November 15, 2009
WOLF CREEK HERITAGE MUSEUM NOTES by Virginia Scott MUSEUM HAPPENINGS A very busy week. The Wednesday core team was busy with accessioning and deaccessioning objects and trying to make room for our collection. Our photographic collection is growing by the day which is a wonderful asset and will allow us to preserve our past in at least two publications in the future. Reorganizing our storage space is the hard part and the core team is doing a great job. On Thursday, the book committee for the Second Edition of Lipscomb County History met to stuff envelops with our brochure for the new book. In less that 4 hrs, the committee stuffed, licked, stamped, and sorted over 800 letters and delivered them to the post office. In all those letters we only missed two for postage. The 800 names were ones in our contact database, so most of you should receive one this week. If not, then you can obtain a brochure at drop off places in each town which is the post office in Follett, Darrouzett, and Higgins ; the bank in Booker and the museum in Lipscomb. We want every family in the county, past and present, to write up their family for this volume. Don't worry about grammar,etc. our editors will assist in that. Pick up a brochure and start writing. We also need stories of our businesses, organizations, churches, and schools. Also reserve your copy of the book now the pre publication price will be cheaper than the post publication price. Lastly, On Friday, the exhibit "Art from the Ruins" came home to the museum. The exhibit was created by Doug Ricketts and sponsored by the Canadian Art Alliance in 2003 and toured the panhandle for years. It was housed in the visitors center in Canadian until the decision was made to retire the exhibit to a permanent home with us. We are delighted to be the caretakers to this one of kind exhibit that tells the story of the Moore house. This weeks historical musing is the story of the house and we hope everyone will come welcome it to its new home. HISTORICAL MUSINGS Quoting from the brochure for the exhibit is the story of the Moore house : "Standing just south of Wolf Creek in the northeast corner of the Texas Panhandle, the Moore house, uninhabited since the 40s, slowly weathered down. The comings and goings of the attic-dwelling barn owl and the moaning of the wind through the termite holes did little to alter the silence of the place. But the plain little house had stories to tell. Those stories, gathered together with reclaimed pieces and parts from the salvaged house, are given a second telling through Art from the Ruins. We are able to fill these stories because of May Moore Wright, who grew up in the house built by her father A.B. Moore in 1899, saved every thing from early tax receipts, to letters and pictures, and even recipes. The folks who inherited the Wright estate, wanting to see something constructive done with the ruins of the Moore homestead, made the house and Mays memorabilia available for the creation of the exhibit. A.B. Moore died in 1911, leaving his wife Hattie and their only child May the responsibility of keeping their small ranching and farming operation going. By 1913, Hattie married hired hand, Charlie Lynch. Hattie passed away in 1920, the same year May married rancher Davy Wright, recently returned from service during the war in France....May retained ownership of the Moore place and her childhood home. In the fall of 1920 she rentd the house to Bill and Leora Turner, just in time for the birth of their first child, Beatrice or 'Appie'.Second daughter Mona came two years later. ...For the next 20 years the Turners made the Moore house their home. Some of the first exciting discoveries were the out-of-the-way spots on the house where Appie and Mona had written signed and dated messages. ...Gilbert and Opal Hill lived in the house from about 1940-42 after the Turners moved to Lipscomb." The house, the artifacts found in the house, and May's documents give us a rare opportunity to view three families stories. Thanks, May. |
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