2022 Tuesday Talks: Season Schedule

The Forest County Historical Society has set education as a priority in serving our Forest County community. We have finalized our schedule for our Tuesday lecture series called Tuesday Talks at the Museum.  These talks all start at 7:00 at the museum.  Speakers will talk for half of an hour and then stay around until 8:00 for any questions from the audience.  This event is free for all museum members and cost $5.00 for nonmembers.  We hope we have an interesting line up for you this summer and you will come and join us.    

June7- We will watch a video recording of a Wood Hick and a Roustabout of the Oil Industry. This is a project of the Lumber Heritage Region of which the Forest County Historical Society is a member. The two men in the video portray men in their respective fields. This is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

June 14 – FCHS Board member, Janet Fennel will talk about Cyrus Blood who founded Forest County and Marienville.

June21 – SFC Steven G. Appleby US Army Retired, Curator Education & Programs,
Eldred WWII Museum . SFC Steven will join us and talk about WWII as well as his museum. His museum houses models built by former Tionesta resident, Dr. William Fleming.

June 28 – Amanda Hetrick, Elisha Pospisal will play and sing songs for us.

July 5 – Denny Lamb will speak about Admiral Davis, of Tionesta.

July 12 – Matt Savinda, of the Pa. Game Commission-will be with us once again and this year he will speak about Eagles.

July 19 – Terry Janosik, is the President at Townline Lumber and Excavation. Terry also has a hobby of videotaping and has some beautiful video of Forest County spots I would like to do a program on the Cross Iron Furnace located on Little Hickory.

July 26 – Morgan Silvis, Natural Resources Specialist, US Army Corps of Engineers will speak on Invasive Species.

August 2 – FCHS Board member, Rodney Daum will speak on D.W. Clark, from Tionesta who served in the Civil War.

August 9 – E.G. Bell – Tribute to Bert Nemcick. Ed and Bert were both writers for the Forest Press. Bert passed away this year and Ed will pay tribute to his life and legacy.

August 16 – Butch Johnson to talk about Jack McMichael. Jack is an original founder of the Tionesta Indian Festival. He was inducted into the Turtle Clan.

August 23 – Leonard Nicklas- although he has yet to finalize his subject, it will be on the Marienville area.

August 30 – Brian Hale – Tionesta Centennial Celebration 1956.

Community Scavenger Hunt

We are working with the Forest Area School District this month on several events. First, a Community Scavenger Hunt is being run by the schools PTO. It will be open to the entire West Forest Elementary School. Students will come to the door, sign in and look for the gold and blue star in our “Heritage room”, receive a sticker for their own card and leave via the side door. Parents of course are welcome to come with the child. The hours for this special event are: Thursday May 5 – 4:00 – 6:00pm, Friday May 6 – 4:00 – 6:00pm, Saturday May 7- 10:00 2:00pm, Monday May 9 – 4:00 – 6:00pm, and Tuesday May 10 – 4:00 – 6:00pm.

FCHS Summer Intern Position

The Forest County Historical Society is seeking a high school or college student to be an intern at the History Museum in Tionesta during the summer of 2022. The intern will help us organize our resource room, improve our displays, create activities for school children and generally help us run the museum during the summer. This position is 20 hours per week at $10.00 per hour for 10 weeks. The intern will be given an educational stipend at the end of the summer. Applications should be submitted by April 15.

Information about the Historical Society can be found at this website: http://ForestCountyPAHistory.org

If you’re interested in this position please complete this brief application form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FCHSIntern2022

If you’d like more information please contact us at ForestCountyPAHistory@gmail.com

Forest County Historical Society Spring Dinner

Our Spring Dinner will be held at the Methodist Church in Marienville on Wednesday, April 27.  The speakers will tell us about Leo Nuhfer.  Leo attended East Forest School, played basketball while at East Forest and played the saxophone in the band. He also hunted with his dad. He then went to Penn State Behrend Center, and DeVry Institute of Technology and earned an electronics degree. He also served in the Air Force for 4 years.  When Leo died in 2020, he left 10% of his estate to the Forest County Historical Society.  This is probably the largest gift that the Society has ever received.  Leo’s brother Ray and wife Debra and Leo’s Sister Rose Whitlinger will speak at our Spring Dinner and tell us more about Leo and their father Clarence Nuhfer. Clarence once served as the Treasurer of the Historical Society.

Download the Spring Dinner Registration Form

Forest County Survey

The Forest County Historical Society would like all seasonal and full-time residents of Forest County to complete a survey for us. This will help us plan programs to better meet your needs.
The survey may be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FCHS2022

We will serve hot dogs preceding the Tionesta Lights Up activities

We will serve hot dogs from 4-6 on Dec 4 preceding the Tionesta Lights Up activities.

