| Wayne County Historical Society Museum of Wayne County History |
| History is made by quiet, ordinary people. |
| WCHS PUBLICATIONS |
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| Our quarterly newsletter, Wayne History 2, is a benefit of membership. It is full of articles about Wayne County and its people. It includes historical research, photographs, objects in the museum's collection and library. Wayne History 2, updates our members on what's coming up and what's going on at the Museum of Wayne County History. Our newest publication, Wayne History 2 for Educators, is a quarterly newsletter for all history teachers from 3rd to 12th grade and all home school teachers. This is a free publication for Wayne County educators. If you would like a copy please contact the Museum of Wayne County History, 946-4943 or info@waynehistory.org The Wayne County Historical Society is working on publishing WH:The Magazine of Wayne County History (ISSN: 1559-0445) |
| Check our online bookstore, where we feature many publications about Wayne County and it's rich history. |
| Be sure to check out the museums latest publication "The Hottest Antiques of Wayne County" a 13- month calendar featuring 14 mature men posing shirtless behind an artifact from the museum. Available in our online gift shop. |
| Spotlight: Willson's 4th of July Fire, 1910 By Jeana Ganskop |
| In his collected stories and memoirs, Growing Up in Williamson, New York, Ralph Decker Bennett remembers hearing the Methodist church bell begin to ring around 5:00 pm. He soon realized it was for a fire and in his story, he recalls, "apparently the person giving the alarm did not know (as all boys did) how to burst in the doors of the firehouse by running against them, but had been able to get into the church and ring the church bell." Bennett and much of the town hurried to the east side of Main Street where Martin's clothing store was already ablaze. Firemen and volunteers hooked the hand pumper up to the town well and pumped hastily, but no water came from the nozzle. The well had been pumped dry earlier that day to sprinkle the streets! Martin's clothing store was located to the right of Tassel's Hardware and to the left of Martin's was Cornish's Grocery. Beside the Grocery were a couple more stores, Dr. Horton's dentist office and the "beehive," a cobblestone building housing the grist mill downstairs and apartments upstairs. By the time a gas-powered pumper and a sufficient water supply were found and put into use, all the buildings between Tassel's Hardware and the "beehive" were beyond hope. However, the fire was contained by the brick of the Hardware building and the stone of the "beehive" and firefighters were able to bring the blaze under control. The fire burned well into the night and the site was a burning coal pile for most of the summer. Across the street, paint on the buildings was blistered and many windows were cracked by the heat. The cause of the fire remains unknown, but, as Bennett recalls, "probably the best of all the fires of my youth was that of the Fourth of July, 1910." A holiday not to be forgotten. |