Swiss Community Historical Society enters a new era with museum and staffing

By Paula Pyzik Scott 

The June 28 celebration of Swiss Day by members of the Swiss Community Historical Society of Bluffton and Pandora was extra sweet. We’re not talking about going back for seconds at the dessert table: it’s because the potluck meal and business meeting were held at the society’s Swiss Heritage Center for the first time.

The Swiss Heritage Center is a project conceived in 2018, when an 1850s timber frame barn on the property of Dan and Cindy Basinger became available. Members of the society’s board of directors envisioned moving and converting the barn into an event center and display space.

Eight years later, the project is virtually complete, physically and financially. Addressing members at Swiss Day, outgoing society president Gary Wetherill noted that not only were events being held and generating revenue for the center, the society’s fundraising campaign had also succeeded in covering the cost of converting the building at Schumacher Homestead. Relatively small items such as purchasing a sound system and window coverings are still on the society’s to-do list.

New features enjoyed by members at the meeting were a large gravel parking lot, an asphalt-paved handicap parking area and videos detailing rooms in the upper floors and basement of the Schumacher farmhouse, which can be accessed by stairs.

During the society’s annual business meeting, interim president Charles Niswander and other board members were approved by voice vote. Vice-president Susie Gratz thanked Gary Wetherill for his service to the organization.

Also attending the event was Bluffton journalist, historian and Icon founder Fred Steiner, who was signing the first available copies of Our Swiss Story: Historical Events of the Mennonite and Reformed Swiss Settlement in Allen & Putnam Counties, Ohio. The book includes accounts written by P.B. Amstutz in a book that is now out of print. It has been “updated to include remarkable women, country schools, Settlement icons and the exodus from the farm.” The publishing information also describes it as the second English translation of Amstutz’s 1925 work Geschichtliche Ereignisse der Mennoniten Ansidelung.

For more information on the Swiss Community Historical Society, visit www.SwissHistorical.org.

Upcoming events at the Schumacher Homestead

July 11 Critters, Spitters, and Gallinippers, 2nd Saturday at Schumacher Homestead, 1-4:00 p.m.
August 8 Putting Food by for Winter, 2nd Saturday at Schumacher Homestead, 1-4:00 p.m.
September 26 Bluffton Fall Festival; stay tuned for details