OVH Museum highlights Spanish-American War in exhibit

PERKINS TWP. - The Ohio Veterans Home Museum isn't the best-known tourist attraction in the Firelands, but it's edging into the spotlight with a new exhibit that opens next week.

The museum, stocked with artifacts from several American wars, opens its new "Spanish-American War Heritage Exhibit" on Tuesday. That's the 107th anniversary of the sudden explosion and sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana, a still-controversial incident that sparked the war. The exhibit will run through Sept. 1.

Although it sounds odd after the passage of so much time, there are three still-active veterans service organizations associated with the Spanish-American War, said Jon B. Silvis, president of the Ohio Military Heritage Association, an organization that formed last year.

Silvis said the last veteran of the war is believed to have died in Virginia in 1993, so the United Spanish War Veterans is no more.

However, the National Auxiliary, United Spanish War Veterans, a women's group, still exists. So does the National Fort Daughters of '98 and the Sons of Spanish American War Veterans.

The groups had a national meeting in August in Hudson, Ohio.

"The sad part is, there were only 20 people in attendance," Silvis said. "Let's just say, the average age is up there."

The three groups have 300 remaining members.

"They are predicting in the next five years, none of the groups will exist," Silvis said.

While members of the group are still alive, they are trying to ensure that records and memorabilia will be passed on, Silvis said. The core of the new exhibit consists of banners, ledgers, medals and other items handed over by the organizations to the Ohio Military Heritage Association, he said.

Included is a ledger that shows the activities of the Ohio Department of the Auxiliary of the United Spanish War Veterans. An entry shows that the auxiliary's founding meeting took place in 1908 in Sandusky.

The Spanish American War, fought during the presidency of Ohio native William McKinley, occurred in 1898. It was sparked by a still-mysterious explosion which sank the Maine as it sat in the harbor in Havana, Cuba.

The exhibit will be placed in a room at the museum devoted to organizations that serve veterans.

The museum, open from 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday-Wednesday, is free and features artifacts in several different rooms, including relics of the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I and II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

The World War I exhibit includes a "hate belt," taken from a dead German soldier, decorated with buttons that the German apparently had taken from the uniforms of dead Allied soldiers.

"Those who live by the sword, die by the sword," said Dorothea Lofquist, the museum's curator.

Another well-received exhibit is a poster detailing 1919 Army Air Service flying regulations.

Regulation No. 26 is particularly intriguing. It states, "It is advisable to carry a good pair of pliers in a position where both pilot and passenger can reach them in case of an accident."

The museum, housed in the I.F. Mack Building on the grounds of the Ohio Veterans Home, is a rather low-key affair. It isn't listed yet in the AAA guidebook and it doesn't have a Web site.

Lofquist, 70, an Ohio Veterans Home resident who served in the Marines during the Korean War, receives a small stipend and is the only full-time employee. She's assisted by two other residents who work part time, exhibits steward Jack Cummins, 70, a radio operator aboard B-29 weather planes during the Korean War, and Vietnam veteran Jim Barnard, the museum's archivist.

Previous curators got the museum off the ground and put it together in one large room. The museum is now housed in the I.F. Mack Building, named after a former publisher of the Sandusky Register.

The number of visitors, although still relatively small, has risen steadily since Lofquist took over as curator in 2000. The museum drew 658 visitors in 2000 but was up to 1,592 last year.

Cummins has helped attract visitors by depositing " Family Pass" museum tickets, prominently marked "FREE," at local hotels.

Since the museum doesn't use tickets or ever charge admission, the family passes are advertising, Cummins said.

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