Madison County Historical Complex

03/17/2025

Museum Monday!

Winterset High School senior and museum volunteer GiGi has been helping install one of the new exhibits for the 2025 season. To prepare a few pieces for better viewing, we needed to carve mounts, or holders, out of an archival material called ethafoam. GiGi was excited to practice her new skill and the objects look wonderful!

03/14/2025

George Stultz – Winterset Livery Man and... Auto Bed Inventor!

Born in Boone County, Iowa, in 1858, Stultz arrived in Winterset in 1897 as a widower with two young children. He owned a livery business until 1914 and attended the Winterset Methodist Church. In retirement, he became an inventor and received a patent for the Shultz Auto Bed in 1922. He placed advertisements in Des Moines papers through 1924. He died in 1933 and is buried in a family plot in Nevada, Iowa.

For a complete list of 374 Madison County-based inventions, visit https://iagenweb.org/madison/county_history/mad_co_inventors.html

03/11/2025

Are You Hungry?
.. was today's Hill O'Bean topic and covered Winterset eateries and grocery stores of the past. Museum Director Jared McDonald presented vintage photos from the Allen Family Collection plus today's view of the same locations. Lots of memories were shared.

Why not join us next month, April 8 at 9:00 am for a program called "Take Your Easter Bonnet." Free and open to all.

03/10/2025

Museum Monday!

Last Thursday, we hosted the I-35 Girl Scouts for a tour of the museum. These 13 young ladies learned about Madison County history and how we care for our collection, they asked great questions, and they even got a sneak peek at our 2025 exhibits!

If you have a group interested in arranging a special tour, please give us a call! We are happy to accommodate groups of any size, age, and ability throughout the year. And of course, come see us when our doors open for the 2025 season on May 1!

03/07/2025

Patterson Women's Basketball Team '32-'33

With the Girls' State Basketball Tournament (and the often accompanying blizzard) here this week, we came across this clipping in the museum's archive. There were no names listed but perhaps you recognized your grandmother as a teenager. If so, let us know in the comments.

The clipping was from the Des Moines Register sports pages but had no date. Thankfully, an article on the back side said that Babe Ruth may have to take a $25,000 salary cut in the 1933 season. A quick online search verified that Babe took salary cuts in 1933 ($24,000) and 1934 ($17,000) during the Great Depression.

03/06/2025

Good morning Winterset community, we have a 10' long x 2' wide x 42" tall antique store merchandise case we are needing to find a new home for. It is FREE to the first person who comments, but needs to be removed ASAP. We will get it to the front entrance of the Museum, but you will need to load it from there. Case structure is good and all glass and drawers are present.

03/03/2025

Museum Monday!

In the 20th century, Winterset had a Pythian Sisters chapter and this was one of the ceremonial objects they used.

Stemming from the Knights of Pythias, a men’s fraternal order, the Pythian Sisters provide opportunities for togetherness and growth for women through the principles of purity, love, equality, and fidelity. Many objects from this organization were donated to the museum when the chapter closed.

02/28/2025

The Winterset Dairy has been a Facebook topic this week and generated an interesting discussion. Winterset Public Library staff quickly answered the question of where it was located and provided a link to our local online newspapers, yearbooks, and more.

Here are a few clippings that outline the Winterset Dairy story. The Winterset Dairy opened in September, 1940 and closed in April, 1946. It was operated by Charles Bass and Chris Oliver at 419 W. Filmore, in a house that is still standing.

For the curious, with just a few internet searching skills, a mountain of information is available to you, even from your phone. Start your own adventure for the facts on any topic you choose at winterset.historyarchives.online.

02/24/2025

Museum Monday!

This jewelers bench belonged to Moses Bailey and still contains some of his tools and materials. He and his wife Mary lived in Winterset beginning in the 1850s. Moses was a jeweler in here in a building on the square. He retired in 1870.

The bench stands 36” tall. The top hinges open and there are two drawers in front as well for work space and storage.

02/21/2025

MCHS wishes a very happy February 21st birthday to Angela Stanford - our dog-loving, bike-loving, adventure-loving, purple-loving, collection-loving Assistant Director.

02/17/2025

Museum Monday!

This spinning wheel came from the attic of the original Guye family farm, the home of Eldridge V. and Dorothy Guye. The Guyes were one of the first European settler families to call Madison County home, arriving in 1846. The wheel was given to Wayne W. and Dorothy Cool of North Platte, Nebraska by Dorothy Guye in 1972, and later donated to the museum in 1996.

This old household tool, which stands 60” tall and is 64” in length, will be featured in one of our new 2025 exhibitions. Come see us again beginning May 1!

02/11/2025

What a great Hill O' Beans discussion this morning on George Washington Carver! Thanks to everyone who made it out! Mark your calendars for Tuesday, March 11, 9 a.m., for our next Hill O' Beans get together!

02/10/2025

Museum Monday!

While shells like these are not typically top of mind as representative of Winterset, Iowa, this artistic compilation is in fact a souvenir from the community. Standing 3 ½” tall and measuring about 4” long and wide, there is a stamp on front that reads “SOUVENIR / Winterset, Iowa”.

Little is known about the object except what is written on the underside of the base shell. It is difficult to read, but it may have been a gift to Larry from Mrs. Greenfield on December 16, 1917. The exact identity and relationship of these individuals is unknown.

Among the many souvenirs in the museum’s collections from Madison County communities, this is one of the most unique!

02/03/2025

It’s Museum Monday! This small, lightweight lamp stands about 7” tall and used grease as its fuel source. It belonged to Martin Beatty Travis and his wife Lavina. They lived on a farm outside of Peru.

This one of almost 100 objects that will be featured in a brand new view of “Madison County: Alphabet Soup,” one of the 2025 exhibits debuting May 1 when the Madison County Historical Complex opens for the season!

01/23/2025

February 1 is George Washington Carver Day in Iowa. Here is an event covering his entire life in Des Moines on that day. If you would like to know about his time in Winterset (1888-1890) please attend the Complex's free February 11 Hill O'Beans presentation at 9:00 am in the museum lounge, titled "He Walked These Streets."

Join the State Historical Society of Iowa and Iowa PBS at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 1 at the State Historical Museum of Iowa for a day honoring the life and work of George Washington Carver including a showing of “George Washington Carver: An Uncommon Life”. A panel will be held following the documentary discussing George Washington Carver’s legacy featuring State Curator Leo Landis and Paxton J. Williams.

Registration requested but not required to attend the program. Learn more at https://history.iowa.gov/events/george-washington-carver-uncommon-life-viewing-and-panel-discussion-iowa-pbs

01/20/2025

Did you know any of these inauguration day facts? (Ignore any ads.)

What do you know about the presidential swearing-in ceremony and its history? Test your knowledge with our inauguration trivia questions.

01/13/2025

Museum Monday! Our first donation of the year included a yearbook from St. Charles High School and several others from I-35 High School in Truro (including students from Truro, New Virginia, and St. Charles). They are important historically and for research because they document students from all grades and expand our ability to tell fuller stories of all the communities in the county.