Helena History Draws Eager Crowd To Museum
HELENA - The town of Brasher used to be a booming center of industry in St. Lawrence County.
"In the 1850s, there were about 43 businesses here," according to Carlton E. Stickney, a Helena Historical Society member and organizer of the Town Museum's annual Old Home Sunday. "All of the communities here were self-sustaining. The Depression was what changed that."
Approximately two dozen people gathered on the lawn of the museum Sunday to get a look at the myriad photographs, equipment and other historic items on display, and reminisce about the town's bygone days.
It's taken more than three decades and a lot of footwork to amass a collection of items representing the town's history, fellow Historical Society member Ruth B. Johnstone said.
"We've done it little by little by little," she said.
Mrs. Johnstone said establishing the museum itself was a labor of love. The museum is a former Presbyterian church built in 1837 that was abandoned. The Historical Society gathered its forces to restore it in the mid-1970s.
"It's sagging here and there, but it's still sound," Mr. Stickney said.
Photographs of the P.E. Kennehan Agricultural Works and items from the former Brasher Ironworks are displayed prominently, along with a hand-painted stage curtain from the former Lavair Hall, a rare cast-iron flax wheel, locally made furniture and news clippings of town happenings.
"Most of the people who live here now don't remember back very far. Almost all of the ones who would remember have died and their descendants have gone away," Mrs. Johnstone said.
But one group of descendants always makes its way back home. Members of the Nevin family, the town's first settlers, are fixtures at Old Home Sunday.
"I wouldn't miss it," said John A. Nevin Sr., who lives outside Syracuse. "It would have to take some horrible accident to keep me away."
The Historical Society is always looking for new members. Anyone interested in joining can call Mrs. Johnstone at 769-2355 or Sallie E. Patterson at 1 (518) 358-4474.
