The historic George and Zora Eger house on High Street in Dublin has been many things – a home, of course, and several shops. Now, it’s the Dublin History Museum.
The new museum officially opens on Saturday. It tells the stories of Dublin, from its general history to the success of its sports teams, the Dublin Cornet Band, notable Dubliners, and everyday life in the small village turned teeming city of nearly 50,000.
A German town — with an Irish name
Native Americans, including the Wyandot, first lived in Dublin. At the same time, trappers and fur traders passed through the area. After the American Revolution, the U.S. promised land to land to soldiers as payment.
Ludwig Sells and his sons settled what would become Dublin in 1803.
Tom Holton, past president of the Dublin Historical Society, said the town would have been called Sellstown or Sells Mill after the family. That is, until surveyor John Shields was given the opportunity to rename the town. He named it after his hometown of Dublin, Ireland.
“There were no other Irish, but John Shields was the Irishman who set the mark,” Holton said.
Dublin was mostly settled by Germans who came from Pennsylvania or straight from Germany, Holton said.
“And now we're totally Irish,” joked Mike Jewell, the current president of the Dublin Historical Society.
Bad reputation
Early on, Dublin had a bad reputation. The main industry in the area was stone quarrying, a tough job that attracted tough workers.
Soon enough, the town had 13 saloons for just a few hundred people, Holton said.
“People used to say, if you're going to Dublin, make sure you have a rock in each hand, because you're going to get into a fight,” Holton said.
To get away from their bad reputation, the town started a band called the Great Eagle Band, which later became the Dublin Cornet Band.
“They were fortunate to have a number of directors who had trained professionally (and had) trained music ability, and they became good very quickly,” Holton said.
A drum and other memorabilia from the band is on display upstairs at the museum in a room that also has sports photos and uniforms.
Good stories
The room across the hall is filled with images of notable people with Dublin ties, including a large portrait painting of pioneer preacher Isaac Newton Walter. A line from one of his 1840s sermons on the problems of drinking is on the wall: “I've waged an internal warfare with all the makers and vendors of art and spirits and everything that can intoxicate. I am determined to have no compromise with ministers or laymen who use it on righteously 'til the demon is exterminated from the earth.”
“He was basically talking about the citizens of this village, in this area, at that point in time,” Jewell said.
Downstairs, a room dedicated to children has a paper dress from about 1941. It was made for a Tom Thumb wedding, where children would pretend to get married.
Holton guesses the dress was made of cratepaper, because fabric was hard to come by during World War II. It was worn by a Dublin resident, lost for years, then found in a box, Holton said.
Dublin-centered
The museum is filled with little stories with specific Dublin connections.
"We made a very important point of making sure it speaks Dublin history, not just history,” Jewell said.
And Jewell hopes to tell more stories in the future. The notable people exhibit is designed to rotate, with new notable people added every few months. Jewell said other exhibits will also change.
"We've got tons more stories to tell. It's just, we need a four-story house,” Jewell said.
Other stories he’d like to highlight someday include the history of the Muirfield Village Golf Club Memorial Tournament and a more extensive exhibit on the legend of the American Indian Chief Leatherlips.
The museum’s grand opening on Saturday starts with free hot chocolate and coffee at 9:30 a.m., followed by a ribbon cutting at 10 a.m. at 35 South High Street. The Dublin Cornet Band, which was revived in 2010, will play before the ribbon cutting.
Going forward, the museum will be open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free.
The museum opening also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Dublin Historical Society, which was on Friday.
