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Subject: [ILMCLEAN] LeRoy Historical Society
Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 11:32:44 EDT

Pantagraph
Bloomington, IL
Wednesday, June 27, 2001 Bloomington-Normal, Illinois



LeRoy historical
museum turns 10 By MARGARET HAYES THEIS
Pantagraph correspondentLeROY -- Many LeRoy residents wanted a historical
museum for a long time, but it took until 1991 to get it.The J.T. and E.J.
Crumbaugh Historical Museum of LeRoy will celebrate its 10th anniversary July
4. The museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.LeRoy and McLean County have
a rich heritage and are steeped in history. For many, the pictures, news
stories and other things pertaining to earlier years of LeRoy found in the
museum will bring back memories.The museum is open from 1 to 4 p.m. each
Saturday all year; tours are available at other times by appointment.
Admission is free and the museum is handicapped accessible. For those who
wish to become members, dues are $3 per year for single membership and $5 for
couples.The museum had an interesting beginning, starting with the founding
of the LeRoy Historical Society in 1976.Members met once a month, as they do
today, and the meetings featured historical programs and speakers, but the
group had no place to really call home.In 1980, the society opened a small
museum in the First National Bank in LeRoy and Helen Hume, a key figure in
the historical society, would periodically put historical displays in
downtown windows.When McLean County had its sesquicentennial celebration in
the 1980s, Hume set up a display booth and sold history books about McLean
County titled "Heritage of the Prairie," Volumes 1 and 2, compiled by members
of the LeRoy Historical Society.That seemed to highlight the need for a
permanent location for the historical society.John Tompkins, president of the
Crumbaugh trustees that oversee the J.T. and E.J. Crumbaugh Memorial Library
and farm land, spoke with others and it was decided to offer to the
historical society an unused room in the lower level of the library.The
society was thrilled and organized a museum committee. Marian Spratt was the
first historical society president and museum president. The board currently
has 10 members.During the 10 years since its origin, the museum has acquired
many things to make it an interesting place to visit.Jack Thomas started as
an intern at the museum when he was in the seventh grade, and continued in
that capacity through LeRoy High School. He is now a student at the
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.Cynthia Vineyard, a LeRoy High
School sophomore, is now serving as an intern, and FFA students lend helping
hands for the museum.The displays are changed every six months, at Christmas
time and prior to July 4, which is always a big day.Collectors have lent the
museum many of the items. "People have been wonderful about loaning things to
us," Hume said.Among the items visitors will see is an old, very ornate pump
organ owned by Lyle and Norma Phillips and loaned to the museum by John and
Mary Tompkins.Another is a quilt called the LeRoy Howard Virgin Timber Park
quilt made in 1957 by Nellie Christman to earn money to match a donation of
$3,000 by Mrs. T.H Trevitt.Trevitt was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Howard, who
donated property for the local park.For 50 cents, Christman would add a name
to the quilt using oil paints, then use an iron to fuse the color to the
material. After the quilt was completed, it was raffled off and the proceeds
went toward making improvements to the park.Other items include a log cabin
and furniture made by Ivan Shaffer and donated to the museum by Margaret
Esposito, and the tuxedo and top hat funeral director J.H. Iden wore when he
conducted funerals.Thomas Edison, who would not sleep on a train when
traveling, stayed at the Keenan House Hotel in LeRoy in November of 1893. The
register with his signature is on display.There is also an ad, dated Feb. 20,
1902, advertising "The Country Kid" who would play at the opera house; a
picture of the LeRoy Orchestra Group that played at a dinner at the
Bloomington Consistory in 1924; a "Gone With the Wind" script and book, and
many other things.Among other displays have been medical artifacts, dishes
and glassware, fishing equipment, doll houses, Native American and Lincoln
artifacts, farm toys and antique Valentines.Hume has worked diligently on
scrapbooks about people and things in LeRoy, with an index for each book.When
Mildred Bremer died, her granddaughter, Linda Linderman, donated to the
museum 13 scrapbooks Mildred had compiled with news stories and pictures
dating back to the 1940s.In addition, Hume, who is historian for the society,
has compiled 53 scrapbooks that are in chronological order. She continues to
work on them, adding clips she gleans from many sources, including what
people bring in to her."We think the museum is quite an asset to the town and
we are proud to have it," Hume said.


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~Debbie In McLean County, Illinois~

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