Trending
It's good to know that there are places in our area that continue to work to preserve the past.
We're fortunate to have several of them in communities throughout the region. And whether they are in Weirton, Richmond, Toronto, Bergholz, Wellsburg or anywhere else, each offers a place where the people, moments and things that helped the region grow can be remembered and studied.
There are a couple of important ones in Steubenville, including Historic Fort Steuben and the Jefferson County Historical Association's museum. The fort re-creation, part of an area that stretches across the block of Third Street that runs between Market and Adams streets, offers a chance to remember the time when the area was the frontier and surveyors who were tasked with plotting the Northwest Territory found they needed the protection of troops.
That's an important part of not just our history, but of the nation's.
The historical association's museum, which is located in the old Sharpe mansion at 426 Franklin Ave., is a place where you can learn a little bit more about the things, people and places that helped the region grow.
"I can tell you a story about a lady who came into the museum recently, and she had been away from Steubenville for 60 years -- she had gotten married and left. She was in her 80s, and she and her daughter came in and they had somewhat of a tour," Dennis Milko, president of the association said as part of his opening remarks before the start of Wednesday's annual dinner at the St. Florian Event Center.
"She liked to look around on her own and see what we had. She was all oohs and ahhs the whole time," he added. "And then she saw a picture of the paper mill -- we have a really big photo of the paper mill that was along state Route 7."
That mill, which sat at the end of Third Street, has been gone for many years -- with its smokestack finally being taken down not too long ago. It was a recognizable structure in the city's North End.
"She saw that, and she said, 'That's the paper mill,'" Milko continued. "She said that the reason she knew that was because her father and mother had a confectionery at the corner of Sixth and Franklin streets, and they sold a lot of newspapers. They claimed to sell the most newspapers in Steubenville. When she was a little girl, her father would put the newspapers that weren't sold in her wagon, and she would pull the wagon over to the paper mill and drop them off.
"She was delighted to see that photo of the paper mill," he said.
Ensuring those memories can be preserved is a big part of the museum's mission.
"Recently, we had a tour from a group of teenagers from the Sycamore Youth Center," Milko said.
"They were so delighted," he continued. "They didn't even know about Dean Martin. We have some VHS TVs that the late Bill Croskey had bought several years ago. We have a TV in the living room and one upstairs in the Dean Martin room playing a different video."
Milko said he turned on one of the TVs and VCR players and played a portion of a biography of Martin.
"On his variety show, remember he used to come down the steps, and he'd come down in different ways, according to the fellow who was doing the biography" Milko said. "Those kids were mesmerized to see him for the first time. They had heard his name, but they hadn't seen him."
That there's a place where Martin's life and accomplishments can be recalled and shared with future generations is important. That's especially true as time passes and there are fewer and fewer people left who were able to enjoy his work as it was created. While he's remembered in his hometown of Steubenville every June, the reality is he was born in 1917; the "Dean Martin Show" on NBC came to an end in 1974; the last "Dean Martin Celebrity Roast" aired in 1984; "The Cannonball Run" movies, his last in a long list of films, were made in the early and mid-1980s; and, in just a few months, on Christmas Day, he will have been dead for 29 years.
Robin Yocum, the area native who built on his experience as a crime reporter to become a successful novelist, was the guest speaker for the evening. He said that the Ohio Valley has become an integral part of his books.
Preserving the history of the region is what the museum is all about.
"We get a lot of folks in and out, as everybody in here probably knows," Milko said. "But everybody has some sort of story when they come in about Steubenville and the past."
(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is executive editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times)