AA:Kaleidoscope: Shreve museum focuses on the oil, gas industry
by Ken Lahmers
Editor
If you're a fan of old equipment, classic cars and tractors and other memorabilia, I know a place you'd really enjoy, and it's not far away.
Ken Miller Supply's Oil, Gas, Car, Truck and Agriculture Museum is open the second Saturday of each month from noon to 3 p.m. It's on Route 226, about 4 miles south of Wooster and just north of Shreve in Wayne County.
I've wanted to visit since finding out about the site last year, and finally got the opportunity May 14.
Items displayed were collected by the late Ken Miller, who got his start in the oil and gas business in 1949 and founded Ken Miller Supply Inc. in 1959. Second- and third-generation Millers run the firm.
The Millers operate a chain of 11 oilfield supply stores in the Appalachian basin, selling tubular goods and equipment for producers, drilling and pipeline contractors and utility companies.
Museum promotional literature says Ken Miller once said, "The oil and gas business has been good to us, so I wanted to give something back."
The County Line Historical Society, which covers a handful of townships on the Wayne-Holmes counties border, opens the museum one day a month, plus by appointment and on special occasions.
HUNDREDS OF ITEMS TO SEE
The museum grounds, which are right across the street from where Ken and Lois Miller once lived, contains two huge buildings, with some items lining an entrance driveway.
Old gasoline pumps from the 1930s to 1960s greet visitors outside and inside the museum's entrance. They sport names such as Mobil, Sinclair, Fleetwing and Red Crown.
One of the oldest pumps has a clear glass globe on top, which allowed customers to watch gas accumulate in the globe, then gravity-flow into a car's tank. The price posted is 15.2 cents per gallon!
On the walls are gasoline signs such as Esso, Sinclair "Dino" and Boron, plus there are a Union 76 orange ball sign and a large Mobil red flying horse.
One building is filled with old oil/gas service vehicles, including a 1915 Packard, 1918 Bernstein, 1916 White, early 1900s gas and oil delivery wagon and Ford well-swabbing units.
Ken Miller's first truck -- a 1949 red GMC -- also is displayed. By the way, the CEO of White Motor Co. offered the Millers $50,000 for the 1916 White in 1985.
There are several old gas generators, small replicas of drilling rigs, a photographer's buggy, a Frick steam boiler, toys and antiques that Miller collected, wooden oil barrels and small tools used to repair rigs and larger equipment.
Other items are ice wagons, large Tico and Cyclone engines, many oil cans, a wall of license plates dating to 1908, tons of old photos and a ballcap collection.
There's a section dealing with medicine, because the first use of oil -- sometimes called "snake oil" -- was as a natural remedy for ailments such as diarrhea, cholera and the piles.
On hand is a 48-inch diameter piece of the Alaskan Pipeline made in Japan because no U.S. firm could make that size pipe.
Other pieces of oil pipe can be seen, as can two antique gas stoves, equipment used to clear trees from a drilling site and a full-sized replica of Ken Miller's home office.
THE OTHER BUILDING, OUTSIDE
Classic cars and tractors take up a large portion of the newer section of the museum, including a pink Elvis-like Cadillac and a 1956 Nash Metropolitan like the one Neil Zurcher drove for his "One Tank Trips" on Channel 8.
There also are a four-engine race car which produces 1,200 horsepower, 1958 Edsel, 1985 Cadillac limousine and 1936 Ford.
Trucks include a 1923 Kelly, 1929 Ford and 1929 REA, while tractors include a 1919 Huber with a sideways-mounted radiator and engine made in Marion, Ohio, Olivers and a Cletrac crawler.
One section contains dozens of trophies won by the Pipers softball team, which the firm sponsored for 16 years. It was rated eighth in the world super open class in 1984 and was state runnerup twice.
Moving outside, the museum bills the long driveway as "relics row." Drilling rigs from 1895 and 1926 set in the elements, as do various steam boilers used to power the rigs, pipeline ditching machines, barge winches, pumping units -- including a typical "grasshopper" style -- and crane.
A real oddity is a round wooden oil tank converted into living quarters. It's about 10 feet in diameter, with a door, sink, small stove, toilet and cot.
The museum will be part of the Wayne County Farm Tour on Oct. 8-9, with free admission. The tour also includes a farm where there's a huge collection of classic tractors.
SHREVE, COLLEGE OF WOOSTER
Shreve is a quaint village boasting about 1,600 residents. It was founded in 1853, when the Fort Wayne Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad was built.
The County Line Historical Society operates a museum in two Route 226 buildings renovated in recent years. It is open the same time as the oil/gas museum, and I didn't get there in time to browse.
The connecting buildings housed Fought's Bluebird Bakery in the early 1900s and Grosjean's Tin Shop. One item shown in the museum's brochure is a beautiful 1884 Story & Clark pump organ.
Two of the village's main businesses are Das Dutch Essenhaus, an Amish-style restaurant, and Shreve Hardware and Supply, which are right beside each other on Route 226.
A vacant, three-story building across from the restaurant caught my attention. It once was the Hotel Wheaton. I imagine it thrived when passenger trains rolled through town.
Remnants of a neon sign grace the entrance area overlooking the sidewalk. "Hotel" is spelled out vertically and "Wheaton" is laid out horizontally below.
A plaque beside the entrance states the building was "renovated in 1951." It appears to have been vacant for several years.
North and east of Shreve is the 5,700-acre Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area, preserved since 1969. There are many wetlands, and it is a popular fishing and waterfowl hunting spot, which boasts a nature trail.
On my return through Wooster, I spent some time on the campus of the College of Wooster. It was founded in 1866 by Presbyterians. It is a small and quaint campus with about 1,800 students.
The center of campus is wooded with brick walkways criss-crossing commons areas on each side of Kauke Hall, which was erected in 1902 to replace the fire-ravaged original Old Main structure.
After the fire, President Louis Holden wrote to a friend, "Yesterday, I was president of a college. Today I am president of a hole in the ground."
Within a year, thanks to the generosity of donors including Andrew Carnegie, Wooster constructed four new buildings to replace the one it had lost.
Kauke is beautiful and unique in that one brick walkway goes through a tunnel in the middle of the building. Above the tunnel is a two-story castle-like tower, and the two-story building features a distinctive angular U shape.
The college's art museum was established in the 1930s. The current museum was established at the Ebert Art Center, north of Kauke Hall, in 1997. It houses two small galleries.
The college hosts the Ohio Light Opera in the summer at Freedlander Theater. Dates this year are June 18 to Aug. 13.
The theater is named after the Freedlander family, who operated a downtown Wooster department store for decades. Dating back to 1884, the store closed in 2009 and was razed. It was said to be the oldest independently owned downtown department store in the United States.
A trip to the Wooster area wouldn't be complete without dinner at one of my all-time favorite spots -- the Barn on Route 585 near Smithville. As always, the buffet was fantastic.
