An Excerpt from
Bastrop Literary Knights

The Bastrop Historical Society Museum in the old Cornelson-Fehr House dating to around 1850 was a Texas history lover’s dream. It was a charming museum, packed with assorted papers, artifacts, and antiques from local families all crammed together in the small building. The lighting was subtly muted; the few windows were covered with drapes. Many considered it haunted. Barbara Vana, the museum’s first employee (previously trustees and volunteers operated the museum) recalls hearing doors open and close or an object falling from the wall while she sat at her desk. When she went to investigate, she found nothing amiss. The ghosts, she suspected, must have been friendly, and she never felt frightened by these occurrences. She said it was simply part of the unique atmosphere with a slightly musty smell created by old artifacts housed within a historic space.

Visitors loved the museum’s immersive, hands-on feel. With little to no artifact storage, almost all items were on display; some were protected in cases, but many could be picked up and examined. The first curator, Beatrice Dodge Smith, was not retained until the early 2000s. The Wilbarger Room was filled with the furniture and belongings donated by the Wilbarger family. Guests especially enjoyed the “hair-raising” story of Josiah Wilbarger, who was scalped by Comanche Indians in 1833, yet survived for twelve years.

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A favorite display was a large glass antique case featuring old wedding and baptismal gowns. The museum also boasted an impressive collection of old silver. One year, when Rendezvous, the annual gala, was to be held at the museum, volunteer and later longtime archivist Carol Kysar spent days polishing the silver so it would shine for the event.

The museum drew locals eager to see family items on display, as well as tourists and genealogists researching their roots. Researchers sat at a round, oak, Victorian dining table donated by Henry Newton Bell II and his wife Mildred, while volunteers pulled alphabetized files for them to read through. There was no digital database; donations were recorded in old-fashioned ledger books, which remain in the archives today.

Windows were fitted outside with burglar bars to discourage break-ins (though none ever occurred). The only reported theft at the Cornelsen-Frehr House was a gold pocket watch taken from a display case.

 

Because the museum was old and sat near the river, volunteers sometimes had to deal with rodents and snakes. Reading Circle President No. 56 Jean Helmick was filling in for Barbara when she came upon a snake in the Early Texas room. She grabbed her purse and left immediately. Barbara recalls that Jean did not even stop long enough to turn out the lights. Animal control found the snake in a storage closet in the Maynard Room. The harmless grass snake had found his way in where the gas line entered the building.