Pioneer spirit

Pioneeer Daughters Eleanor McInnes, Jeanette Overmoen and Violet Skogen will be the museum’s special guests at the July 4 Ice Cream Social.

By MICHELLE MCLEAN
If not for the determination and vision of the Pioneer Daughters, Hillsboro’s Plummer House might never have become the stately museum it is today.
In August of 1965, the ladies saved the dilapidated mansion-turned-apartment house from further indignities. They rescued a local landmark and found a long-awaited home for “our relics.”
Less than two years later — in May 1967 — they opened the revitalized house to the public as the official “Traill County Historical Society Museum.” More than 500 people were welcomed inside the first day to see the treasures of the county’s history.
Paying tribute; saying thanks
The surviving members of the Pioneer Daughters will be honored July 4th at the Plummer House’s annual ice cream social, to mark the mansion’s 40 years as a county museum. A special tea will be served in the dining room from 3 to 4 p.m. as a tribute to the Pioneer Daughters and their early preservation efforts.
The sole surviving charter member, Jeanette Overmoen of Hillsboro, plans to be there and eight other members who have been invited as well. Founded in March 1947 with 57 charter members, the Pioneer Daughter “dissolved” in September 1998 with 14 members who promised to continue “meetings of a social nature.”
Overmoen, 96, recalled when the women’s group started “Project Museum.”
The house “needed a lot of work,” she said with a weary sigh of remembrance.
“If nobody had taken hold of that house, it would have been ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
“Some people were skeptical we could do it,” Overmoen said of the dream of turning an old house into a museum. “It took a good many years to get it done but we proved them wrong,” Overmoen said.

From mansion to ‘wayside inn’
Built in 1897 by wealthy banker Amos Plummer for his new wife Lillie, the three-story 16-room home was a grand example of Queen Anne architecture and cost a princely sum of $10,000. Maple floors, stained glass windows and Italian tile around the fireplace were paired with brick made in Hillsboro. As suited his station in local society, Plummer spared no expense to build one of the finest homes in town and in the region. Newspaper accounts called it “perfect,” and the “proudest residence” in Hillsboro.
Plummer lived only a short time in his spectacular new home. He died in 1903. His wife Lillie died in 1911 and left the house to her brother Frank Wilson. He and his family lived there for several years. After his death, his widow fell on hard times and rented out rooms in the once grand house, now called “Wilson’s Wayside Inn.”
By the 1940s the home was revamped again and spent 20 years as an apartment building with a succession of owners. Walls were installed to divide the rooms and create more living space on all three spacious floors.
By the 1960s, the house had been home to countless people and much of its original grandeur had faded.
In search
of a museum
The Pioneer Daughters first documented their search for “a museum room for heirlooms” in their club report dated 1948-49. Their quest would take nearly two decades to complete.
Mention was made again in the December 16, 1958 minutes that a room may be available in the old armory for “our pioneer relics.” The items included a clock donated by Miss Minnie Sorum, a violin belonging to George Engebretson and an old organ. The possible storage space didn’t work out long- term it seemed. By the early 1960s, the ladies were considering a renovated railroad car or the former “Pentecostal” Church as a “permanent place to exhibit our relics.”
Determined to create a home for the county’s historic treasures, the women sought cooperation outside their group to form a county historical society. They led a petition drive to convince the county commission to act on their plan. By law, the county could provide up to $5,000 a year from its general fund to help support a museum.
In 1964, the Pioneer Daughters enlisted the assistance of an attorney and the Homemakers Clubs in the county in an all-out campaign for an official county historical society and a museum to call home. Fifteen of the county’s 22 Homemakers Clubs pledged their support.
In July 1965, the Pioneer Daughters visited the old Plummer House on Caledonia Avenue — at the invitation of its owner William Meline. The house could be theirs, Meline offered — if the ladies paid the final mortgage payment ($590.80) and the back taxes ($175.33). A straw poll of the 19 members present was unanimous to accept Meline’s generous offer. When the ladies suggested the museum be named after him for his generous gift, Meline said he was flattered but declined.
Ten days later the Pioneer Daughters met again to formally vote on the purchase. Concerns about expensive repairs and maintenance resulted in a secret vote of 13-5 — in favor of buying the Plummer House.
Checks were written on August 11, 1965 to buy the house and pay the taxes. It was a leap of financial faith for the Pioneer Daughters, drawing $766.13 from a checking balance of only $1,300.
Finally with a place to call a museum, the ladies pushed ahead with “Project Museum” and led the charge to organize a county historical society. Within a matter of weeks, they “reactivated” the Goose River Historical Society that had been formed in 1956. They had the official blessing of the state by October 1965.
Creating a county-wide society opened the door for the group to receive tax revenues from a special one-half mill levy, equal to about $1,500 a year, the Pioneer Daughters noted in their records. The tax money was available through brand new state legislation and Traill County was the first historical society to qualify under it.
The museum ladies garnered support by “telephoning, writing letters and visiting people.” They also had the backing of Hillsboro Banner editor Gene Carr to promote the idea in the local newspaper.
The campaign letter read, “Preserving the articles of culture and industry brought to Traill County by the early Norsemen, Germans and Scots, is a noble and splendid contribution to this community.”
They quickly signed up 125 members for the society and laid a solid foundation for the future. The local society would elect officers — all men except for Pioneer Daughter Stella Kelly, who was “a driving force,” Overmoen recalled.

Making a house a museum
As luck would have it, decorative woodwork that had been removed during the mansion’s “apartment years” had been safely stashed intact in the attic — along with the home’s original blueprints. Paired with details from Lillie’s descriptive daily journals, it all served as a roadmap for restoring the house to its former self.
Being practical and thrifty, the first order of business for the Pioneer Daughters was making rugs for the floors of the museum-to-be and curtains for the many windows. Strips were cut from old wool coats and braided to make two 10×12 foot rugs to protect the parquet maple floors. Donated drapes were hung.
The women also visited other museums to learn how to catalog the many items given to the museum.
Two local oil companies donated oil to heat the house. Volunteers refinished the wood floors. It was a true community effort, remembered Eleanor McInnes, who served as the last president of the Pioneer Daughters in 1998.
Once the doors of the museum officially opened in May 1967, the Pioneer Daughters served as hostesses providing tours on the weekends.
On opening day, the displays included personal belongings of former North Dakota governor and Hillsboro resident E.Y. Sarles, an extensive collection of arrowheads found by John Beach, an English pewter tray dating from 1747, a egg crate manufactured in Hillsboro in 1897, a Civil War field desk, a hand-carved oxen yoke and a silver tea service used by Norwegian King Olav when he paid a visit to Hillsboro.
Early on, the Pioneer Daughters also secured the centerpiece of its fledgling collection — an authentic Red River ox cart, a gift from the Great Northern Railroad, one of only three in the entire state.
McInnes recalled how the women raised money for their project with countless “smorgasbords” or community lunches. Ironically, the museums major fundraisers still center around food — a bratwurst feed, an ice cream social and a Christmas dinner.
Under the supervision of the Traill County Historical Society board, restoration efforts at the Plummer House continue to this day. The museum’s collection grows and changes with each passing year. Visitors still delight in the treasures that are found in the Plummer House, the house that became a museum and, at long-last, home to Traill’s “relics.”
It was the Pioneer Daughters who made it happen.