The Montgomery County Historical Society operates and manages the Montgomery County History Center. The History Center functions as a community center among various other things including that of a repository of local history. This book is an attempt at giving the reader an abbreviated tour of the museum by paralleling the history of Montgomery County, Iowa.
History is about people and their stories; this book showcases some of these people and their stories and ties them to artifacts on display at the Montgomery County History Center. Having taught history for a number of years, I am only too familiar with comments like, “History was boring when I went to school.” But I found that when you teach about the people, history becomes personal and much more interesting. When, during a tour of the History Center, I show someone a military uniform and say it is from such and such war, I may not get much response. However, if I say this was Bill’s uniform from World War I, and he was a farmer from Montgomery County who suffered from exposure to poison gas, then, all of sudden, we are talking about the visitor’s great-grandfather, who was in the War and had a uniform like the one we are looking at. I love the farmers whose wives drag them to the History Center and who profess not being interested. For example, one man, whose main interest is farming with a twelve-row or bigger John Deere, suddenly spots a 1925 Case Tractor, and he is now full of questions and stories.
History is a journey, and what better way to look at it than to take a short journey through our museum. Hope you enjoy the trip, and if you are not careful, you may find yourself not being bored.
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