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History - Lyons

Wayne County Historical Museum
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The Beginning...

Wayne County Historical Society members realized their dream when the Wayne County Historical Society Museum first opened to the public in 1949. This historic event made Wayne County the first in the state to have its own museum.

The Museum had it earliest beginnings in the basement of the Wayne County Courthouse. It would be another 13 years before the Museum would be housed at its present location, in the former Wayne County Jail and attached sheriff's home on Butternut Street, Lyons.

The journey began months before the dedication ceremony when the County decided to change the 95 year old courthouse heating system from coal to oil. The space change needed to house the county's priceless artifacts became available in the area of the courthouse basement that was formerly used to store coal, ash and general courthouse refuse. The Board of Supervisors appropriated the necessary funds to recondition the section and two knotty-pine covered room and two halls were remodeled to become the Museum's domain. After alterations were complete, and under the direction of Mrs. Margaret Merchoff, the Wayne County Historian at the time, volunteers began their work - cleaning and arranging exhibits.

The Museum was finally dedicated in a ceremony held on April 25, 1949. A descriptive report of the new museum and some of its collections was published in an article in The Clyde Herald on April 21, 1949.

"The two main rooms of the museum are 30 by 20 and equipped with display cases and racks, the so called halls are about half their size. Entrance to the Museum is through the original Dutch door which led from the outside stone steps into the east and west hall. That hall had built-in cases along its north side. The other hall has a fireplace over a hundred years old, built into its southeast corner. The mantle is a gift of Dr. and Mrs. R.S. Simpson and was saved from the home built in 1832-36, on the site of their present Broad Street residence in Lyons. One of the latest acquistions of the museum was placed yesterday, being the flag of Admiral Willard Brownson of Lyons, which flew from the mast of his flagship, the USS West Virginia, during the Spanish American War."

Officers of the Society at that time of the dedication were: president, Saxon B. Gavitt; vice presidents, Ross S. Bushof and Miss Doris Simms; secretary, Mrs. Gertrude Ennis; and treasurer, Issac Gardener.

To be continued...

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