(exhilarating music) - Hello, and welcome to The Journal.

I'm Steve Kendall.

The museum of Fulton County opened its new facility in 2018.

It features space for three exhibits, a permanent one that traces Fulton county's history from its prehistory all through the 1950s, and then also space for two special exhibits which we'll be talking about during the show.

Joining us, to talk about the museum and the Fulton County Historical Society is John Swearingen, the director of the Fulton County Historical Society.

John, welcome to The Journal and thanks for taking the time today to talk with us.

- And thank you for allowing us to see you (indistinct).

- Now let's, let's talk a little bit about the Fulton County Historical Society because that's sort of the base organization that the museum is part of.

Is that correct?

- Yes.

We started in 1883.

It was called the Pioneer Association of Fulton County.

And you had to be living in the county in 1850 when we officially became a county in order to be in this group.

So, of course, as everyone died out it turned into a county historical society.

So, we're proud that we've stuck it out for this many years and in preserving local history.

- Yeah.

Well, that has to make you would think, at least if not the longest, one of the longest ongoing historical societies in the state of Ohio, for sure.

- Our founder, Dresden Howard, also helped found the Monument Society in the Maumee Valley and what is now the Walcott House and the Maumee Valley Heritage- or Historical Society.

- Okay.

Now I mentioned in the introduction that you have opened a new facility, but talk about the historical society and how it's evolved in terms of preserving the history of Fulton County and how that sort of evolved to the point where now you're in this new facility.

- Yes, we started in 1886 in a log cabin that the children of the original pioneers built at our fairgrounds which is now here across the road from where we are and that fell apart, I think, around the 1900s, wasn't constructed the best, and in 1950- or '62, We moved our collection from the courthouse which had been stored in the attic and anywhere they could find places to put things over to our last museum, which is still in our name, it's now called the History Manor of Fulton County.

And it has quite a long history as being the first Wauseon High School, the first county hospital and then an apartment building for people during the Depression that didn't have money.

So that was a place for them to live.

- Yeah, that was the Detwiler Hospital if I recall, is that correct?

Is that right?

- It was the predecessor of the Detwiler.

Yes.

- Okay.

All right.

- Yup.

- Yeah.

Now let's talk a little bit about how the new facility came about and what the impetus was for that.

So what was the idea to move to this new facility?

How did that sort of take place?

- Well, when I started in 2009, that was one of my first jobs, was to help the society find a new home.

We wanted to get into a larger facility.

And if possible, out of the city of Wauseon proper, because, people were thinking it was a Wauseon historical society and it's actually the whole county's history is covered in our collections.

So, we met with different people and at one time looked at an old school house that was being near torn down.

And then we got involved with the county commissioners and ended up in a spot where they were needing to build an emergency operations center.

The state highway had contacted them about building a new garage and we wanted to start a new visitor's bureau and our new facility.

So all these things just came together.

We had a grant from the state house in Columbus, a capital improvement grant, and then we raised three quarters of a million dollars for what you're seeing behind me here.

- Now, how many people, and I know that number probably varies from time to time, but you obviously have membership in this historical society.

What is that number roughly do to support something as as longterm as you've had there?

- Well, that's a question for Scott, he's our auditor.

I'm not exactly sure, but membership has gone up since we've moved to this building, because now you're not just a traditional historical society member.

You're now a museum member.

And so you're, you get more perks with the gift shop discounts and event discounts and you can come three times a year and see different exhibits every time where I couldn't do that in my old location.

- Ah.

Now, we talked about the fact you have the ongoing part of the museum which really details the history from before we even talk about history, because it talks about prehistory all the way up through the fifties.

That's the permanent part of the exhibition.

What are a few of the things that people will see as part of that, that sort of permanent display that you have for that?

- Well, we have the story of our mastodon that was found in Fulton County and you can see part of his skull over here, a reproduction of it, and the mound builders.

