The Mission of the Historical Society

The Mission of the Clinton County Historical Society is to encourage community involvement in the preservation, education, and promotion of Clinton County history and genealogy for the benefit of all people for present and future generations. A non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, the Society was chartered in 1948 and is governed by a Board of Trustees.

Historical Society Board of Trustees

Shelby Boatman

Executive Director

Graduating from Wilmington High School, Shelby is a Clinton County native. Shelby earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Political Science from Ashland University. She is an Ashbrook Scholar Alumna and Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Scholar. Earning her Master of Arts Degree in Public History, Shelby graduated from Northern Kentucky University. She is a former Leadership Clinton 2020 graduate, Clinton County Outstanding Women Keynote Speaker, Wilmington Noon Rotarian, and past Public History Adjunct Professor at Wilmington College. Currently, she is a member of the George Clinton Chapter – Daughters of the American Revolution, contributing columnist for the Wilmington News Journal, member of the Cape May Advisory Board, and Outstanding Women of Clinton County committee member. In her second term as Region 8 co-representative for Ohio Local History Alliance, Shelby aids history organizations in Adams, Brown, Butler, Clermont, Clinton, Hamilton, Highland, and Warren counties. Shelby’s dream of developing a living history cemetery walk to life was made possible in 2021 as a result of the ever popular “Talking Tombstones” reenactment event at Sugar Grove Cemetery. She currently lives in Wilmington with her family and enjoys traveling to historical sites in her spare time as well as pheasant hunting, reading, and watching true crime documentaries. Shelby’s passion lies in sharing her knowledge with others in the public history field to help improve the profession and support the important work that historians, historical societies, and other champions of history do on a daily basis.

 Bev Beireis

Collections Manager

Bev, a Clinton County native, grew up in New Vienna where her family owned and operated the “Daye Hardware Store” for 40 plus years. Bev graduated from East Clinton History School and attended the Cincinnati Christian University where she studied Business Administration and Deaf Education. Bev came to the History Center with a background in the banking industry after working for National Bank & Trust Company for over 30 years. Bev is a member of the Wilmington Lions Club and the Wilmington Church of Christ. Bev and her husband, John, live in the Wilmington area and enjoy traveling, camping, and spending time with family. In looking at her career at the History Center, Bev noted that what she enjoys most has been hearing the stories from various people who have graced the doors of the History Center, as “everyone you meet has their own life story to tell”. 

Molly Boatman

Volunteer Multimedia Specialist

Earning her Associates Degree from the School of Advertising Art, now known as the Modern College of Design, Molly resides in Wilmington with her pet Chinchillas and currently operates her own freelance graphic design business. Passionate about art, graphics, and assisting non-profits, she generously donates her time and talents to the History Center regarding social media maintenance, in-house design work, and more.

 Mark Huber

Archives Assistant

Mark Huber became the sports editor of the Wilmington News Journal in 1987 after working at the newspaper since the late 1970s as a part-time sportswriter. While at the News Journal, he has served in various capacities, including editor, assistant editor, general assignment reporter and in the graphics department. In his 32 years as the sport editor, Huber has earned numerous writing and photography awards from the Associated Press, the OPSWA and across the newspaper company. He lives in Wilmington with his wife, Elizabeth, and children Gehrig, Adalee and Aaron. His current role at the History Center is that of Archives Assistant which includes digitizing nearly 10,000 collection items for our PastPerfect Online museum system. Through his work we are hopeful a variety of important local history documents, photographs, and over visual media can be saved for the distant future.

Policies

FAQ

Clinton County Historical Society Collections

General James W. Denver

Civil War general, territorial governor and potential presidential candidate, James W. Denver personified “manifest destiny.”  A room of the museum contains General Denver’s personal library and artifacts from his military and governmental careers. Born in 1817 near Winchester, Virginia, he and his family moved west to a farm near Wilmington in 1831. After receiving a degree from the Cincinnati Law School, he moved to Platte City, Mo., and opened a law office with a partner. Always in motion, Denver recruited a volunteer infantry in the war against Mexico and served under Gen. Winfield Scott. He led a party overland to California during the Forty-niner gold rush. He served in the California State Senate, was appointed secretary of state from California and elected to Congress from California in 1855. That same year he married Catherine Rombach, daughter of Matthew Rombach of Wilmington where the couple made their home. Involved in national politics, Denver served as commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1857, governor of the Kansas Territory during the era of “Bleeding Kansas,” and in the Civil War became brigadier general of all federal troops in Kansas. In the later years of Denver’s career, he organized a Washington, D.C., law firm representing Indians against the U.S. government for treaty violations. Upon his death, he was buried in the Denver Family plot located in Sugar Grove Cemetery (Wilmington). The home where he and Catherine resided, Rombach Place, while raising their family still stands and has been the location of the Clinton County Historical Society’s museum since 1955. 

