The ghosts of four well-known Jeffersonians will happily haunt guests Sunday, Oct. 27, at the Greene County Museum, 219 E. Lincolnway in Jefferson
The free 2 pm program will include ghostly impersonations, comedy, music and refreshments.
Clancy Clawson will appear as Mahlon Head, for whom a Jefferson street is named. Also looming up will be Don Van Gilder as Albert Head, for whom another street is named; Kristin Lang as Olympic gold medal winner Doreen Wilber; and Darren Jackson as George Gallup, journalist and inventor of the Gallup Poll.
Mahlon Head, who served the Union in the Civil War, arrived in Jefferson in 1866 at the age of 31. He was a banker, a Rebublican state legislator, and the father of 13 children. He was born in 1835 and died in 1920.
Albert Head was Mahlon’s younger brother who also served the Union and was wounded. The two developed the Head House Hotel and the Head Brothers Opera House in Jefferson. Born in 1838, he died in 1922. Both men are buried in the Jefferson Cemetery.
Doreen Wilber won the gold medal in women’s archery at the age of 42 in the 1972 summer Olympics. Born in 1930, she graduated from Jefferson High School in 1948. Her husband Paul “Skeeter” was her only coach. He died at age 95 in May 2024.
Born in Jefferson in 1901, George Gallup is recognized as one of the world’s most influential Americans. He founded the precursor of the Gallup Poll in 1935, and it became the most trusted poll in history, using statistics to measure public opinion. In 1919, he graduated from Jefferson High School where he started the school newspaper. He earned an undergraduate and two advanced degrees from the University of Iowa. He died in 1984.
Gina Coon Harrington will present a comic skit and Jean Van Gilder will read an 1860s letter from the Museum collection.
Rick Morain will play the museum’s grand piano, and Jennifer Powers will play the fiddle.
Clawson, Lang, the Van Gilders, Jackson, Harrington, Coon, Morain and Powers are Jefferson residents.