I didn't realize when I was a child that we had mound builders here in Northwest Ohio.

We have a display of their artifacts, Native American- It's amazing, we have a beautiful knife sheath made out of porcupine quills.

It's original to Fulton County, it just goes on: the War of 1812, a rifle that was actually down in Louisiana during the battle.

And just keeps going through time.

Our original members were in the Civil War.

So when they died, we got all their Civil War artifacts, so it just goes all the way to the 1960s in our collection.

I'm very specific on local only, this isn't a Smithsonian Institute.

- Yeah.

Well, and I guess the nice thing about your new facility is you do have the space and the proper way to be able to display all that in its best possible use.

And so that people can enjoy and learn from all of that.

So that's a great advantage in the new facility, I'm sure.

- And I love having two huge spaces to do temporary shows.

So we change it three times a year.

We had a quilt show last year, and now we have the women's change exhibit: talks about the hundred years before suffrage that were going on here and our exhibit on Winameg, which before that was Marjorie Whiteman's story, and she was very influential in the United Nations.

So it's great that we can constantly have new things for people to see.

- Well, when we come back let's talk a little bit more in detail about the two current exhibits you have that are those, the ones that will change out over time, especially the Winameg which I thought was an interesting way to set that up.

The who, what, why of Winnipeg, Ohio, kind of, which is a name that some people might be familiar with, but probably not as many as as the folks in Fulton County are, so, back in just a moment with John Swearingen from the Fulton County Historical Society and the Museum of Fulton County here on The Journal.

Thank you for staying with us here on The Journal.

We're talking about the Fulton County Historical Society and also the Museum of Fulton County in their new location.

Our guest is John Swearingen, the director of the Fulton County Historical Society.

John, we want to talk about the two current exhibits you have that are the ones that change out over time.

But, talk a little about what's in the background because it's kind of a unique display that's behind you in there.

So what is that, that we're looking at behind you there at the museum?

- Well, the biggest attraction and Winameg is the Howard Home which they called Maple Row and we recreated it here behind me, the big pillars on the front of the house.

So if you drive through Winameg, you'll see the house, and this is a maple tree that we recreated behind me here.

And then we turned it into the Howard family tree.

So on the tree, you'll see the whole, all the generations from New York state that came here all the way up to the present.

- Okay.

Now, and it looks like at least from one perspective obviously there's some big pillars on that house.

Was it his intention to make it look like the White House or is that just a coincidence?

- It's his little Greek temple.

- Okay.

(John chuckling) - So he was doing okay at that point in time, obviously when he built that house.

Talk a little bit about the the Winameg exhibition, because- and that display because as I say, it's not- it's obviously an Indian name but it's not a name that a lot of people are familiar with.

And if I went to find Winameg in Fulton County what would be the general location for it?

If I wanted to drive by the Howard mansion and just see what it looks like, how would I find it in Fulton County?

- Well, it's a half road, 10-2 is the number.

And it actually is an old Indian trail and stagecoach trail that ran through the area before the natives were there, way before European settlers.

And so the town grew around the native village.

The last group left in 1839 (indistinct)- - So the history of Winameg- - Named after chief Winameg.

- Ah, okay.

So it goes back then quite a ways beyond almost any other settlements in Fulton County then, or basically predates all of the activity in Fulton County from a European perspective in essence.

- Right.

Pottawatomie were the last group there but the mound builders were Hopewell-ish, I would say, they're not- they're from the Hopewell period but we're not sure exactly all the details in their life, their skeletons have never been examined and their objects.

- Yeah.

So they're actually, and I guess this is probably new to a lot of people.

So there actually is some history of of mound building there or the mound builders in Fulton County.

- And it's funny because this situation, these mounds are very low and it's a one-time event that happened.

So we're thinking it was either: they were annihilated by another group of natives or something similar to COVID where it killed a lot of the people and everyone that was left behind had to bury them, because they're buried with altars and all their worldly possessions are buried with them and even their pets.

