Distinctive Museums 5: The Pennsylvania House Museum

The Pennsylvania House Museum in Springfield, Ohio (http://www.pennsylvaniahousemuseum.info/) offers tours worth taking! Sponsored for many years by the Daughters of the American Revolution, the rambling building, now a museum but once an inn, is filled with antiques representing stories from the past. When my dear friend and co-author Eleanor Y. Stewart and I visited, we were joined by several other visitors, forming a large group ably led by a docent with a talent for voicing those stories. Our tour guide highlighted two or three items in each room. Eleanor and I found her narratives fascinating. Our visit was long but did not feel long; in fact, Eleanor and I wish that we could have learned about dozens of items in every room!

The Pennsylvania House Museum in Springfield, Ohio

The structure was begun in the early 1800s with wings added through the 1850s. When he was a lad, Dr. Isaac K. Funk, a co-founder of the Funk & Wagnalls dictionary, lived in the Pennsylvania House, which his father ran as manager. Carefully researched colors of paint, architectural features throughout the museum, and original floor boards on the third floor transport visitors back to the first decades of the nineteenth century.

Once an Inn on the National Road, the Rambling Pennsylvania House

Agricultural tools, such as grain reaping sickles, exemplify the days when livestock drovers stopped at the inn, which stood at the Springfield terminus of the National Road before the highway eventually pushed on westward. Various goods symbolize the general store that once occupied part of the inn. Cooking utensils epitomize the food preparation for the many guests of the inn’s first decades. From crystal to coverlets, from silver to sewing, from dressers to dolls, the Pennsylvania House archives more intriguing items than eyes can take in while walking from room to room. Artifacts testify to the genius of our ancestors.

Building and Grounds Donated to D.A.R. in 1939

An unanticipated bonus of the tour is the room devoted to a huge collection of buttons. Prior to our visit to the Pennsylvania House, had anyone asked me if I cared to see a button collection, I would have politely declined, but the buttons are so wonderfully displayed and so amazingly diverse that they capture everyone’s fullest attention. Buttons from a wedding dress contained miniature tintype portraits of the wedding party. Asian buttons presented entire scenes painted with consummate talent.

The Pennsylvania House on National Register of Historic Places

A few items from the 1700s, countless items from the 1800s, and significant items from the 1900s speak volumes about yesteryear. If you have not toured the Pennsylvania House, be sure to put it at the top of your “to do” list.

Eleanor Y. Stewart Outside the Pennsylvania House Museum

Coffee Shops 1

Why do speakers complete sentences that begin with the words “it goes without saying”? If I may indulge in the same contradiction, I propose that, needless to say, not all coffee shops are alike. In this series of blogs, I will tell why six shops are my favorites, but I hasten to add that I love many more than six.

Lattes to Go at Java Johnny's in Middletown, Ohio

Java Johnny’s in Middletown, Ohio, heads my roster. In the copper ceiling ambience, my dear friend and co-author Eleanor Y. Stewart and I composed significant segments of the plot of our highly reviewed middle grade novel Maggie Quick. Eleanor and I walk five miles every other day, except when temperatures sink below 45 degrees Fahrenheit. When we are rained out, we often retire to Java Johnny’s for low-fat lattes. Sometimes, we add whipped cream to balance the low-fat milk. Our lattes are consistently delicious!

While gathering my thoughts about coffee shops, I asked myself if the flavor of the coffee is the sole criterion for determining my favorites, and I decided that a host of intangibles contributes to the experience. Here are a few in no particular order.

A steady stream of patrons keeps the door hinges from rusting. Does Java Johnny’s have plenty of customers? Yes, and the shop is large enough to handle constant orders without becoming crowded! We can check this item on our list.

The feeling stirred by the coffee and the surroundings is the same comfort inspired by slippers. Check! From the aroma of freshly brewed java, through the nicely spaced tables, to the pleasantly decorated copper of the ceiling, the shop wraps customers in contentment.

The baristas are friendly and knowledgeable. Check again! Whenever I enter the shop, I have complete confidence that everything will be up to the highest standard, thanks to the baristas. Never an obligation, leaving a tip is always an accolade.

Yes, Eleanor and I worked on our novel while sipping lattes. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience of writing Maggie Quick, set in an Irish–American town and featuring a girl guided by three women to discover who she is, so that she can rescue her village from evil forces before it is too late. Both Eleanor and I have Irish ancestors. Three fourths of my genetic characteristics are expressions of the British Isles, and Irish culture constantly leeched to the surface of my hometown. Eleanor and I relied on our background and experiences in forming our novel for middle grade readers. We wrote much of the dialog while walking, jotting it down after returning to Eleanor’s home. At Java Johnny’s, we tried out various trajectories that our plot might take. Without the shop, would Maggie Quick have been the same? Probably not!

So, Java Johnny’s, please accept our thanks! We will soon be back for lattes!              

Remarkable Markers 6 (Last Installment in This Series)

My dear friend Eleanor Y. Stewart—with whom I have authored several books—and I believed we were lost while looking for the cemetery in Troy, Ohio, so we stopped to ask directions from a man mowing a small graveyard near a church. Happily, he told us we were only a short drive from our destination. He added, “Find the blue ‘stones’ and knock on them.” We were mystified, but that is all he would say. We easily found Riverside Cemetery and began to stroll around, admiring the monuments. After a time, we noticed a large marker with a bluish tint. We knocked, and, much to our surprise, we heard a ringing reverberation. The marker was hollow and made of metal! 

