It is said that ‘Hope springs eternal.’ And with spring just around the corner, the Clarke County Historical Society is hoping for continuing support of individuals and businesses within the community.
One way to support the Clarke County Museum would be with a $20 annual membership or $25 for a couple. Even if one could not attend the monthly meeting, on the 3rd Monday at the public library at 7:00, one would receive the agenda and the minutes of the meetings.
Currently there are 20-some memberships paid up for 2023. The Historical Society is a tax-deductible, nonprofit. Membership dues and donations can be sent to our treasurer of over 30 years, Mike Boldon, at 321 East McLane Street, Osceola.
Our new year began in January with the election of officers and board of directors. Officers are Barry Mateer, Mike Boldon, Deb Yorba, and Tawny Waske. Board members are Phyllis Paul, Gary Blakely, and Mary DeLong.
One project down, others up for consideration
In 2021, Revelton Distillery sponsored a Fund-raising Challenge for the Historical Society. We would like to thank the 31 households and 30 local businesses who donated. Those donations not only covered our 2022 operating expenses of just over $5,000, but also allowed us to use the additional $4,000 to keep the 1880′s Knox #8 school house better protected from the elements.
The restoration’s most time-consuming aspect was the five windows. Each window has eight panes of glass. Due to years of wind, weather and temperature changes, the second and third applications of caulking around each window pane were in danger of not being sufficient. Local contractor, Ivan Rodriquez, and his crew tackled the task of removing the old caulking, cleaning each pane of glass and applying new caulking. In the process, nearly half of the panes had to be replaced.
As for the painting, due to the age and condition, the building was hand-scrapped and painted. The paint was donated by Diamond Vogel Paint of Orange City, Iowa through its Paint Iowa Beautiful initiative.
Watching the crew work on the school house on two and three sides at a time, one could almost imagine the workers were Knox Township #8 school district directors and parents of 100 years ago. Until 1958 when Clarke Community School District came into being, each country school was an independent school district which levied local taxes, hired the teacher, and made decisions about the upkeep of the school building and grounds. Over several generations, Knox #8 would have provided many services to that community, perhaps even being the location of a local Sunday School group, summer Bible School or a polling place for elections.
“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax— Of cabbages—and kings— And why the sea is boiling hot— And whether pigs have wings.”
Shoes and ships and sealing-wax may well be found in our museum, but what most assuredly has been missing since it was built in 1982 is any system of heating or cool in the 5,832 sq. ft. Morton building. Over the last 40 years, there have been attempts to modify the humidity within the museum. Though now, buying a new or another kind of stand-alone dehumidifier is no longer a reasonable or responsible solution.
Early in 2022, 40 years after the museum building was erected, our membership voted to explore various options for a heating-cooling system with the addition of an air purifying component. We met with three contractors, received their bids, and selected a bid from Air Solutions.
At the end of this month, the Clarke County Historical Society will be submitting a proposal to the Clarke County Development Corporation in which we request funding for the installation of heating - cooling and air purification.
We are in the continuing process of seeking out and writing proposals for additional grants for much needed preservation of other major elements of the Clarke County Museum, including the stained-glass windows from the old Methodist Church, the 1855 George Harlan log cabin donated by Joe and Beulah Pollard, and the Civil War Memorabilia collection of Tobias Teller.
Each of these, and others, will be highlighted in future write-ups for the Osceola Sentinel-Tribune.