few more of the 10,900 items that have been accessioned and catalogued in our museum collection.

· Two scrapbooks of Francis Toner’s column written for the Humboldt Republican newspaper, 1864, given by Mary Ann Toner.

· Photograph of the teacher and students at the Corinth Township country school south of Humboldt in 1892, given by Therese Reed Haines.

· WW II Ration Books for sugar, gas, fuel oil, tires, and mileage rationing. Also the leather holder for ration books and ration tokens, given by Nellie Schnoor estate.

· Papoose doll in back cradle with buckskin suede and beadwork. It belonged to Margaret Schultz and was given by Dr. Ivan Schultz.

· Underwood typewriter with 14 ½ carriage, first patent 1900, used by John Meyers, Blacksmith near Pioneer. Given by Kenneth Summers.

· Set of three spiders (frying pans) 9”, 10” and 11”, used by his grandmother in a restaurant, and given by Darlow Rapple.

· Pressure canner with gauge and handle and an enameled kettle given by Shirley Mitchell.

· Scrapbook of postcards and greeting cards (about 1910) which belonged to Nellie Pinney who was the Humboldt Public Librarian from 1912-1963.

· WW II WAVE uniform, dark navy blue skirt and jacket worn by Madalyn Swearingen and donated by her.

· Framed black and white photograph of Fred Hawkins Blacksmith Shop located at the northwest corner of Sumner Avenue and 3^rd Street, Humbodlt, given by Marilyn Dodgen.

These items and many more can be seen at our Humboldt County Historical Museum.
--Bill Verbrugge

Historically Speaking

The Humboldt Republican

Friday February 21, 1936

Mrs. Margaret Sweeney of Livermore enjoyed her 77th birthday quietly at her home in Livermore this week with her family. She has been a resident of Humboldt county over the long period of 72 years, having moved with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Murphy, from Dubuque county when five years old. The family settled on a farm near Dakota City, and Mrs. Sweeney was one of five children. She vividly remembers the hardships of former days.

One interesting incident was the loss of one of their mules, leaving only one with which to do the farm work. It was deemed the advisable thing to trade the remaining one for a team of oxen, which was done, and that season as well as ones that followed, acres were cultivated and crops raised successfully with the help of the faithful oxen.

When asked if she could remember candle lighting days, Mrs. Sweeney heartily laughed, saying, "It was pretty swell when we could have candles. Their lighting system in the early pioneering days, that she remembers as a child, was by the use of a piece of twisted cloth in a circular position, dipped in either lard or tallow, placed in a saucer and lighted. When the candle came "it was simply swell".

But, when finally the kerosene lamp made its appearance with its illuminating rays, it was too much for the father of this lady, and she told of how he protested when this dangerous thing was brought in to the home. The more modern wife was determined to be up-to-date, and insisted on lighting the lamp, and when Mr. Murphy saw that his wife was determined to indulge in this dangerous procedure, he politely stepped into the yard, with the following announcement, "All right, if you want to get blowed up, go ahead, but I'm taking no chances."

The following year high waters came, and lasted for so long that provisions were very low, and in view of the fact that they had to be brought form Fort Dodge, it was slow delivery.

Finally the cupboard stock was reduced to only rice, and this long time resident of Humboldt county well remembers the two-day period when the family of seven had nothing to eat except a small amount of rice.

As the years passed, Margaret Murphy was married to Owen J. Sweeney and they continued their residence in the county, first living near Humboldt, but moved to the Livermore vicinity about 25 years ago.

Thank goodness for electricity, better roads, and grocery stores!!

--Martha Schmidt