In Praise of Small Town Museums

Those who find small-town museums boring - or all the same - are missing a lot. Arguably, small museums keep local history alive in ways no one else can, by preserving the unique heritage that larger big-city institutions overlook. The sites I visited yesterday do a deep dive into the specific industries, families, and history that shaped their parts of Oxford County. 

Ingersoll Cheese Museum

This cheesiest of all small town museums first opened in 1977 with a grant from the Canadian government, on a site donated by the Town of Ingersoll. It began as a recreation of a nineteenth-century Oxford County cheese factory, appropriate for this dairy capital of Ontario. In fact, it's just along the road from where cheesemaker James Harris' original factory was, the current site of Elm Hurst Inn. Harris and two other gents produced the 1866 Mammoth Cheese, as a display in the museum's gallery indicates:

Part of the historical signage featuring Oxford's Mammoth Cheese.

Over time, the museum has acquired other buildings, including a local history gallery, blacksmith shop, barns, and a schoolhouse portraying two different time periods of one-room schools.

Some railway history in the main gallery.

The Allen Dairy milk wagon.

Blacksmith shop.

The Museum Mouse, at large in the smithy. Every museum needs a Critter Curator.

Children might be freaked out by the schoolteacher's desk, complete with straps. Ouch!

The Reta L. Dickson classroom. How much could you learn, sitting on a bench, facing the wall, and writing on a slate, while the woodstove crackled behind you?

Beachville District Museum

Beachville is one of Oxford County's earliest European settlements, but it probably has only about 1,000 residents, so it might still be surprising that it has such an imposing museum. But it does:

The ground floor of the historic main building dates to 1851, which was when owner Philander King had the home built out of local fieldstone. The second storey, made of limestone, was added by the Downing family in 1902. The Downings were big figures in the local limestone industry, John Downing being one of the founders of the local quarries. The family sold the home in 1969, but Beachvilime Ltd. retained the house for decades before selling it to the Beachville District Historical Society in 1992.* The cost? $2.

The interior features a reproduction drawing room and a kitchen filled with antique equipment. Upstairs is a work in progress, but staff are completing a bedroom, antique children's toy collection, display on the lime industry, replica of a general store, and even an old-time bathroom.

What's unique, however, is the connection to baseball history. Beachville is the site of the earliest recorded baseball game in Canada:

In fact, we now know it was the earliest recorded baseball game in North America, predating Cooperstown by a year. Little did those pioneer players know they were literally making history. But it turns out that in 1886, Dr. Adam E. Ford, a Beachville doctor who moved to Denver, wrote a letter to Sporting Life magazine describing the match he witnessed as a child in Upper Canada. His letter is the first formally recorded account of a baseball game.* 

Note that the game wasn't played on the museum site, but farther into the village. But the museum is making the most of the ballgame connection, including Assistant Curator Sidney Williams' hands-on baseball-making workshops. 

Some Other Thoughts on Small-Town Museums

The guides in such museums are often local residents or historians, eager to share the origins of their displays. Enthusiasm makes the driest history come to life. 

The two museums above operate on a pay-what-you-can donation basis, which makes them accessible learning places for families and those without ample means. 

There's an informal, non-intimidating aura about such museums. The world's largest, supposedly greatest, museums are daunting as heck. Not Ingersoll and Beachville. Go out and enjoy.

* https://beachvilledistrictmuseum.com/baseball 

Labatt Park, the World's Oldest Baseball Grounds

 

Labatt Park, the world's oldest continuously used baseball grounds, is finally receiving the promotion it deserves. I say "finally" because, despite owning the park since 1936, the City of London hasn't done much to boost its fame. But this summer, Tourism London is providing tours of the park, which has brand new interpretive signs as well as historical displays in the Roy McKay Clubhouse. You can book your tour here.

Some readers don't need to be told. You're already fans of baseball and Labatt Park. You enjoy the leisurely pace of the game, the fun of keeping a scorecard, the quoting of statistics. You love evening games, sitting in the grandstand under a dark, moonlit sky, the lights of downtown London shining across the River Thames. You also enjoy sitting in the stands on a bright summer day sipping a cold beer, cheering the crack of the bat. 

For others it's like watching paint dry. You may not be into spectator sports at all. 

Even if you're not into baseball, though, Labatt Park is still of interest to everyone interested in London history. Or women's history. Or black history. Some of the new signs illustrate why:

Signboard images courtesy of Tourism London.

The sign above illustrates how the floods of 1883 and 1937 were devastating to Labatt Park as well as the rest of downtown London. The 1883 flood destroyed the original grandstand. The Flood of '37 damaged the park again, necessitating the building of the park's third grandstand and a new clubhouse. 

During the first half of the 20th century, Labatt Park was visited by various Negro League teams from the US. Famed pitcher Satchell Paige visited in 1954 while touring with a baseball version of the Harlem Globetrotters. After Jackie Robinson broke the "colour barrier" in 1947, players formerly in the Negro Leagues, like Ted Alexander, played in the Intercounty Baseball League. 

During World War II, Labatt Park was the home field for several women's baseball, softball and fastball teams, including the London Supremes who played in the Michigan-Ontario Women's Fastball League right into the 1950s. It's like A League of Their Own right here in London. At left on the above sign is Marion Clark Knowles, pitching for the London Supremes. 

Courtesy of Stephen Harding

Information on the above topics and more can also be found inside the Roy McKay Clubhouse (right) which has been turned into a museum space. Shown here are displays about the Supremes, the PUC Playground Olympics, and the famous London Tecumsehs. The Tecumsehs, created in 1868, were named after their patron, the Tecumseh House Hotel that once stood at York and Richmond streets. One of their players was Fred Goldsmith, probably the inventor of the curve ball as this book explains. In 1877, the Tecumsehs became international champions by defeating the Pittsburgh Alleghenies 5-2 to win the International Baseball Association championship. Before it was Labatt Park, the diamond was Tecumseh Park. 

Courtesy of Tourism London

You never know who'll drop by while you're in the clubhouse. Here Barry Moore, 97, poses with a display of his own uniform, glove, and spikes. Mr. Moore, a retired teacher and minister, also found time to be a pitcher for the London Army team of the Intercounty Baseball League. The jerseys  in the background represent London Majors players who enjoyed exceptional careers during the team's 96-year history. Also on display are the jerseys of Londoners who have been inducted in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys.

Today, of course, Labatt Park is home to the London Majors of the Intercounty Baseball League. More information about the team and former players can be found here. Founded in 1925, the Majors are getting pretty historic themselves. 

Let's Play Ball!