Thursday, November 15, 2007

Public's help sought with new history museum taking root in Meriden

by Clarke Davis

A small museum has opened inside the bank at Meriden dedicated to collecting and preserving the history of western Jefferson County.

The museum is located in the Denison State Bank in a room that formerly held a gun collection that belonged to the former bank owners.

“It’s actually a vault so what is given to us could not be in a safer place,” said Gary Bowen, one of the organizers.

Bowen has been joined by Jim Palmberg, Topeka, and Julie Durand, Valley Falls, in starting the museum.

It’s a work in progress, so the public is being invited to assist in providing photographs and small items of historical value to the area.

There is no formal organization. The three have simply been brought together through their mutual interest in local history and the museum is made possible through the generosity of the bank.

Bowen said he had searched a long time for a place, but it was difficult with no funds to pay rent. Bank officer Dennis Hadley offered the vault room to the society rent free and even provided a computer to store digital photo files.

“We also wanted a place that would be open every day so the public would have access to it,” Bowen said. “So many small museums are closed most of the time.”

The chosen name is “Western Jefferson County Museum,” with an emphasis on Ozawkie, Rock Creek, Fairview, and Kaw townships. They said Delaware Township history is welcome, but they know Valley Falls has its own museum.

One of the first orders of business is collecting as many photographs as possible and here they want the public’s help. They would like to be contacted by anyone who will share their photos so they can be scanned and stored in the computer.

They will bring a scanner to the museum by appointment and scan the photos while people wait. If the owner of the photographs wants to give them up, the museum will take possession of them.

They also want as much information about the pictures that is known.

“They don’t have to be old pictures,” Bowen said. “Today’s pictures will be of interest to people 100 years from now.”

Palmberg said they have 800 photos in the computer now.

“We want all we can get,” he said.

The public has access to the computer during banking hours and can view the photos on the monitor screen. The collection includes Meriden High School class composites from 1900 until unification. The alumni association is working on having the composites for the past 35 years scanned.

The museum has also preserved the originals and the bank is helping with their storage in another vault.

The museum also has a small amount of space for artifacts if people want to donate them. They are in view behind locked plate glass in the room. They include some business mementos such as a coin purse from the McLucas store, Civil War cannon balls, and a bayonet.

“We can’t take a Model T,” Palmberg said. “We need items that can fit on a shelf.” They are interested in anything with an area business name printed on it.

Bowen said he had taken possession of two large items that he keeps at Cottonwood Station, the threshing bee grounds near Meriden. They include a plow that broke sod near Meriden in 1858 and belonged to J.P. Barnes and the water pump that once stood on Main Street in Meriden.

“Maybe someday we can provide a way to house larger items, but not now,” Bowen said.

The walls inside the museum contain copies of the written history of the area, mostly Rock Creek Township. The display is broken into decades beginning in 1850.

Bowen produced a 300-page history of the township in 2004 after about five years of research. Titled “Early Days of Rock Creek Township,” it’s this history that makes up most of the display. However, there remains a lot of wall space to add to this history and one area is devoted to special exhibits or features that can be changed from time to time.

All three museum organizers can trace their ancestry back a long ways in the community.

Jim Palmberg’s grandfather, Albert Palmberg came to Meriden from Sweden in 1900 and bought half ownership in a blacksmith shop in 1901. His son, Carl Palmberg, grew up in the business and took it over in a seamless fashion keeping it open until 1995.

Albert died in 1985 at the age of 106. Carl lived to be 87, almost 88, and died in 1997. The city of Meriden named the street that went past the blacksmith shop “Palmberg” Street.

Jim is a 1956 graduate of Meriden High School. He spent more than 17 years at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Topeka, and then was a bridge inspector for the state Department of Transportation.

Julie Durand (nee Kramer) believes her interest in history comes in having been told repeatedly of her connections to the past. “I grew up hearing stories,” she said.

“The Kramer name shows up in all three townships after the 1857 land sales,” she said.

Her grandfather, the late W.A. Kramer, was president of the development corporation that founded new Ozawkie with the advent of Perry Lake. He was also the first mayor of Ozawkie, given that the original village was never incorporated.

She was also related to the Koehlers, an early day blacksmith in Rock Creek.

Julie is an insurance agent and manages Kramer Insurance at Ozawkie.

Gary Bowen had two great-grandfathers who came to farm in the Meriden area. John W. Berg came from Ohio in 1881 and was president of the Meriden bank for a time in the 1930s. Watson Bowen came from Missouri in 1892.

Gary’s father, Everett Bowen, Meriden, is a carpenter and former house builder. He and his late wife, Lenora, were active in the Meriden Antique Engine and Threshing Association that built Cottonwood Station. Gary, too, has been active in that organization, primarily in building and operating the flour mill with Bob Hjetland.

To have one’s photographs scanned or to discuss any other museum business, people can contact Bowen at (785) 484-3705; Durand, 945-3780; or Palmberg, 246-1361.