Tribute to Ryan Burke Beach

The Forest County Historical Society is saddened to announce the unexpected passing of Ryan Burke Beach.  Ryan has been on our Board of Directors for many years.  He has always taken an interest in history especially Forest County history.  Burke often talked about the importance of handing on our heritage to our future.  Serving on the Buildings and Grounds Committee, he took great care in making sure the grounds were well cared for and in good shape.  Some of his more recent contributions to the society are his interest in and care of the Model T, the new roof, organizing the basement and the attic, updating the electricity, Civil War presentations at both Tuesday Talks and most recently at our Fall Dinner, the new sign which is in the works to better identify the building as a museum.

Our Board has now met once without Burke and each of us discussed the things we will miss about this simple but honorable man.

Tuesday Talks… What we learned in 2021

Peggy Butler kicked off this year’s Tuesday Talks on May 25th with a presentation on the state insect, the firefly. Peggy and her husband Ken have chaired the PA Firefly Festival for the past 9 years to celebrate rare synchronous fireflies found here in Forest County.

Peggy was followed by Georgene Searfoss, author of Longings of the Heart.

On June 8th, Hillary Jebitsch from The Lumber Heritage Region of Pennsylvania discussed her research on diversity within our region’s lumber history.

Our next speaker was Robert Pringle, author of several fictional books that take place in Forest County. Robert shared his research and study of the Nebraska area that he used to write his books.

On June 22nd, Steve Sorenson, an award-winning outdoor writer whose column “The Everyday Hunter” currently appears in the Jamestown Gazette and the Forest Press, presented “Pennsylvania – Home to Coyotes for more than 80 years.”

On June 29th, Mary Alyce Knauff gave a presentation on the Robinson family and the house they built, which is now the home of our county’s History Museum.

The following Tuesday, Brian Hale spoke about the Purinton Pottery Factory, which used to be located in Tionesta. It later became the Evenflo-Crater factory. The History Center has many pieces produced by both Purinton and Evenflo.

On July 13th, Kevin Carter discussed the restoration of the Marienville Railroad station.

On July 20th, Terry Janosik, President at Townline Lumber and Excavation, showed videos of some historic spots in Forest County.

Doris Bisker England joined us the following week. She is the author of In the Forest. Doris drew a record crowd of people wanting to hear about life in the past. Her daughter Diane joined her and read some excerpts from her book.

Ed Bell, writer for the Forest Press, gave us an appreciation for “The Magic of The Forest”. He spoke about the magic of the forest and how he came to feel that way from the time he was introduced.

On August 10th, Matthew Savinda from the PA Game Commission gave a very animated talk about owls found in Pennsylvania, including identifying the sounds they make.

The following week, Amanda Hetrick, Superintendent of Forest Area Schools, presented American Folk Songs. Amanda was accompanied by Elisha Pospisil on the guitar.

On August 24th, FCHS Board member Leonard Nicklas taught us about trivia facts from around Forest County with an emphasis on the Marienville clubs.

The last speaker for the summer was Jim Brunner, a writer for the Forest Press who spoke on “The wonders of your own backyard.”

Haslet Completes Multi-Year Internship at FCHS Museum

Aimee Haslet of Tionesta began her internship at the History Museum in the summer of 2018, right after she graduated from high school. She is on-track to graduate from Clarion University
this December and will begin her graduate study in speech pathology at Clarion in January 2022. During her four summers working with the Forest County Historical Society, Aimee completed a number of projects. These included creation of a scavenger hunt for kids and several PowerPoint presentations to display in the museum. These include presentations on the artifacts on the second floor of the museum, the basement, and the lumber camp. The digital presentations allow people with mobility issues to see these artifacts without navigating the stairs. Aimee also spent countless hours updating our accession records.

Best wishes, Aimee, and thank you for all your hard work!

Special thanks to Mr. Jim Brunner

We ended our Tuesday Talks at the museum last night. Special thanks to Mr Jim Brunner, Forest Press columnist for a great ending to our season with “The magic  of your own back yard.”  Thank you Jim for reminding us what a gem we have here in Forest County.
Last night after the talk we ended the season with cookies and visiting with the friends we have made this summer. This summer we have seen 223 visitors come to hear these short talks about concerns to Forest County. Thank you to all who came and shared and got to know their neighbors a little better as well as learn about Forest County. We hope to see you again next year. If you know of a person. Or subject you would like to see next season, or if you could share your appreciation of any part of Forest County please let us know through our email forestcountypahistory@gmail.com
See you next summer.