McDonald building gets new life as the Ozark County Historium

An old building on the Gainesville square is becoming a new gathering place where old stories will be preserved and cherished in appealing new ways.

The Ozark County Historium, Inc., a group composed of members of the Ozark County Genealogical and Historical Society (OCGHS) and the Ruby Robins Trust for the Preservation of Local History, last week bought the A. D. McDonald building on the west side of the square.

  “We hope the Historium will be a showplace of our area’s history, heritage and people,” said Historium president Janet Taber. “We want it to be a warm, inviting place that encourages conversation, remembering and sharing.”

The group’s goal is to have the Historium ready to open by Hootin an Hollarin in mid-September, Janet said. “We know we won’t be finished by then, but we hope to have made enough progress that we can open the doors and show everyone what we’re doing.”

The Historium will be governed by a five-member board consisting of two OCGHS members, two members representing the board of the Ruby Robins Trust, and one member representing both groups. Current board members are Janet Taber, John Ault, Mike Sparks, Sue Ann Jones and Tom Cline. Susan Ault, a non-board member, serves as secretary.

While the board will make decisions, a larger group, called the Historium Committee, is open to all supporters of the Historium, Janet said. Currently other committee members are Mary Ruth Luna Sparks and Rhonda Herndon.

The Historium has organized as a nonprofit corporation in the state of Missouri and is a member of the Ozark County Community Foundation, which is part of the larger Community Foundation of the Ozarks.

The late A. D. McDonald bought the store around 1922-1923 and operated a general-merchandise store there for nearly four decades. The original building burned and was rebuilt in 1929.

The Historium committee bought the building from Rebecca McNew Beard, daughter and heir of the late Larry McNew, who had operated a pawn shop there for several years. Mr. McNew died late last year.

Volunteers immediately began working to give new life to the old building. John and Susan Ault, their grandson Cody Swearengin and his brother Kyle Burress, and friend Mike Harlin removed pegboard and old insulation from the walls and the drop ceiling, exposing the original pressed-tin ceiling, and stripped away the old worn carpeting. 

A dream built with love – and donations

Now the group is collecting funds so that professionals can come in and continue the remodeling, repairing the roof and floor, modernizing the utilities, installing efficient heating and cooling equipment and creating a variety of creative interior spaces.

“We know there are a lot of very generous people in Ozark County, and we’ve already heard from several of them who have offered their support,” said board secretary Susan Ault. “We are developing a catalog of donation suggestions, so that donors can easily see what their gift has done, whether you donate $35,000 to buy the building for us – or $35 to provide a hat rack. We want to make it clear that this is a place built with gifts of love for Ozark County and its history,” she said.

The Historium’s nonprofit status and membership in the foundation mean all gifts are tax deductible. Checks made to the Ozark County Historium, Inc., may be mailed to P.O. Box 4, Gainesville, MO 65655.

 “We know we’re going to need a minimum of $100,000 to get started, and then we’ll need an endowment fund to cover operating expenses in the future, so we’re really counting on those gifts coming in to make this dream come true,” Janet said.

“This is an act of faith. Right now all we have is a dream and determination, but we know there are a lot of people like us out there who love Ozark County and its history, and we believe that together we can make our dream come true,” she said.

“Maybe this is a little of what our pioneer ancestors felt when they headed west to Missouri more than a hundred years ago. They probably had little more than a dream and determination – and maybe a wagonload of family and necessities. But they made it to Ozark County, and with grit and gumption, they survived here. We want to celebrate and commemorate that heritage, and we’re going to need a lot of help to do that. But we believe it’s possible.”

Research, exhibit and retail space

The Historium will include both research and exhibit space. The OCGHS’s genealogical and historical library, now housed in a small room in the basement of the Ozark County Library, will be moved to the Historium. There it will be handicap accessible and will have more tables and efficient work space.

Former OCGHS president Rhonda Herndon, who has volunteered in the genealogical library for many years, says the new facility will more easily accommodate the many visitors who come from all over the country to investigate their family ties to Ozark County. Computers offering high-speed Internet connections will be available to assist the family researchers in their work, and a variety of historical records will be available for research, including digitized files of more than 100 years of Ozark County newspapers, including the Ozark County Times.

“We’re grateful to the Ozark County Library for supporting us and offering us space for so many years,” said Rhonda. “But the library has steps that cannot be avoided, and those steps are an obstacle to many people. By moving our genealogical library to the Historium, we’ll be able to offer easy access to everyone.”

The Historium will continue its connection with the popular and successful library, which is completely operated by volunteers, Janet said, and the Ruby Robins Trust will continue to fund high-speed Internet access there, as it has done for several years.

“The library keeps its doors open through the efforts of a handful of very devoted volunteers,” Janet said. “The Historium will operate the same way, with lots of volunteer effort. So we’ll be studying the library’s success and hope to duplicate it.”

The Historium’s brochure, now being published, says, “Our dream is to have a coffeepot going, a game table ready for playing checkers or cards, a demonstration/work area near the front window where quilters, whittlers, or crafters might gather, retail space where we’ll sell books and high-quality locally made crafts and other items related to local history.”

The building isn’t big enough to become a full-fledged history museum, Janet said, but the Historium committee hopes to offer changing displays and exhibits featuring subjects like one-room schools, folk medicine, early farm methods, singing conventions, churches and other representations of early Ozark life.

The families of donors who provide major gifts to the Historium will be honored with small, permanent displays recounting their history in the county.

Not just for natives

While the Historium is being created to celebrate the county’s pioneers, Janet notes that some of the ones most devoted to preserving the county’s colorful history have not been or are not native Ozark Countians.

“Many of the records in our genealogy and history library are the legacy of the late Ruby Robins, former owner and publisher of the Ozark County Times,” said Sue Ann Jones, whose journalism career began at the Times in the 1960s when Mrs. Robins was owner, editor and publisher.

“Ruby was a native of Maryland who moved to Ozark County with her husband, Fred, and promptly adopted it as her home. And some of the hardest-working members of our committee are not natives. Board member Tom Cline was born in Arkansas, John Ault was born in Colorado and Mike Sparks was born in Texas. But now they are as devoted as anyone to making the Historium a wonderful place where Ozark County’s history can be preserved, celebrated and shared with everyone.”

©Ozark County Times