Abby Louise Pettengill: Lily Dale's First Woman President

So we are to have a covenant of Peace between nations at Last! said I, looking up from the morning’s newspaper. My companion was gazing out through the vine-covered window toward the open blue. At my words she turned in her quick concise manner and observed,
One of the first Peace Conferences held in America took place at Lily Dale, did you know that?
I did not, and putting down my paper I waited for her to continue.
It was in August, 1904, and I was President of the City of Light Assembly at the time. We aimed to gather together in our summer sessions people interested in every phase of thought, and to make Lily Dale a center which peace and enlightenment could radiate upon all the world. We had a Peace Day and a Woman’s Day back in those times when both peace and suffrage were unpopular. It is a wonderful thing to live to see one’s beliefs become the live issues of the day!...
It was my suggestion, Mrs. Pettengill continued,
that we celebrate our first Peace Day at Lily Dale. You have never been to Lily Dale? Well, it is one of the loveliest spots in the world and just the place for such a celebration….I’ve concentrated upon Universal Peace night after night for many years. If only enough people would hold strong to this thought they could bring it, and –soon too. I have often wondered why we have not a Minister of Peace at Washington as well as a Minister of War!

Thus began the tribute to Abby Louise Pettengill written by Harriet Bartnett, author and friend. Abby Louise Pettengill, was born on March 9, 1843, in Cleveland, Ohio. She was seven of nine children born to Matilda Wheelock and her husband Willard Burnham. She attended the Hillsdale Michigan College and at the age of 21 married Charles Pettengill, of Springville, MA. They had 4 children.
One summer while Mrs. Pettengill was on her way from Cleveland to the seashore with one of her daughters, she made the acquaintance of Mrs. Marion Skidmore in the train and through the lady became interested in the two issues destined to have a far-reaching effect on her life. One was the Woman’s Suffrage Movement, then struggling valiantly against serious opposition; the other was Psychic Phenomena or in its religious form—Spiritualism.
As the train moved across the borders of Ohio into New York State, Mrs. Skidmore outlined the purpose of a little colony among the Chautauqua Hills, on the shores of the Cassadaga Lakes. It has been established as a summer camp for Spiritualists in 1880, where under proper direction its beliefs could be extended and tests of those claiming supernormal powers could be made and demonstrated. Mrs. Pettengill became so interested in what she heard that with characteristic impulsiveness, instead of going on to the seashore as originally planned, she alighted at Lily Dale and remained for the summer.
Thenceforward she attended each summer session and gradually became associated with the organization, until in 1904 she was made President of the City of Light Assembly.
We made a lot of Woman’s Day at Lily Dale, Mrs. Pettengill continued. We met the speakers at the train with the band playing. The carriage trimmed in ferns and yellow ribbons and with all the ceremony possible escorted them in state to the Leolyn Hotel. Susan B. Anthony came there for years to speak for Suffrage, along with other brilliant women, among them — Anna Howard Shaw, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Helen Campbell, May Wright Sewell, Emily Howland, Lucy Stone, Lucy and Mary Anthony and many others. It was a delight to come in contact with such women!
Aunt Susan used to say 'We love you but we don’t care anything about your religion! There was too much work in this world for her to do without troubling about another, she said. But one day-in a spirit of adventure perhaps –she went with me to a séance.
The first voice to speak gave the name of a long-deceased and evidently not very popular Aunt of Miss Anthony. No sooner had she announced her identify than Susan B. flashed back with her usual directness,
I don’t want to hear you. I didn’t like you when you lived and I don’t care to talk to you now. Why doesn’t Elizabeth Cady or some one else come? But as the Aunt insisted on being heard, the sitting came to an early end.
Yet even after her passing into the other world, this indominable leader seemed still to pervade the Cause for which she had labored with such heroic and unselfish determination throughout her long life. Dr. Shaw told Mrs. Pettengill that at one time when she was very ill and thought that the end had come, she was roused by a clear and distinct vision of Aunt Susan standing beside her bed, saying in an emphatic voice,
Are you going to desert us now?
These women of tremendous endurance and forcefulness, of unflinching resolution and absolute loyalty to a principal, have hewed out the path in the wilderness of social darkness for the emancipated woman of today. As the years pass and their effect upon the period in which they lived is regarded in the perspective they will assume surprising importance. The enfranchisement of twenty-two million women is a tremendous national triumph. And one which may be laid at the feet of Susan B. Anthony more than of any other one person, for it was her genius that outlined the campaign which year by year has advanced the Cause to its present success. Indeed, so keen was her judgment, so genuine and far-reaching her vision that she is said to have designated 1920 as the year of final accomplishment.
To have come in touch with such women was fuel to the flame of Mrs. Pettengill’s nature.

Camp Sagamore

 

Camp Sagamore

 

The Museum Institute at Camp Sagamore

The Barker Historical Museum was awarded a GO! Grant from the Upstate History Alliance that covered the cost for the Curator of the Museum, myself Nancy Brown, to attend the Museum Institute at Camp Sagamore. The Museum Institute took place September 22nd through 25th of this year. It was located at Great Camp Sagamore in the Adirondacks; a picturesque location for a program that was stimulating yet very relaxed. I was able to take advantage of the location and hike two mornings before breakfast and then one final hike after the conference was over.
The purpose of my attendance at this year’s Museum Institute was that the Barker is in the process of writing a long range plan with the assistance of Sally Treanor. Through a GET Set! Grant we are able to pay for her consulting services and she highly recommended I attend this year’s conference. As I was sitting in the various workshops I wrote down bits and pieces of information that I thought seemed appropriate for our plan. Ideals such as:

• create a place that would compel visitors to have an experience with the
object - don't full them with too much knowledge
• creating an opportunity to have an emotional experience
• 19th c people seeking the sublime