- Wow.

So it is quite a historical site then, and quite a historical location.

What was the driving force to make Winameg one of these special exhibitions at the current time?

- It's a part of the County that we've never been able to give attention to, the big cities and villages tend to get all the play.

And even this last fall, we had our ghost tours out in Winameg and people got to hear part of the history of the village.

And so next year we're going back for the rest of the story because we couldn't get it all done in a hour-and-a-half tour.

- Yeah.

Not bad.

Now, the, the other exhibits you currently have, again one of the floating exhibits, I guess what you'd call it would be women working for changes.

And I think you touched on that a little bit in the earlier segment, but talk about that exhibit and what people will see that reflects again that history regarding Fulton County.

- Yes.

It's very important to me that we stay on current topics and go back in time to history.

So we think last year was the anniversary of suffrage.

And so we wanted to show ten periods of time before that, and what women in Fulton County were doing.

We picked nontraditional roles, things besides home keeping.

There's a teacher in 1830 and an African-American former slave who became a nanny.

It just goes on through time.

And that was fun because it's all historic clothing.

We borrowed some from the Walcott house and I had to make heads and hair for all these ladies out of paper and plastic and quite a change in hair styles from year to year.

- Yeah.

And yeah, just that alone is a is a cultural, historical tracker, just the way styles change and hairstyles and clothing and things of that besides the the actual cultural events that they were were involved in too.

And you mentioned something interesting because you talked about current topic and take it back to and trace its history up to current times.

And that's a pretty unique and different approach, I think in some ways.

So that's something that people will experience when they come to some of the museum as well.

- Yes.

Last year's topic was Margaret Whiteman and the United Nations and the whole Declaration of Human Rights was about all the problems we're having now.

And if people would just pay attention to what was done in 1947, we'd be better off.

- Yeah.

And so, yeah, a refresher on that would bring us back to, yeah, the ideas that would work now.

It's like we've sort of forgotten that, I guess in some ways.

So that's an opportunity for people to say they were talking about this in 1947, here we are, we're still not able to implement it the way we'd like, or basically live that way.

So that's interesting.

- Yeah, they talked about the ability to be married, would fall under the gay marriage issue.

We had- they had issue of women being equal.

They had to rewrite everything because the women that were on the committee wanted to change so the wording was not "he, he, he," and then talking about racial issues and everyone's equal in that respect.

So, it was really a very thought-provoking exhibit.

- Yes, it is, yeah, it sounds like it.

Now, as you rotate through, what are some of the other things that- have you thought about where you're going to go with future exhibits at this point or not?

- Yes.

We had a fun circus exhibit because we actually had a circus producer, here in Fulton County and that was fun.

And we want to tell the story of the Fulton County Fair because it's very popular and people from all over Northwest Ohio come to our fair every year.

And we thought that would be good to tell the story of that.

And then we just keep going through our collection and as new things come that are donated we try to create an exhibit around that.

So, you never know.

- Okay.

Well, when we come back, we'll talk more about the Museum of Fulton County and the Fulton County Historical Society, here on The Journal on WBGU-PBS- back in just a moment.

You're with us here on the journal on WBGU-PBS.

And we're talking about the Fulton County Historical Society and also the Museum of Fulton County.

They've moved to a new location in 2018.

And our guest is John Swearingen, the director of the Fulton County Historical Society.

And John, I know that like a lot of places that are set up for people to come through and walk through and enjoy and discuss, how have you guys been able to manage this in the midst of this pandemic where you want everybody to be able to take advantage of all these wonderful things you have on display and the programming and things like that.

So, how have you guys managed dealing with that as we kind of face this sort of unprecedented way of not having people just walk through the museum as they normally would?

- Yes.

We definitely had to change the flow in our museums so that it was a one-way direction and we don't have a huge influx of people at one time.

So, it's nice: a whole group of car, whoever came with you can all go through the museum together safely.

