By Heidi Beguin
“We have so much valuable history of Sheridan County people,” Phyllis Krotz of Rushville’s Sheridan County History Center says. She’s talking about the amount of files, boxes, and filing cabinets the center has received, with no room to actually display it in one central location.
The plan is to raise $500,000 to create an addition to the Armstrong House Museum, located at 408 E. 2nd Street in Rushville, combining the Sheridan County History Center with the museum.
“Visitors stop in and are hoping to see something that may not be in the current location, it is most likely over in the museum,” Krotz explains. “All of it needs to be in the same building. Consolidating all of the information and having it in the same place is going to be so helpful.”
Some of the first files of information came from the Rushville Hospital. But that was only the beginning.
A woman from Hay Springs, Clarabel Hunter, spent her entire life keeping track of people from Sheridan County. She started in elementary school, when she was assigned a project to research a family. She enjoyed it so much that she continued and expanded her research, for the rest of her life.
When she passed away in 2000, her family was planning to take all of her files and filing cabinets to the dump. But Clarabel had spent years tracking people.
“Clarabel’s daughter initially tried to give it to Alliance because they have family history, but as they were looking at it, they recognized that it was all the history of Sheridan County people,” Krotz says.
“We had to take it, but we didn’t have any place for it.” Hunter had done research for people most of her life and wouldn’t charge them if she couldn’t find anything on the person or family.
Janet Hess has taken on the task of typing all the history into a computer. Hess had met Clarabel sixty years ago, and got to see the process Hunter was using to research.
Anyone looking for information on someone from Sheridan County, can stop in and see everything they have on the person or family. All of Sheridan County is included, not just people from Rushville.
In order to raise the money for the new addition, there has been a brand fundraiser, a challenge grant, an auction, soup and cookies lunch, and Chunk of Change at the elementary school. Both Jerry Wellnitz, curator of the Armstrong House Museum, and Phyllis agree that they are making progress on the $500,000 goal.
Wellnitz has reclaimed and finished planks from redwood pipes that were in area lakes and used to pump potash and water to potash plants. The planks are hanging in one of the buildings located behind the Armstrong House Museum. People are encouraged to bring in their family brands so they can be branded on the planks. Brands are $300 or four brands for $1000. Families should plan to bring in a copy of the brand’s story, which will also be kept on display in the Museum. “We only have about 25 or so spaces left for brands,” Wellnitz says.
To leave your mark on Sheridan County History, and help move it all into one location, you can call Jerry Wellnitz 308-360-0299 or Kris House 308-360-0455.