Owned and operated by the Broadwater County Historical Society, which held its first meeting on August 21, 1970, the society worked for two years toward opening the Broadwater County Museum. Construction began in April 1974 and, though not yet open to the public, the society held its first annual meeting to take place in the completed building a year later. Continuing to expand thereafter, work on a new addition to the museum was completed in 2000. Featured within the new addition are a "
half-scale model of a dugout canoe of the type Lewis & Clark and the Corps of Discovery built on their voyage along the upper Missouri. Also featured are an authentic sheep herders wagon, a horse drawn carriage and a buffalo skin."
The Museum features an extensive historical library,
The Eleanor Marks Library. Included in the library are copies of most of the local newspapers, dating back to the 1800s. The library also has extensive records of obituaries of local residents and the location of their burial, as well as links to comprehensive information on the cemeteries and burial sites in Broadwater County.
Within the museum are a wealth of artefacts relating to the story of the people of Broadwater County, including domestic life, business life, agricultural life and cultural life. Of interest to many who visit the Museum are the
Family History files, which contain histories of many local families, both past and present.
In the
Homemaking section of the museum is a quite complete collection of utensils, containers and appliances which would have been found in the well appointed kitchen of the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, including this
Laundry Machine, precursor to today's laundry washer. This unit happened to have been manufactured by a one time maker of butter churns, who saw the writing on the wall, graduating from churning to swishing.
Prima Domestic Laundry Machine
Buckeye Churn Company - Sydney, Ohio
Before the days of pasteurized milk and processed dairy products such as butter, Sidney, Ohio, residents relied on milk from cows. Butter had to be created by a labor-intensive effort of stirring or 'churning' the milk so that the butter would rise to the top of the milk and separate. The butter churn became yet another interesting product made in this community.
The Buckeye Churn Company was formed in Carey, Ohio, a small Wyandot County village, in 1888 by James Anderson and Wilson Carothers. The company relocated here in 1891. The plant, built at 1122 Park Street, (west of what is today Ross Aluminum on Oak Avenue) made wooden butter churns, along with other miscellaneous wooden items. The churn, into which milk would be poured, was rocked back and forth. The dividers inside helped separate the butter from the milk. The 'Prima' was the trade name selected for the churn.
Mr. Carothers left the Buckeye Churn in 1911 to form a confectionery business with his sons. Mr. Anderson, with his sons then in the business, began the manufacture of washing machines with wooden tubs a few years later. The idea was invented and patented by R. J. Anderson, one of James' sons. This product was so successful that the company concentrated solely on its manufacture. The name of the company was changed to the Prima Washing Machine Company. The Great Depression of the 1930s hurt the business. A fire in 1939 destroyed the plant on west Park Street and it was never rebuilt.
From the Shelby County, OH Archives