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Museum reminds community of history

Tue, 10/08/2019 - 10:59 am
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    A flag on display in the military room of the Jack County Museum. The flag is one of several World War 2 artifacts displayed.

The Jack County Museum building is one of the oldest in Jack County, built by Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Cooper in 1882. The necessary items used to build the homes had to be brought in by wagon from Jefferson, and in 1987, according to the Jacksboro Chamber of Commerce, the building was bought by the chamber to preserve a little bit of Jack County history.

The museum is now home to many historic artifacts from Texas and Jack County. One of the most interesting pieces is not inside the museum, but is right behind it.

“It’s one of the oldest, if not the oldest in Jack County,” said Anna Fitzgerald, treasurer for the museum, speaking about a tree right behind the museum.

“We had a choice to either save the tree or cut it down because it was getting to the point that it could have fallen on the museum. We used county money to wire the tree branches together so we could have the tree there and preserve a little bit of history.”

Indeed, there is history galore around the museum. As soon as you enter you see a room right in the middle of the building. The room is filled from floor to ceiling with pictures of the original Corn Club members and founder Tom M. Mark, where the first meeting of the club took place. The club would go on to become 4-H, one of the most storied agricultural organizations in the world, with more than 90,000 clubs and 6.5 million members across America.

For more on this story, see the Wednesday, October 9 edition of the Jacksboro Herald-Gazette.