Bushwhacker Museum prepares for summer season

Cottey College students Jessica Kuder, left, and Audrey Kniffen hang their table exhibit about nurse Leta M. Hickman.

New hours and new exhibits await visitors to the Bushwhacker Museum and Jail which opens for the season on May 4 after a winter-time dusting and cleaning of the expansive exhibits of early-day life in Vernon County.

This year because of scheduling constraints the Vernon County Historical Society Board of Directors approved a cutback in days of operation, dropping Tuesday from the daily schedule. The museum and jail will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday this season, according to Jean McQueen, society president.

In keeping with the museum's vibrant educational outreach activities carried out by coordinator Terry Ramsey, two Cottey College students have prepared a new exhibit featuring Sheldon native, Leta M. Hickman, whose nursing career took her from the Red Cross to the Army Nursing Corps during World War II and later to Montana to care for Native Americans. Leta was a sister of Bill Hickman of Nevada.

Stafford Agee points out the Little Miss Bushwhacker costume. Both exhibits are new this summer to the Bushwhacker Museum, and two traveling exhibits about historic moments relating to the Civil War are scheduled this summer as well.

Cottey interns, seniors Jessica Kuder and Audrey Kniffen, planned the exhibit as part of a history class assignment for which they earned education service credits, working over half the semester to interview Nurse Leta's relatives and collect photos and artifacts of her 37-year nursing career. Her woolen cape from the Mercy Hospital Nursing School in Fort Scott is displayed along with her World War II Army uniform.

Nurse Leta was born in Sheldon in 1918 and early in life knew she was meant for a life of service.

"Mama, I want to serve," she told her mother when she determined to go to nursing school and family finances were low. Using only her name and reputation for hard work, Leta wheedled a bank loan to pay for nursing school. Her belief in service did not stop at her retirement. She continued to serve her family, her community and her church until her death at age 91.

More information about her is on the interpretive panels and available in the museum archives.

Sharing a part of the Hickman display case are artifacts from the Pacific theatre of war acquired by the late Jim Rinehart while he was stationed in New Guinea. Among them is a knife Jim fashioned from old airplane propeller.

A new exhibit of black-and-white photos of Nevada prepared by past board president and volunteer Gary Marquardt lines the spacious stairwell walls leading down the steps to the museum from the Walnut Street entrance.

Another new acquisition is the Little Miss Bushwhacker dress worn by Shannon Franklin in 1976 before she became Shannon Agee, daughter-in-law of the Stafford Agees of Nevada. Stafford, past president of the Society and volunteer, created a dress form for the costume..

In the works is an exhibit of artifacts from the Logan family of Nevada including the Logan-Moore Lumber Co., and the popular Logan Pony Farm which delighted children with Memorial Day pony rides and hot dogs for many years.

The museum still could use more volunteers to work as docents.

Volunteer Dodi Chew is in charge of docent scheduling. More information is available at the museum office at 212 W. Walnut St., below the Nevada Public Library. The Old Jail is within easy walking distance fronting on South Main Street.

One admission for both locations is $5 for adults, $2 for students 12 to 18, and $1 for children 6 and under. Members of the Vernon County Historical Society are admitted free.

In continuing outreach activity, the museum was to be open today for a tour by 30-some members of the Kansas City Civil War Round Table.

On May 18, Ramsey will teach Nevada eighth grade history classes and museum volunteers will assist in escorting them the next day on a tour of the Old Jail. Bronaugh students will tour on May 17.

On July 10, Lyndon Irwin will be the guest speaker at the Historical Society's quarterly meeting speaking about his new book on Bronaugh. Vernon County fourth grade students will be welcomed at the annual Missouri History Day program on Sept. 22.

With the help of the Steven Woody Memorial Fund and a grant from the Nevada Tourism Group, the Society has produced 10,000 colorful and newly updated advertising rack cards featuring the image of a Bushwhacker and museum and jail. They will be widely distributed during this the first year of the Civil War Sesquicentennial.

Already the museum has been featured in newspaper stories in Joplin and Kansas City in conjunction with the Sesquicentennial.

During May and June the first of two traveling exhibits will be on display at the Bushwhacker. The first features the Blackjack Battlefield near Baldwin, Kansas, which involved abolitionist John Brown in the battle on June 2, 1856.

The second exhibit will be "Divided Loyalties: Civil War Documents from the Missouri State Archives" scheduled for August, September and October.

"This is a perfect time to join the historical society and get involved in the important history of our region," Ramsey noted. For more information, contact the museum office at (417) 667-9602.