Museum Corner january 2022
This beautiful square 1885 grand piano is on permanent display in the gallery. Visible in the background: a 1948 FADA Television Receiver, a circa 1900 Silverstone wind-up phonograph record player and a 1929 Atwater Kent floor-model radio located in the Home Entertainment display.
That’s “home” entertainment
By Becky Buher
(Printed in the Times-Mail newspaper on Jan. 5, 2022)
Let’s look back to ways Americans once enjoyed themselves at home. You’ll find an exhibit in the museum gallery called Home Entertainment.
We now have many ways to be entertained—flat screen televisions, movies available on demand and music at our fingertips, personal phones, iPods, SiriusXM, Alexa and Google Home, MP3 files, personal playlists and music services such as Spotify, Amazon, Apple.
A few decades ago, it was boom boxes, 8-tracks, and before that, transistor radios. In the 1940s, families might have watched a very early television or more likely listened to a table-model or large floor-model radio that required large vacuum tubes in order to work. The television on display has a huge “picture tube.” Also shown is a table-model radio and a wind-up record player with Edison records.
Even before televisions and radios, there were musical instruments. A piano, a guitar, violin or any number of wind or string instruments might have been cherished at home.
For local residents, the piano brought artistic influences and made gathering around the home piano opportunities to enjoy music with family and friends.
In 1940, writer Zora Askew, detailed some of the first pianos that belonged to early Lawrence County residents.
The first piano in Bedford arrived in the 1830-1840s when Dr. Winthrop Foote, who was the county’s first physician, ordered one for his daughter, Minerva. The Foote home was located near the courthouse (northwest corner of 15th and I Streets).
Just across the street was the Hendricks House, an early inn (location of the current jail), where daughter, Kate Hendricks, received the second piano in Bedford.
Moses Fell lived in a two-story frame house at the southwest corner of the public square. He had three daughters, and one of them, Antoinette, owned the third piano in Bedford. Her precious piano eventually was recycled into a dining room table for Mrs. Henry P. Pearson.
Joseph Rawlins (southwest corner of 15th and J streets) got a piano for his daughter, Mary. It was a prized possession when it arrived from Louisville and was the fourth piano in town.
William Ragsdale was another early piano owner. He was a large landholder and built the Red Brick mansion that now graces Otis Park. He purchased a piano for his daughters. By the time they received the piano, the family had moved into town and were living in the brick house known as the Renney house, (southeast corner of 14th and L streets—current location of German American Insurance and Keach and Grove Real Estate). Ragsdale’s daughter, Isis Ragsdale McDaniel, remembered the thrill of the new square piano which came into her home in 1862.
The four Culbertson girls had a square piano in their home (southwest corner of 15th and K streets) — their home was a community center for society people.
One of the most musical groups of Bedford was the Reed family. The piano that graced the parlor of their home (northeast corner of 14th and K streets) was treasured all her life by the late Sallie Reed Bass. When she died, the piano was given to Spring Mill State Park and was placed in the lobby of Spring Mill Inn.
Wealthy entrepreneur, Jesse A. Mitchell, had a piano in his parlor (southwest corner of 15th and L), and he presented a new piano to his daughters when each of them married.
In the county, Capt. A. H. Gainey, pioneer merchant of Springville, bought a foreign-made Erard piano for his granddaughter, Craigie. Thomas Jordon, pioneer lumberman of Fayetteville, had the first piano in Fayetteville.
Remembrance Tree display
Many of us were entertained with music during the 2021 Christmas season, the cantata at the Baptist Church, Christmas songs at our local churches, time with family. That all seemed to take on extra meaning this year as the pandemic continued to migrate and mutate around the world.
Lawrence County has not escaped. In order to remember each local person who has died, a Yellow Ribbon Memory Tree has been placed in the museum gallery front window. On it hang bells tied with yellow ribbons. Each yellow ribbon is a silent remembrance of a local citizen who has died from the COVID-19 virus. The number will be updated periodically. At the time of this writing 202 people are represented (no names) and their lives are remembered there.