A unique history walk around the courthouse square in Jefferson – with people of today portraying leading figures in the county’s past – will be held Sunday, Sept.20, beginning at 2 pm.
This first “Historical Plaque Walk” is co-sponsored by Jefferson Matters: Main Street and the Greene County Historical Society. The walking tours will begin and end at the Historical Museum at 219 E. Lincoln Way, where there will be refreshments. Donations will be accepted to help pay for additional historical plaques around the Main Street district, to help tell the story of notable Greene County people, organizations and events in local history.
An initial set of historical plaques was installed in the past year on attractive brick pillars around the square. On Sunday, there will be people standing near those plaques, portraying those pioneers who are honored there, or helping explain the stories that are reported there.
The noted American pollster George H. Gallup Jr, who graduated from Jefferson High School in 1919, will be played by Rob Hoyt. The early father-daughter physicians Drs. George Grimmell and Augusta Grimmell will be played by Darren Jackson and Jean Van Gilder. Jefferson’s first mayor Mahlon Head will be played by Don Van Gilder, and his brother Albert Head, former Speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives, will be played by Curt Nelson.
Guy C. Richardson, a pioneer in aviation here and founder of the Jefferson airport, will be played by his grandson Guy Richardson. Eva Leonard, the Broadway star with the Ziegfeld Follies, will be played by Nicole Friess-Schilling. Judge Robert Montgomery Rippey, who platted much of the county, will be played by Dick Bardole. And at the base of the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower, donor Floyd Mahanay and his wife Dora Mahanay will be played by Don and Bonnie Orris.
Other historical plaques already on the square recognize the unusual stories of the Lincoln Highway that crosses the county, the Friday Club which has existed in Jefferson since 1888, and the Scranton water tower – the oldest one still in service in Iowa. Explaining those stories will be Alan Robinson on the highway, Rose Olhausen and LeeAnn Monaghan on the Friday Club, and Amy Roberts on the water tower.
If the weather should be adverse, the portrayals will all be performed inside the historical museum.