This year’s conference topic, audiences, was a relevant topic in the Barker’s goal of a long range plan. I gained ideas on how to increase our audience and how to work with them. Workshops given by some very talented professionals in the field gave me a range of practical advice.
It also gave me the opportunity to network and I met professionals from Museums which have some similarities with the Barker. I was happy to meet the curator of the Elmira Historical Society and she informed me that the anniversary of Mark Twain’s death is in 2010 which although we have a Twain connection, I wasn’t aware of this significance for the year 2010. Twain’s mother, sister and business partner all lived in Fredonia.
Of course the topic of the internet was discussed in more than one workshop. I gained ideas on ways to craft an institutional voice through social media. Today facebook, twitter and blogs = editorial page in newspapers.
Simple and practical advice such as: maintain a position of authority with a human voice; twitter is great for campaigns; blogging once a week is good/twice
better; there is an rss feed on facebook that enables you to link your blog to
facebook; flicker has a place for photos owned by history museums; and when you blog you want to convey the voice of the Barker and become engaging, make it a conversation. I also gained awareness of two resources: The constant contact - email service send out information and forrester.com, a research company with websites to develop a strategy for using social media.
One last item that I want to share, the workshop entitled “Wakanheza” that provided tips on how to help parents who are having a difficult time with their children. No matter where you are, not just in museums, this workshop can be applied. I also benefited from the workshop presented by Julie Heath, although I saw her at the IMLS Conference Connecting to Collections. I also enjoyed Cindy Boyer again for the second time as well. Connie Manchester’s presentation provided good practical advice that I can apply to my present organization.

Digitizing The Fredonia Censor

During this past year Joan Shumaker of the Nunda Historical Society, which is near Letchworth State Park, shared this very unusual website with me www.fultonhistory.com This site provides access to many New York State newspapers, historic NYS documents, photographs, and post cards to assist with your research and genealogy projects. Surprisingly, there are many small newspapers included with those of our major cities. Joan realized Tom Tryniski, webmaster of the site, was seeking newspapers to add to the collection. The Nunda Historical Society had their newspaper collection digitized and so I decided to follow a good lead and set about getting The Fredonia Censor digitized. I contacted him and agreed to send just a couple of our reels of microfilm to him for a start. Once he received the reels and tried them out he determined they were to badly worn from use to make them searchable. I had to find microfilm reels that were good enough to create digital documents from and thankfully Sue Wilkes, Head of Circulations, at SUNY Fredonia’s Reed Library was willing to loan me the reels from the college. Every week or so I went to the college to borrow about 10 reels and mailed them on to Tom Tryniski which he scanned and returned to me. Once the entire collection of The Fredonia Censor was scanned by Tom he sent a hard drive to me which I transferred to our own hard drive. These files are pdf files which were OCR’d (word recognized),
with an index to make them searchable. Tom also puts these newspapers into his online data base and we can direct researchers by linking our website: www.barkermuseum.net with www.funtonhistory.com . Having The Fredonia Censor on-line and searchable is most valuable to researchers who are not in the Fredonia area. For those of us in the area, having searchable pdf files of The Fredonia Censor on computers at the Museum and possibly at the college since Jeremy Linden, Archivist of Reed Library's Special Collections expressed interest in gaining a copy, is truly a great convenience. The total cost for this project was the cost of sending the film and purchasing the hard drive. Myself and Joan Shumaker are encouraging other organizations to make their newspaper archives more accessible by taking advantage of the service Tom Tryniski so generously and expertly provides. Tom’s contact information is, E-mail: tryniski@fultonhistory.com or Phone: 315-402-2327

Photo of a one room school house

One Room School House Project

Last August an interested individual put together a proposal for the "Establishment of a One Room School House at the Barker Historical Museum." The establishment and implementation of One Room School Houses in the United States and around the world is a documented success. One room school houses exist in Historical Museums, at Universities and as stand alone exhibits. The nostalgia associated with the movement makes it easy to generate community support, voluntary participation and donations.

The creation of a One Room School House at the Barker Historical Museum would be consistent with the Mission Statement of the Museum. The Mission Statement includes articles on promoting educational programs, interpretive exhibits, conducting on-going research and working with other scholarly, community and student organizations. A One Room School House Program would be completely consistent with these articles.

This proposal deals with the following areas:

• Turning the current Children's Museum into a physical space of a One Room School House would require the acquisition of desks once used in a one room school house as well as making minor changes to the space aesthetically to create the look of a one room school house.

• A cadre of volunteers to donate their time and effort to restore the physical space.

• A cadre of retired teachers who would be volunteers manning the operations of the One Room School House

The benefits of the One Room School House would be numerous. It would be an instant draw into the Museum. It would be attractive to both the schools in the county and the local SUNY College. It would greatly increase attendance at the museum and community participation.

One of the goals of the Museum in the past has been to increase volunteer participation in the Museum. Some of the volunteers enlisted in the One Room School House Project could possibly be interested in general Museum operations such as manning the floor during operational hours and general tasks.

Since preparing the physical space and manning the School House would be done by volunteers, the cost to the Library would be minimal. Donations of school house materials would be expected from the community. This proposal does not underestimate the scope of this project but believes that it would galvanize the community and the staff of the Museum in a very positive manner that would breathe new life into our programs and mission to the people we serve.

Currently the Museum has located 25 desks once used in one room school house, but, alas, the desks are located at the Historic Fourth Ward School, Virginia City, Nevada. The Historic Fourth Ward School would happily donate the desks to the Barker, if we cover the cost of shipping. The Barker Museum now needs to raise the cost of shipping the desks (approx. $1,000) to Fredonia, New York. If anyone, you don't need to be a member of the Barker Historical Museum just interested in a community minded project, can help financially please call the Museum at 672-2114.