25 artifacts in new Westmoreland exhibit illuminate county's diverse 250-year history

Apr. 16—A key to a landmark Greensburg mansion and an 800-pound tower bell are among items that will help unlock Westmoreland County's past for those who view a new county historical society exhibit.

"Westmoreland 250! Celebrating our Story with 25 Objects" had its official debut Saturday at the society's Westmoreland Education Center in Hempfield.

The display will be on view in the center's Kendra Gallery in the months ahead, as the society joins in Westmoreland's yearlong celebration of its two-and-one-half centuries as a Pennsylvania county.

The exhibit features items and images from various eras that were contributed by more than 30 organizations across the county, including several community historical groups.

"There's a lot to look at here," said Lisa Hays, executive director of the county historical society.

That includes perhaps the smallest of the display's artifacts: the key to Greensburg's former Stokes mansion, on loan from the archives of the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill.

Mother Superior Aloysia Lowe of the Sisters of Charity in 1882 purchased the former dwelling of wealthy attorney and Civil War veteran William A. Stokes and 200 surrounding Greensburg acres.

The property provided a home for the religious community of women and the institution of learning they founded, which evolved into Seton Hill University.

The Sisters' pivotal contribution to education in Westmoreland and beyond was commemorated by the Rev. Daniel Richard Sullivan, later president of the college, who fitted the mansion's key with an engraved brass fob.

"He clearly knew what he was doing." Hays said. "It reads: 'I opened not merely the door of this house. I swung the gates of an era.' "

Now called St. Mary Hall, a portion of the original mansion remains part of the university campus, housing offices for institutional advancement and alumni relations.

Featured bell

No doubt the weightiest item in the exhibit is the bell, which was donated by county officials to the Westmoreland Historical Society, where it will remain after sitting in county storage for nearly 60 years.

"We had to get a special mover in," Hays said. "They had a lift on their truck, and they were able to hoist it onto a stand that's on wheels. It takes a lot of effort to move it, but it can be pushed."

According to Hays, the bell originally was installed atop the county's third courthouse. That brick building was completed in 1801 on the same property occupied by the fifth, current 1907 version — along Greensburg's Main Street, between Pittsburgh and Otterman streets.

The bell was relocated to the jail, until that structure was torn down, Hays said.

"It tolled at significant events through the years," she said, initially serving extra duty as a town fire alarm.

It once had an even higher purpose, according to the phrase it bears: "I will sound and resound unto Thy people, O Lord, and call them to Thy Word."

The exhibit items are arranged according to three overarching themes: "Building a home, crafting a community;" "Westmoreland at work;" and "Banding together — service and sacrifice."

"There's a broad appeal here that is meant to evoke different ideas and aspects of our history," said Joanna Moyar, the county historical society's collections manager.

Among items that offer insights into the family traditions of past generations is a 1787 wooden blanket chest on loan from the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.

"It's from the Rugh family, originally spelled Ruch," Moyar said, reflecting Germanic ethnicity. "It was a chest women would use to save linens and items they would take with them when they got married and established their own household. It's highly decorated: there are pomegranates for fertility, tulips for the Holy Trinity and other floral motifs."

Work-related items include a wooden and iron horse plow dating from the late 19th or early 20th century. Loaned by the East Huntingdon-based Fort Allen Antique Farm Equipment Association, it was manufactured by a company in Syracuse, N.Y., that was acquired by John Deere.

"That was the very first occupation of most people in Westmoreland County," Moyar said. "They had to farm in some capacity."

The Murrysville Historical Preservation Society contributed a working model of a pioneering natural gas well drilled in that community in 1878 by brothers Michael and Obediah Haymaker, who were trying to find oil.

The Allegheny-Kiski Valley Historical Society is represented by an aluminum and brass Kensington Ware wine bucket, patented in 1935 and produced in New Kensington by Alcoa.

Among artifacts on view in the exhibit's "Banding together" section is an 1875 hand-drawn firefighting hose cart, on loan from the Greensburg Volunteer Fire Department. It was donated to that department's museum by fire equipment collector Dave Shafran, a Cook Township resident and former Unity firefighter.

The Westmoreland society turned to its own collection for a relic from the 20th century's Cold War era, when Americans were anxious about the potential for nuclear war. Retrieved from a county air raid shelter, "We have survival crackers produced by Kroger in a can that's never been opened," Moyar said. "There were civil defense kits that were available with different canisters."

In addition, Hays said, "We have lots of pictures on display. People who come to the exhibit might see an ancestor on the wall."

One of the most poignant images, provided by the Rostraver Township Historical Society, is a December 1907 photograph of workers at the Darr Mine, a coal operation in that township's community of Van Meter.

Said Moyar, "It was taken just days before the mine explosion that killed 239 men and boys."

Fittingly, the Westmoreland Historical Society headquarters and the "25 Objects" exhibit are located at Historic Hanna's Town, an on-site re-creation of Westmoreland's pioneering first county seat, at 809 Forbes Trail Road.

The county seat was moved to Greensburg after Hanna's Town was burned by Native Americans and their British allies in a 1782 raid near the end of the Revolutionary War.

Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@triblive.com or via Twitter .