article

Museum Harbors History of Paulding County

Era: 20th Century (1920–2000)
Date: August 1, 1995
Source: By Pat Randle, staff writer, The Journal Gazette (Fort Wayne). Reprinted in Paulding Pathways, Paulding County Chapter OGS, Aug. 1995, Vol. 9 #3, p. 67.
Rights & source note: Newspaper reprint via a local genealogical society newsletter; rights status not otherwise confirmed.
Tags: john paulding historical societymuseumpaulding pathwaysfarm equipment

A feature on the John Paulding Historical Society Museum, founded by volunteers roughly a decade before this 1995 article — “just a little more than 10 years ago, there wasn’t a historical museum in Paulding County. In fact, little of the county’s history was even collected.”

Highlights described: a clothes safe made locally (from Paulding County timber, since heavier furniture was too costly to haul in from the East), a hand-woven blanket (linen and wool the maker grew, sheared, and spun herself), a man’s collar box, a trunk carried by the Philips family fleeing the South via the Underground Railroad, a map pinpointing one-room schoolhouses (some with names like “Happy Corners” and “Sunnyside”), and — housed in a separate building — antique tractors, a 1928 Farmall Regular, threshing machines, a sleigh, and a carriage, restored by volunteers including museum board member John Stuart. Museum contacts given: Leo and Caroline Davis, Royce and Ruby Smith.

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