Jackson County Historical Society Museum Director Mike Kirchmeier and his trusty helpers Mary Chonko and H. Ed Carlson have been very busy at the museum lately, working up some nice new displays of donated items while updating others and generally fixing and sprucing up the facility.
“H. Ed decided to paint our sign on the east side of the building so it would be more visible to people passing by looking to visit the museum,” Kirchmeier said. “He painted the lettering white so it really stands out nicely against the darker background. We have a sign on the north side of our building that is pretty visible and now we want to put one up on the south side so the museum is recognizable from that direction from a ways off.”
Not only has the exterior of the museum gotten a fresher look, but the interior of the museum is boasting some new displays already up or in process.
“The David Ellefson items have made for a nice display,” Kirchmeier said of an exhibit relating to one of Jackson County’s most famous sons. “I was able to pick up a nice-sized glass display case to put the items in and it is lighted as well. I put the tombstone of Mary Jane from the Loon Lake Cemetery next to it. I think that adds to it since he and his group Megadeth made her somewhat famous with their song of the same name.”
The military display has seen a change or two with the addition of a donated U.S. Air Force uniform and even some military-issue black-rimmed glasses.
“We have the Goose Lake painting, which is actually a mural, out where it is more visible too,” Kirchmeier added. “It is a mural of a 1700s Indian village and is quite large.”
One of the most recent donations to the museum has been some wooden models of a couple of famous buildings created by John Mohns Jr. and donated by his daughter, Joretta Mohns, of Worthington.
“Mr. Mohns was from Round Lake Township and made this replica of the Little Brown Church in the Vail which has a removable roof,” Kirchmeier said. “He made all the furniture like that church’s furniture, too, with wooden pews, an altar and communion table. It is quite accurate and has actual wood shingles on it that are cut similar to the Little Brown Church’s shingles. Joretta told me he made at least three trips down to Iowa to look at it so he would get it reproduced accurately.”
The other two Mohns buildings are replicas of a log cabin and the old Jackson Mill complete with a working waterwheel. Presently, the museum is working to construct a table to properly display Mohns’ handiwork.
And Joretta Mohns has made another valuable donation to the museum, Kirchmeier said — a very nice microfilm reader.
“We certainly appreciate that donation,” he said. “It does everything we want it to do and I’m sure was a rather expensive machine when new.”
Beyond that, he said, the building is getting an update to its heating and cooling system and up next will be the roof and then the insulation and the ceiling.
“We have started our improvements here by upgrading the heating and cooling system,” Kirchmeier said. “And to do that we needed to make sure the roof doesn’t leak. It still does, but we are needing to get someone to come in and fix that so we can insulate. We are looking to get this all done at about the same time. Then we want to put more insulation in and do something with the ceiling. We are committed to this building.”
But research at the museum goes on. In fact, Chonko is working on a book on the Loon Lake Cemetery — but not on the purported witches supposedly buried out there. She is leaving that to others, she was quick to note.
Kirchmeier has been helping others with research while trying to keep up with the donations, but continues his own research on Civil War veterans that lived in Jackson County after the war — at least for a time following it.
“We have a lot of independent researchers coming here to do work on their projects, like the guy that is doing archeological work in the area in preparation for the wind turbines that will be going up around Lakefield next spring,” he said. “He wants to make sure the ground where these wind turbines will be located doesn’t have anything of archeological significance out there that would be disturbed in the construction process. He is hoping to do some research here on those areas over the winter when he can’t be out looking over the sites.”
And author Gregory Michno of Colorado, who has written several books, is doing another book of the area regarding the settler massacre and is dedicating a chapter called “The Seventh Day” to the 12 or 13 residents of this area that died at the hands of Native Americans.
Over the past year, students have made field trips to the museum, too, like the entire student body from St. John’s Lutheran School in Okabena and the likes of former Pleasantview Elementary School Principal Dave DeJong, who has done research on Salem Lutheran Church for an article on it this past year as well.
Kirchmeier is also preparing for the historical society’s annual meeting.
“Our annual meeting is coming up Jan. 14. It is always the second Saturday in January,” Kirchmeier said. “We’d like to see membership in the Jackson County Historical Society go up. I am looking for a speaker for that meeting and do hope the weather is better for the meeting than it was last year.”