A Hollow Zinc Marker in Riverside Cemetery, Troy, Ohio

According to the website of the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute, “Beginning in the 1870s, inexpensive monuments in American cemeteries began to be made of zinc. … The Monumental Bronze Company in Bridgeport (CT) and subsidiaries in the U.S. and Canada produced the most commonly found items using a unique methodology that included a sandblasted finish to imitate the mat appearance of stone. Marketed as superior to stone in terms of durability, their products were referred to as ‘white bronze.’ They included thousands of markers …, custom-made effigies of the dead, off-the-shelf statues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and enormous Civil War memorials crowned by statues of soldiers … .”

A website at gombessa.tripod.com says, “The Monumental Bronze Company produced these monuments for just forty years from 1874 to 1914. … Subsidiaries were eventually opened in Detroit, Chicago, Des Moines, Philadelphia, St. Thomas, … and perhaps New Orleans. The subsidiaries did final assembly work. Most, if not all, of the original casting was done in Bridgeport, Connecticut.”

A blog (Click on “blog.”) entitled “A Grave Interest” gives a detailed and informative description of the unusual blue markers and features many illustrations, including a photo of a marker identical to the one in Troy, except for the panels under the monument’s arches, which could be customized. (I want to thank Joy, the blogger!) Apparently, the blue tint is a product of aging. The marker in Riverside Cemetery is quite blue!

Eleanor and I agreed that zinc markers should make a comeback!

 

Remarkable Markers 5

In 1823, John Howard Payne, an American playwright and actor, penned the memorable lyrics to a song entitled “Home! Sweet Home!” The last line is “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.” The same sentiment concludes the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. The concept of home as a symbol of family, with all that the word family implies of love and security, is so compelling as to have figured prominently in literature over the ages. The symbolism of the house as a home is expressed in stone in Urbana, Ohio’s Oak Dale Cemetery.

Ramsey Family Marker in Oak Dale Cemetery

In Urbana, Ohio, and Author Eleanor Y. Stewart

Admiring the House with Its Intricate Details

Including the Outlines of the Bricks

There, a marker is carved to represent the Ramsey family’s house on College Street, not far from Urbana University. The architecture blends Classical, Romanesque, and Queen Anne details. Retired farmer and former landlord William R. Ramsey (1847–1926) and spouse Ella M. Ramsey (1863–1922) must have loved the house. Neither was from Urbana originally. William was born in Cadiz, Ohio, and Ella was from Belmont County, Ohio. The home on College Street must have represented the culmination of their aspirations.

Ramsey Home in Urbana, Ohio

William is named as having a shared interest in a patent for a vehicle wheel (U.S. Patent 782,001). Wheels were much on the minds of residents. Urbana hosted an enduring carriage builder, originally Warren & Gaumer and later E. B. Gaumer & Sons. After the death of William Warren in 1890, the firm passed to co-founder Edward B. Gaumer. Wheels symbolize movement, transitions, and change.

But a house symbolizes stability. The engraving on the Ramsey cemetery marker confirms that every brick remains in place, unchanged, resisting the vicissitudes of fleeting fortune.

The symbolic house is joyful in the midst of the more somber monuments. One of my first thoughts on seeing the marker was of the family happily conversing in the kitchen with aromatic bread in the oven. Other ideas of family rapidly crowded into my thinking: entertaining in the parlor, celebrating rites of passage such as graduations and weddings, and dreaming about bright futures for children and grandchildren.

The marker is unusual, but the wonder is that more families have not thought of the same way of commemorating their generational bonds. The stone is perfectly suited to its function.

Remarkable Markers 2

What if I were to tell you that, when no one is looking, invisible spirits spin a large globe made of solid rock in a cemetery? Well, that is one of the explanations for the restless sphere in Marion Cemetery!

Author Eleanor Y. Stewart and the Sphere of the Spirits

In Marion, Ohio

Yes, the granite ball honoring the family of Charles Merchant in Marion, Ohio slowly spins in an erratic pattern on its base without ever becoming scratched. Others have attempted to explain the movements of the globe; see especially http://www.graveaddiction.com/marion.html. The conclusion that spirits are at work appeals to my Irish DNA.

On an Authors’ Day Out not long after Halloween some years ago, writer (and my dear friend) Eleanor Y. Stewart and I visited the cemetery after a day of research on the topics of Huber and Leader, manufacturers of agricultural steam engines in Marion. We had toured the Marion County Historical Society’s Heritage Hall Museum with its Wyandot Popcorn Museum featuring lovely popcorn wagons and its main exhibits including Prince Imperial, a long-maned horse stuffed by the same taxidermist that stuffed Jumbo the Elephant for P. T. Barnum. A wonderful hot lunch on a cold day had been our pleasure at the Warehouse, a depot specializing in Italian fare. Eleanor and I could hardly wait to see the famous ball! It exceeded our expectations.

The late afternoon had grown so overcast and cold that Eleanor and I were the only visitors to the section of the cemetery where the Merchants’ Ball stands (and revolves). Although we were alone, we felt as if someone were watching us. Occasionally, we glanced over our shoulders to survey the stones surrounding us in the gathering gloom. Were we sensing, uhm, entities?

In her poem entitled “The Graves of the Flowers,” Hoosier poet Louisa Chitwood (1832–1855) wrote, “Upon no stone is carved the name / Of April’s children fair; / They perished when the sky was bright, / And gentle was the air. / To the soft kisses of the breeze / They held half trembling up / Full many a small transparent urn / And honey-ladened cup.” When she was only 23, Louisa died; Walt Whitman published his first edition of Leaves of Grass in the same year. Perhaps Louisa would have taken her place in the new poetry, had she lived; after all, she left a cache of a thousand poems when she died.

As the November dusk began tilting into night, Eleanor and I shivered, scurried to my car, and drove away from the cemetery with its urns and cups and invisible hands reaching toward a cold globe.