Swept into the Past

The Wayne County Historical Society’s Farm Museum Committee is busy preparing the popular J. B. Park Farm Museum for its annual unveiling at the Wayne County Fair, August 3-11, and Chair Linda Dix Lee is excited about a new exhibit she predicts will immediately become one of the most popular at the fair. The Committee’s long-planned Farm Kitchen display will become reality this year.

Converting a former storage area into an old-fashioned farm kitchen is not an easy task. The project started with the removal of items that had been stored in the Farm Museum and are now in a temporary trailer adjacent to the Museum until they can be moved to the Society’s new Main Street addition, now nearing completion. Next, the volunteers have began moving in kitchen furnishings, including a large cook stove, coal pail and matchbox donated by member Floyd Schnakenberg. Other major items and their donors include an old gray cupboard and wooden washer, donated by Frank and Helen Ward; galvanized wash tub, Carol Henry Dunn; 1884 ironing board, the late Marjorie Smith; icebox, Betty Helen Ridialli; cast iron tea kettle, Mrs. Carl Walters; kraut cutter, Bertha Darling; steam cooker, Harry Simpson, Jr.; old wainscoting, Elaine Herzog; and a carpet sweeper, Linda Dix Lee.

Linda and The Farm Museum volunteers will be working hard through July and by August 3 expect to have a complete pre-1930 farm kitchen ready for fairgoers to enjoy. The J. B. Park Farm Museum is operated by the Wayne County Historical Society annually during fair week, with exhibits demonstrating farm life of yesteryear in Wayne County.

Volunteer Helen Ward sweeps the newly cleared storage area that will be used for the Farm Kitchen exhibit.	Lew Lee, Helen Ward and Frank Ward move stove donated by Floyd Schnakenberg into place.
Linda Lee, Helen Ward and Frank Ward ponder best way to move heavy knitting machine to temporary storage.