Discover local history with WCHS tour
On Nov. 12 the Wayne County Historical Society hosted 36 members from the Bellville Jefferson Township Historical Society. Rinda Sanson, the Bellville Jefferson museum curator, arranged the tour as a fundraiser for their museum.
The WCHS offers seven buildings to tour. In the Kister building, a lower-level tunnel connects the buildings and houses, a permanent collection that offers more than 60 categories of displays that help paint a portrait of Wayne County, its people and industries. In the building’s nonpermanent displays are the Compton, military and textile displays, and a sprinkling from the Wayne County Sports Hall of Fame, which will soon have a new space.
Upstairs in the Kister Building is an extensive local pottery exhibit, on loan from local collectors, while the Beall-Stibbs House is the oldest surviving residential structure in Wooster. The carriage barn contains carriages, wagons and other horse-driven vehicles, some of which were manufactured in Wayne County.
The Firehouse is a reproduction of an 1888 firehouse, containing an 1830s hand pumper, an 1869 Allerton steam fire engine and many other apparatuses along with the history of firefighting in Wayne County. A mid-19th century building that had been in Fredericksburg houses a general store and dress shop.
The historic schoolhouse that was built in 1873 also was part of the tour, along with the Pioneer Log House — not a cabin because it has an upper story where at one time stairs went to it. A cabin does not offer stairs or a second floor, and the Pioneer Log House is decorated with pioneer-era items.
A trip to the Wayne County Historical Society is a 1 1/2-hour tour through local history. Interested parties may call the office at 330-264-8856 Tuesday through Friday from 1-5 p.m.
