history of the heisey museum
Brief History
In 1921, a small group of concerned citizens, dedicated to preserving local history for future generations, founded the Clinton County Historical Society. In the ensuing 75 plus years, the society has grown tremendously with the true goal of preserving the county's treasures. In addition to the Society's home base at the Heisey Museum, the group has acquired numerous possessions throughout the county for the public to learn about, explore, and reminisce. Such treasures include: the Barton Street School, the Farrandsville Iron Furnace, and the Castanea Railroad Station.
The Clinton County Historical Society has not only committed itself to the preservation of local history but to educating the public, as well. The Society is proud of its school programs that continue to thrive year round, its monthly program for the public, and the dozens of tours given throughout the Heisey Museum and other sites each month. The Society's office can be found at the Heisey Museum, 362 E. Water St., Lock Haven, PA 17745.
The Clinton County Historical Society's main attraction is located in the heart of Lock Haven. The spectacular eight room Victorian home, known at the Heisey Museum, is fully restored to the mid 1800's. This house has served as a farmhouse, tavern, doctor's home, and home to several other locally prominent families. First constructed as a Federal style building, circa 1830, it acquired its Gothic character in a major remodeling, circa 1865. The property was deeded to the Society by Mrs. Cora Frey Heisey in 1962 in memory of her husband, Samuel Morse Heisey. The home must be maintained in its present state to be used as a museum and to display the Victorian era collections in room settings which reflect life as it was in Lock Haven 175 years ago. The Heisey Museum has served as the home to the Clinton County Historical Society.
The Historical Society
In 1962 the widow of Mr. Samuel Heisey gave this property to the Clinton County Historical Society for use as a museum. The Society had been without permanent headquarters since its inception in 1921. Mr. Heisey had been a long time member of the organization and fully realize the historic importance of this site. After the June 1972 flood the Board of Trustees reaffirmed the Society's commitment to the preservation of its most significant artifact the Heisey House. Funds from various sources, public and private, have been employed since 1972 to restore this site as a period setting. During the time that Americans are awakening to their Victorian heritage, the Society's objective is to re-establish the external appearance of this Gothic Revival house during the early part of its occupancy by the Ball family. It is intended that the rooms forward of the kitchens reflect a setting similar to that enjoyed by the Balls (1860-1911). The kitchens and the dining room attempt to re-capture the environment of those spaces during the time the Fearon family lived here (1854-1860). This site has lived through all the significant periods in the life of the Lock Haven area; first, when the pioneers carved an existence from the wilderness, the canal era as a tavern, the pre-Civil War speculative period, the railroad and lumbering booms, and the paper mill era of post 1900.
Heisey Museum
The Heisey Museum is part of a brick Federal farmhouse built about 1831 by Dr. John Henderson of Huntington County who married a daughter of John Fleming, a local landowner. Jerry Church, the founder of Lock Haven lived here when the building was used as a tavern, run by John and Walter Develing. Although Church and the Devlings both owned the property, the dwelling reverted back to the Hendersons in 1852 when Dr. William J. Henderson practiced medicine here.
William Fearon, Jr. of Beech Creek bought the house in 1854 and enlarged the building with brick additions in the rear. Seymour D. Ball became the next owner and in 1865 the house was extensively remodeled to its present state of Victorian Gothic Revival. Gables and verge board (decorative trim at edge of roof) and porches were added and windows enlarged and partitions removed. Mr. Ball was a lawyer and his family resided here until 1911.
Mrs. Thomas Mann of the Mill Hall Axe Factory Manns was the next owner and her daughter Jean became the first wife of Samuel Heisey. Cora Frey Heisey, the second wife of Mr. Heisey, gave the house to the Clinton County Historical Society for use a Museum in 1962. After the flood of 1972, the Society decided to restore the Museum as a mid-nineteenth century house as it would have appeared when the Fearons and Balls lived here.
The first step at restoration was a selection of wallpapers similar to those of the period. Floor coverings, window treatments and furniture are compromises of limited resources, donations and volunteer's efforts.
The Society incorporated in 1921, found a permanent headquarters in this building in 1962 when Mrs. Cora Fry Heisey bequeathed the home to them.
After the flood of 1972 the Society restored the house as a museum showing the Gothic revival dwelling as it might have appeared after the Civil War when Lock Haven was a booming lumber town. It was a Federal Style red brick farm house having a center hall, two rooms with fireplaces on each side on both floors. The following are other similar Clinton County Farm Houses: Locust Lane Farm in Beech Creek, Sullenberger Farm above Mill Hall, and Furst Farm along the Jacksonville Road.
The museum had a plain pitched roof and small Moline windows, one of which is still in the back kitchen. The home appears like this in an oil painting done by an itinerant painter from across the river about 1850. A companion painting to this work hangs in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Early History
It is certain that in the thousands of years of human history that Indians passed through this small plot along the banks of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. The first dwelling on the 200 acre farm was a crude cabin occupied by Roger Devling and his family. The location of the building was the front yard of the Beardsley House two doors east of the museum building. The Devlings were tenant farmers for Dr. John Henderson of Huntington County, who had come into ownership of this tract through his marriage to a daughter of John Fleming. The Flemings once owned a large part of what is now Lock Haven.