SENIOR MOMENT: History on display at Harmon’s Museum

By BETTY MUNSEY/Columnist

If you were looking for an extensive collection of Civil War memorabilia, you probably wouldn’t look in a clothing store in the small town of Woodlawn. Tucked midway between Hillsville and Galax, Harmon’s Museum is a vast treasure chest of history located in an annex of the Harman’s Clothing Store, known far and wide as Virginia’s largest boot store.
The museum reflects its founder and owner, G. H. “Gooch” Harmon, a senior citizen who still lives close by. A picture of Mr. Harmon hangs next to the entrance across the hallway from a picture of Kylene Barker, Miss America 1979 and a proud Galax native. A visitor’s registry shows guests from Cana, Piney and Floyd; Lexington and Linwood, N.C.; Souderton, Pa.; Chatham, Mass.; Charleston, S.C.; Anchorage, Alaska, and numerous points in between.  Their comments, all unmistakably positive, included “thanks for collecting and sharing,” “wonderful collection,” “awesome,” and “you could spend the day and not see it all.” I echo their praises of the museum and encourage you to take a trip to Woodlawn and check it out. Museum and store hours are the same--9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday. There are no admission fees and I didn’t even see a donation box.
A rustic cabin replica dominates one end of the museum with weathered boards covering the walls and surrounding an authentic stacked stone fireplace.  In my mind, I could envision a Southwest Virginia mother in the early 1800s rocking the handcrafted walnut baby cradle with her foot as she carefully spun wool on the spinning wheel. Ever so often she would glance out the nearby window scanning the horizon for her husband’s silhouette. Hanging on the nearby wall were hand-carved wooden spoons, bread bowls, kraut cutters, cast iron cookware and a churn that she might have used to prepare their meals.
Glass-top large wooden display cases protected thousands of Indian artifacts and arrowheads. Nearby a note on a large salt tray formed from a hollowed-out bean tree in the 1790s alerted visitors to its original use for salting hams and other meats.  Several waist-high barrels were formed from hollow trees in the early 1800s and were in amazingly excellent condition considering their age.
Musical instruments were displayed throughout the large room and included a cigar box mandolin; the Civil War bugle Benjamin Bryant played prior to his death in 1864; as well as multiple dulcimers, drums and fiddles. Several Primitive Baptist song books were displayed next to photos of an 1870 Baptismal Service held in a local creek with hundreds of spectators lining the creek bank.
Local history buffs would be thrilled with the collection of newspaper clippings from the famous 1912 Allen Trial and the Hillsville Courthouse Massacre, which occurred only a few miles from the museum. Numerous photos line the walls of those who were wounded and/or killed during the incident. I can’t imagine the hours of research reflected in the small hand typed notations accompanying the various newspaper clippings and other souvenirs.
Prominently displayed is a fairly recent picture of Sebert Sisson, former mayor of Hillsville, supposedly Carroll County’s No.1 archeologist and a contributor to the museum. Another photo shows Richard Smith holding a young child with the notation that he helped build most of the buildings in the Harmon Store/Museum complex.
Just when I thought I had seen it all, I spied a mounted two head, six-leg Hereford calf carefully preserved by a local taxidermist. On another wall a glass milk bottle was prominently displayed with the note “In the good old days when times were bad, milk was 5 cents a quart.” And hanging across the way was a picture of Sen. John Warner and his wife at the time, Elizabeth Taylor, taken in 1978 when they visited the Galax Old Time Fiddlers Convention.  Harmon’s Museum is certainly worth the drive and can’t be fully experienced in a short period of time.
A retired Extension agent, Betty Munsey lives and farms in Bland County.