And then we sneak in after you've left and clean everything that you might have touched in the gallery, but that's the biggest change here.

We had to take all the hands-on activities away, for the children.

- Sure.

Yeah.

And that that's unfortunate, but it is necessary in the circumstances that we have right now, and I'm sure that it's a little frustrating for the folks at the museum because you've got all these wonderful things, you want people to take full advantage of them and you just have to manage it a little differently because of that, so that everybody stays safe.

And then for the time, when things get back to normal, they can see everything you have there.

Now I notice you're standing in front of a display that looks like it has some automobile connection to it.

So just talk a little bit about that because there's somebody very famous from Fulton County tied directly to the auto industry and auto racing.

- Yes.

Older generation know him better, his name was Barney Oldfield and he was, I think he was the first man to break the 50-mile-an-hour speed limit.

He won races originally in bicycles and then automobiles.

He had his own theatrical show on Broadway with his partner.

They had an actual race car onstage with a treadmill racing two cars against each other.

And then he moved to California and took his parents with.

So I created a video where we have mom and dad talking about his life and how they experienced being with him all the way along and at the end of his life in California.

So it's kind of a neat- we own some objects of his also, and the baby cradle that he was born in.

- That's quite a story because you mentioned the fact he was the first man to break the 50-mile-an-hour barrier which to us now is just normal driving, but back then, that was an extremely high rate of speed, especially given the quality of the equipment and the road surface he was probably trying to drive on too.

So, yeah, quite a story there, are there other people from Fulton County that you have thought about highlighting or you have in the past that people would be maybe somewhat familiar with the names of- are there other celebrities like that?

- Rick Volk was a famous ballplayer, and Marjorie Whiteman you don't know about that much, but she was very influential and our Greatest Showman exhibit was on a local man, and he was involved in every circus from the early days when Barnum and Bailey were still separated and all the way up to the end of the era.

So, some are more known than others.

Chief Winameg is probably not on everyone's radar.

- Sure, sure.

But still, but obviously a significant part of the history of Fulton County.

You mentioned too, that, you know the fairgrounds and, for people that don't know, the museum's located on State Route 108, is that correct?

1-0-8?

Isn't that the location?

- Yes.

Yeah.

- We're eight Ohio 108, that's how I even remember it.

- And you're generally in the general vicinity of the fairgrounds in Fulton County, correct?

Like across the road or- - Yes, right across from the horse show arena.

- Ah, okay.

Yeah.

So easy to get to, easy to find, good location.

Yeah.

Easy, easy place to get to.

When you talk about, you know, the history of Fulton County, obviously an agricultural county, rural for the most part, is that a significant part to, or has been at times part of the exhibits there, the agricultural part of the development of the county?

- Yes.

Especially our Swanton story of Abner Baker and the piston he designed, or a valve gear he designed, for locomotives which gave him money to start a threshing machine business.

A lot of what you see in Fulton County is an offshoot from agriculture in one way or another.

An invention made for farmers or related to that.

It's an amazing story of how we've gone from just being pioneers to being manufacturers and on into the 21st century.

- Yeah.

And I guess the nice thing about the museum is you can continue to add a history to it as things occur in Fulton County and make them available to generations of people who didn't experience them directly, but now can go back and see that sort of chronology of how things evolved and how things developed in Fulton County and what towns looked like, what the cities look like, that sort of thing as well, so, yeah, very good, very good.

John Swearinger, appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today about the Fulton County Historical Society and also the Museum of Fulton County.

We appreciate you taking the time and wish you the best out there.

And also at a time when you can have all the people you want coming through there without all of the restrictions that you currently have to balance.

So, appreciate you taking the time to talk with us.

- You're welcome.

And thank you for having us.

- Thanks.

You can check us out at wbgu.org and of course you can watch us every Thursday night at 8:00 on The Journal on WBGU-PBS.

We'll see you again next time on The Journal.