Abundance of local history found at museum’s opening day
Jars.
Rows and rows and rows of glass jars.
This season, the Greene County Historical Society proudly presents the glass jar and bottle collection that belonged to the late Dorothy Rush Clark of Khedive.
Clark, a dairy farmer and lifelong bottle collector, amassed hundreds of antique bottles and jars during her lifetime.
Among her impressive array of glass jars and bottles is a perfume bottle from Lows Prize Medal Perfumes of London and New York, pricey antiques and various canning jars from the 1800s through the 1980s.
“There’s a lot of (jars),” laughed Eben Williams, executive director and administrator of the Greene County Historical Society museum. “People said it was cool. Some of the people came out just to see it. Just the amount of glass jars – people were fascinated by it.”
The display is on loan from Clark’s sons Brice and Bruce Rush, and was unveiled at the Greene County Historical Society’s opening day.
The jar collection is part of the museum’s summer theme, Food and Food Reduction.
The museum’s summer season kicked off Saturday, April 27, when a large crowd flocked to the society’s grounds for breakfast and a living history.
“It was pretty successful – over 100 people came out, which is pretty impressive for a Saturday,” said Williams.
Festivities began at 8 a.m. with an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast: for $6 ($3 for children under 12), attendees were encouraged to gorge themselves on syrup-drenched buttermilk, buckwheat and corn flapjacks chased down with a cup or two of coffee.
In previous years, a keynote speaker lectured after the breakfast.
This year, happy breakfasters toured the museum, admiring the museum’s general store re-creation and “oohing” at the 100-year-old pickle in the kitchen.
The local reenacting group, the 140 Pennsylvania Volunteers, Company A, entertained museum-goers with a living history reenactment.
The company’s annual boot camp was held Friday evening into Saturday morning, and reenactors spent the night on the Historical Society’s grounds.
In the morning, they play-acted life as Union soldiers for enthralled onlookers.
“Doug Wilson did a talk asking for people to donate things to help the soldiers,” said Williams.
Wilson said that spending the weekend with like-minded individuals and training in the same manner as soldiers trained in the 1860s was the best part of the weekend.
“I addressed the board of the Greene County Historical Society as though I were a soldier serving in 1863 and thanked them for allowing us the use of the county’s poor farm – which is now the Historical Society’s Museum – for use as a staging ground for recruitment purposes,” said Wilson.
Williams said that the living history reenactment was a popular stop for those in attendance at the museum’s opening day.
After a morning spent reliving and remembering the county’s past, a public meeting was held inside the museum to generate interest and solicit new members.
At the 1 p.m. meeting, new board members were approved and event plans for the coming year were brainstormed.
The society has already solidified plans for various summer activities.
The ever-popular ice-cream social will be held June 23; before then, though, there are plenty of unique events for Greene County-area residents to attend.
The Greene County Historical Society will host the Kelly Miller Circus Tues., May 28; admission information can be obtained by calling the society at 724-627-3204.
The circus will perform twice: a matinee will begin at 4:30 p.m., and the evening show will start promptly at 7:30 p.m.
The annual Garden Party will take place June 9; admission is $15, and includes informational gardening sessions, live entertainment and the Doll and Dollhouse show.
The many other summer events can be found on the society’s website.
The Greene County Historical Society museum is open Tuesday through Saturday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and on Sunday by appointment.
Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and children ages 6-12.