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| At the Lillian E. Jones Museum, Jackson, Ohio Special thanks to Sabrina (Reception) and Ashley (Curator)  |
The trip to
Jackson wasn’t long. I left my house at 8:45 am, picked up my Publicist in
Athens, and took the Appalachian Highway to the Lillian E. Jones Museum for our
10:30 meeting. We arrived just a few minutes after 10 am.
The Lillian E. Jones Museum contains “the rich history of Jackson, Ohio and the surrounding
area in an active historical, cultural and educational museum. Situated on the
edge of the historic section of downtown, the museum is housed in the former
home of its benefactor and namesake Miss Lillian E. Jones.”
Ashley, the
Museum’s Curator, greeted us at the vintage front door. The high ceilings,
antique décor, and old photos gave the space a welcoming atmosphere. Polished hardwood
floors lead to room after room of cared for antiques and rich Appalachia heritage.
The meeting was to review our current collaboration, creating Sunspots: Selected Columns by Ed Clark. The new title from Monday Creek Publishing will contain several decades of Clark's columns, a collection for young and old. We have been transcribing Clark's newspaper columns for over a year. Work continues as Ashley finds more of Clark's columns to include from The
Jackson Herald.
I asked Sabrina
if there are ghosts in the house. Sabrina mentioned a few incidents and
suggested it might be Edwin Jones visiting occasionally. The house feels
welcoming. I recommend a visit to anyone who is interested in Appalachia
antiques and history.
Ashley does
not remember Lillian, the Museum’s namesake and former owner; she was only five
years old when Lillian passed away.
When I
asked Ashley if there was one item in the Museum that held the most
significance for her, she replied, “The Mountain Dew can. It belonged to the Merrillite
Cabinet Factory, which is gone now. One of the workers was drinking a Mountain
Dew during lunch and accidentally dropped the can into the machinery. The
entire system failed – it was a big system failure and cost the company a lot
of money. They had to shut down the plant!”
As we
walked to the glass case where the original smashed Mountain Dew can rests, I asked if there were any other items of significant
interest. “The vintage typewriter is cool, and we have some of the original
pigs that came out of local iron furnaces.” Ashley went to the opposite side of
the room where two large “pillows” of pig iron are displayed behind glass. “They
shipped the pig iron to Pittsburgh to start the steel process – they refined it.
For a hundred years, pig iron and coal were our two biggest industries.”
Does
Ashley believe there are ghosts in the house? “I’m here a lot. The interns and
volunteers are sporadic. The house was built in 1867, so it feels a little
creepy sometimes. Nothing traumatic has ever happened here that we are aware of.
It has good vibes. I feel very comfortable here.” We did, too.
Stay connected to learn about the upcoming release of Sun Spots. It will benefit the Museum and the people of Jackson County. We plan to have a book release party at the Museum sometime closer to Christmas.
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