Keepers of the house

MCHS recognizes volunteers for National Volunteer Week

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When she walks through the door at the Lane Place, Terri Fyffe is surrounded by the things she loves.

As a volunteer for the Montgomery County Historical Society, which owns and maintains the landmark house, Fyffe can marvel at the antiques decorating the rooms where Henry S. Lane once held court with the leading political figures of his time.

“It’s fascinating. All the stuff that was in the house, all the historical treasures and the stories attached to them,” said Fyffe, sitting at her desk in the museum’s office one afternoon last week.

Fyffe, who also sits on the organization’s board, is part of a small group of core volunteers who help run the museum and educate people about Montgomery County history. Following the death of longtime gardener Ruth Johnson in 2019, the Flower Lovers Garden Club manages the gardens. The organization keeps a book listing period-specific plants for Victorian-era homes.

MCHS took to social media this week recognizing the history buffs for National Volunteer Week.

“They make it possible for us to exist,” executive director Jill Coates-Matthews said.

Board secretary Dian Moore retired from Crawfordsville District Public Library as the head of the local history and genealogy department, but the library’s online databases are often her first stop for researching the county’s past. She also catalogs artifacts in a digital inventory system and indexes files.

Moore wants to dig into Lane’s life in Kentucky, where he was born and became a lawyer before moving to Crawfordsville in the 1830s.

On tours, she explains why Lane’s wife, Joanna, bought furniture from the booming river town of Cincinnati where trade was brisk and shows visitors the museum’s most popular artifact, a Civil War surgeon’s kit that had been buried after a siege.

The museum is open for tours three days a week and two Saturdays a month. Tours can be booked online at www.lane-mchs.org or by contacting the museum office at 765-362-3416 or info@lane-mchs.org.


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