New Exhibits at the Merrillville Museum

Or: Why I Am So Tired

The entrance hallway of the Merrillville-Ross Township Historical Society Museum has three brand-new exhibits.

In this exhibit, I'm re-creating the historical district of Merrillville, where the museum sits, with images and histories of many of the homes and businesses that were important in the first century of the little town's existence. Alice Flora Smedstad helped me a great deal with this one, with images from her own collection and information handed down through her family (she is descended from both the Pierces and the Saxtons, very early settlers of the Merrillville area).


(Click on images to enlarge)




This exhibit focuses on the history of the museum building, with a little bit about the earlier school that may have stood on the museum site.




This exhibit discusses the military motor convoy of 1919, which traveled westward across the continent on the Lincoln Highway, passing through Merrillville on July 19. Dan Kleine did at least half the work on this one.




Finally, I wrote up a history of the Boyd-Skinner house, with more attention than is usually paid to the builder, and my very own theory about how he came to learn of the existence of Merrillville.




That project has dominated my life for the past three months.

Doing the research was very interesting and I may be paying more attention to Merrillville in the future.