A successful first year for Stonefort depot museum
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[As railroads connect towns to towns, the museum in Stonefort's old depot connects people to the town and each other.
The Stonefort Depot/Community and Blackman Hardware Store Museums is open for its second season. The artifacts housed there and the names on the guestbook are growing all the time.
"One thing leads to another, like a giant jigsaw puzzle," owner and operator Linda Blackman said.
If Blackman is the owner, board member Hovie Stunson must be the conductor. Trains are Stunson's specialty and he becomes animated talking about the Big Four, New York Central and the various Cairo and Vincennes Railroad companies that ran past the depot on the route that now supports the Tunnel Hill State Trail.
From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 28 Blackman and Stunson invite everyone to stop by the museum in celebration of Railroad Day held in conjunction with the Stonefort Soldiers and Sailors Reunion. Stunson will talk railroad history as Blackman explains some of the exhibits.
Blackman is glad to now have a collection of artifacts from the family of Dr. Gilbert R. Brewer who began his medical practice in Stonefort in 1910 and served as mayor in 1916. Brewer's desk is in the depot's freight room with an American Express shipping tag on it in keeping with the historic nature of the room.
The museum also has several tin type photos from the late 1800s and early 1900s of members of Brewer's family.
Brewer's wife, the former Minnie Trammell, was noted for having invented a bird perch for a wire bird cage in 1893. The items came from Michael Wiemken of Marion, a grandson of Brewer's.
Since the museum's 2009 opening 1,500 people from 27 states have stopped in to visit or to research family history using Blackman's numerous geneology files.
But Blackman said the "plumb of all plumbs" of the past year is being recognized July 8 by the State Historic Preservation Office as a property that meets the criteria for the National Register of Historic Places.
"People feel they are a part of it and they are. People make this. Everybody has a piece of the puzzle," Blackman said.
The museum is open 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturdays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sundays between April 1 and Dec. 1. Blackman will give tours by appointment if people call (618) 252-5112.
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DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
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