Thirteen-year-old Erica Thatcher of the Fredericktown area created this sampler in 1894. Jim Gibson, museum director, said the sampler was one of several donations to the Knox County Historical Society Museum in 2022.
This nearly 130-year-old sampler now has a new home in the Knox County Historical Society Museum. Museum Director Jim Gibson said samplers were a rite of passage showing that young ladies could sew and write.
Thirteen-year-old Erica Thatcher of the Fredericktown area created this sampler in 1894. Jim Gibson, museum director, said the sampler was one of several donations to the Knox County Historical Society Museum in 2022.
MOUNT VERNON — As the Knox County Historical Society readies for the 2023 opening of the museum, director Jim Gibson took a look back at 2022.
During a recent visit with the Knox County commissioners, Gibson said donations included a framed original sampler created by 13-year-old Erica Thatcher in 1894.
“The sampler was a rite of passage that shows that young ladies can sew and write,” explained Gibson.
Nearly 130 years old, the sampler is the museum's first 19th-century sampler and is “very nicely representative of the period.”
Other donations included an 1850s ledger and diary, an 1890s Mount Vernon store ledger, a second copy of a rare 1853 map of Mount Vernon, Boy Scout memorabilia, files on the history of the Community Concert Association, and a variety of military uniforms worn by Knox County veterans over the 80-plus years.
The donation of a variety of drafting tools, drawings, and publications enhanced the Cooper exhibit.
This nearly 130-year-old sampler now has a new home in the Knox County Historical Society Museum. Museum Director Jim Gibson said samplers were a rite of passage showing that young ladies could sew and write.
Visitors to the museum included a reunion of the Mount Vernon High School Class of 1962, a reunion of retired Cooper-Bessemer workers, several generations of the George Tanner family viewing the Tanner telephone collection, and Cathy Rudolph, a New York City writer and author of “Paul Lynde: His Life, His Love(s) and His Laughter.”
Rudolph was a personal friend of Lynde's, and he accompanied her to many Broadway plays and other events over several years. Lynde fans from Kansas, Kentucky, and Illinois also visited the museum.
Perhaps the most unusual visitors were Guo Zhihao and his friend, two Chinese men working in Cleveland and Seattle in the computer chip manufacturing industry. They were looking, they said, for “Anna Louise.”
Born in 1885 in Nebraska, Anna Louise Strong's father was a pastor in the Congregational Church. In 1887 the family moved to Mount Vernon, then to Cincinnati four years later.
Anna Louise became interested in socialism and got involved in labor and education movements in Seattle, WA. She visited China in 1925 as a journalist and later became friends with Mao Zedong.
She supported communism through her writings and was revered by Chinese leaders. She died on March 29, 1970, in Peking (now Beijing). She is buried in Beijing's Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery near the grave of Chairman Mao.
The museum has a picture of a young Anna Louise with General Chu Teh, Kang Ke-ching, and Mao Zedong's daughter taken in Yenan in 1946.
“When I showed these two guys this picture, they were really moved,” Gibson told the commissioners. “They said the whole time in school there were only three Americans worth studying. Anna Louise Strong was one of them.
“She was known in America as kind of a suspicious person. I doubt she ever came back to Mount Vernon,” he added.
Concerning educational activities, area third-graders resumed their annual visit to the museum. Monthly programs, held the first Wednesday of the month, also resumed. Upcoming programs include a tribute to the late Virgil Shipley, long-time photographer for the Mount Vernon News.
Gibson said the historical society board is in the early stages of discussing museum expansion. The society now owns 20 acres, up from the original three acres.
“We have additional collections that we don't have space for,” he said. “We engaged a consultant and have had meetings.”
Gibson closed his annual report by telling the commissioners, “Our members have much awareness of the assistance you have provided over the years.”
Relating to legislative matters, the commissioners took the following actions last week:
•Approved a contract with the Ohio Department of Transportation Office of Aviation for grant funding in the amount of $12,342 for pavement rehabilitation for hangar aprons A, B, C, and D. The total project cost is $246,838; federal funding will cover $222,153 and the local share accounts for $12,343.
•Approved a vault storage contract for microfilm on behalf of the Knox County Recorder's Office
•Approved a $9,600 contract with DLZ for inspecting 20 bridges
•Approved a $18,700 contract with John Wackerly Inspection LLC for 2023 bridge inspection