Eli Harvey, Artist and Sculptor

Eli Harvey, internationally known artist and sculptor, was born Sept. 23, 1860, near Springfield Friends Meeting in Clinton County, and died Feb. 10, 1957, at his home and studio in Alhambra, Calif. His ashes are buried at the Harvey family lot in Springfield Friends Cemetery.

Before his death, Harvey gave many of his paintings and bronzes to the historical society.
The collection of paintings and sculpture shown in the gallery at Rombach Place are by Harvey including a bronze copy of a bull elk, symbol of the Order of Elks, commissioned in 1904.

Specializing in the sculpture of animals, Harvey’s credits include Brown University’s mascot, “Brown bear,” the J.C. Penney bull for mail order merchant James C. Penney, and decorations for the lion house at the New York Zoological Park.

Carl Moon, Photographer of the Southwest

Our large display case located inside the Native American Heritage Exhibit provides a gallery for the photographs of Southwest Indians taken by Carl Moon in the early 1900s. Originally from Wilmington, Moon was among the first to photograph American Indians in their homelands. Drawn to the Southwest by his abiding interest in Indian culture and an intense desire to preserve what he saw as a vanishing way of life, he spent many years traveling and taking pictures among the various tribes, primarily in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma. His wife, Grace Purdie Moon, once remarked, “Mr. Moon and I like to write about Indians and picture them because I think way down in our hearts, we almost wish we were Indians ourselves.”

Native American Heritage

A new exhibit featuring numerous arrowheads, projectile points and prehistoric items found in Clinton County, Ohio. This room was brought to live with the help of intern Mikaela Prescott, a former history and public history major at Wilmington College who graduated in the Spring of 2021. A reproduction of the historic Wilmington Tablet is on display as well as a number of portraits taken by renowned photographer and Clinton County native, Carl Moon. Prehistoric fossils and archeology records by Dr. George Austin are featured along with a +10,000 year old wooly mammoth tusk donated by the family of Lucile Fisher Hadley. 

The Toy Room

Reflecting play from the mid-1800s to the early 20th century, the toy room features toys that were used for play as well as beyond, such as for memorializing a lost loved one. This room contains dolls, carriages, play dishes, a carpentry box, scooters, marbles, and more. Made of porcelain, glass, wood, tin and cast iron, these toys were made to last a lifetime.

The Textile Room

The Textile Room includes a variety of Quaker (the Society of Friends) quilts and coverlets. Quakers played an early and prominent role in the settlement of Clinton County. Quaker influence remains today with over a half dozen active Quaker meetings in Clinton County. In 1870, a Society of Friends purchased the struggling Franklin College and established the Quaker college Wilmington College. Of particular interest in the Textile Room is the abolitionist quilt, circa 1842, made by abolitionist Quakers in Clinton County and Newport, Indiana. Measuring about six feet square, each of its 16 blocks is signed by its Quaker woman maker.

While the quilt’s exact cause for creation remains unknown, scholar Ricky Clark, in the craft magazine “Piecework” (July/August 1995), suggests it was made by the women to strengthen bonds between the two Friends meetings during the abolition separation of 1843, “when Quakers were so divided over the question of abolition that members left or were excluded from the particular Quaker meetings to which they belong.”

Artifacts, Clothing, Furnishings, and Photograph Repositories 

The Society has a large textile collection (not on public display) and periodically features different eras of fashion. We also house a large photography collection which features historical images from across Clinton County, ranging from the early 1800s to more present. The photography repository is not open to public, but images are available for reproduction. Many of these images are featured weekly in our Throwback Thursday partnership with the Wilmington News Journal. Reproductions can be made in-house with 4×6 and 5×7. Should you need large images, a USB flash drive can be provided and copies made elsewhere. The Society does ask for a minimum $10/per image reproduction donation, which is used to purchase new archival materials and supplies for the images.