GreeneScene of the Past

By Collen Nelson.

There are many old photos of the Greene County Historical Society Museum and Library out there, most dating back to its days as the County Home for the poor. But this one tells a story that many still remember – that grand moment in 1974 when the Peoples Natural Gas Company featured “Greene County’s Enchanting Museum” in its quarterly magazine, with society president Richard Zollars, his wife Malvine and daughter Christine on the cover.

The story inside is full of praise for the historic collections built mostly through donations from local families, the authentic Victorian parlors, dining rooms and upstairs bedrooms, the meticulous details of the recreated country store with its products from bygone days –

cracker barrels. Celluloid collars, French buttons, 1890s Mc- Call patterns and patent medicines like Park’s Sure Cure for Liver and Kidneys.

The article notes that President Richard Zollars was “a genealogist and an over 30-year affiliate of Peoples Gas in the utility’s Southern Division Area” in 1974 and “if he had to choose a most-favored attraction in the Mansion it would probably be the prolifically-stocked library on the main floor.”

I’ve run across both Richard and Malvine doing research for the stories I’ve written about loving Greene County. Their work in genealogy and local history is extensive and their names pop up in news stories and personal writings about family histories, old cemeteries and institutions such as Bowlby Library. Their willingness to document old cemeteries, serve on boards and roll up their sleeves and do the work it takes to preserve history has made a lasting impact on the way Greene County remembers its past.

“They dedicated their lives to the history here, they were involved in everything,” grandson District Magistrate Dave Balint says. Christine is his mom. Dave was born in 1977 and doesn’t remember much about his grandfather who died in 1988 at age 64 while helping maintain the old Scott Cemetery in West Greene on a hot summer day. But grandmother Malvine, 92, is alive and well in an assisted living home in Virginia and uncle Rick lives nearby. As family blood would have it, he’s a history teacher, Dave tells me. “You should talk to him.”

“Mom can take her history back to the 1600s, so she’s a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Daughters of the American Colonists. She wrote her last book four years ago and I’m going to visit with her today. I’ll tell her you said hello!” Richard Jr. is glad to share some family history with me over the phone. His father wrote Fredrick’s Hope in 1980 about founding father Frederick Zollars who migrated with his family from Amsterdam in 1728. “Their parents died on the voyage and he and his sister Hannah were taken in by a German family.” By 1758 Frederick had trekked across the Allegheny Mountains and settled near Marianna, within a day’s journey to Upper Ten Mile Creek and the Monongahela River. Five years later the British would close the frontier to settlers but the push was on and it wasn’t long before Frederick had neighbors and the settlement was called Zollersville.

Back at Cornerstone, I found more of their story - after getting the new museum up and running, Richard and Malvine also helped found the genealogical society in 1975 and their books, Cornerstone Clues quarterly newsletters and articles are all there to browse. Malvine’s book Gone, But Not Forgotten about her roots through the Ankrom family is catalogued in the Library of Congress.

In 1996 the Zollars became members of the newly formed Early Settlers of Greene County to celebrate the county’s bicentennial and membership is still open to those who trace their family roots back to 1796 or earlier.

Fast forward to today. Thanks to the hard work of historians like the Zollars and the Hennens and so many other deep-rooted families, the Historical Society and the Genealogical Society are here to tell the true tale of history in America as it was lived, one family at a time.

Malvine Zollars and her son Richard Zollars.

I’m happy to report that Malvine reads clippings from the Greene Scene concerning the history that makes us all love this place. Son Rick texted me a photo of the two of them that he took after our phone call and added “She’s pleased that whenever you search about Greene County history you will see her and dad’s names.” Thanks Malvine! Over the years, exhibits at the museum have grown and some have changed with the times but those rooms of mid-Victorian life are still the stars. And the reference library filled with Greene County history is still something Richard Zollars would be proud of.

If any of the artifacts to be found at the museum are from your family, let us know. If it is on display, take a photo and send it to us. The best part of history is what people remember and share.

If you have an interesting old photo from the area you’d like to share, just send it to: GreeneScene of the Past, 185 Wade Street, Waynesburg, PA 15370. Or email to: info@greenescene.com with GreeneScene Past in subject line. The GreeneScene Community Magazine caneven scan your original in just a few minutes if you bring it to our office. We are particularly interested in photos of people and places in the Greene County area taken between 1950 and 1980, though we welcome previous dates, too.