TRUMBULL COUNTY 'Geezers' keep past alive and talking at Orangeville museum

The museum has had visitors from as far as Australia and Alaska.
By REBECCA SLOAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
ORANGEVILLE -- Most every morning, John Welch Boyd, 89, and Grandon Wade, 92, can be found sipping coffee and shooting the breeze at Wilson's General Store in their tiny hometown of Orangeville.
But if you can't find these self-proclaimed "old geezers" at Wilson's stirring a cup of joe, telling jokes and offering opinions on the state of affairs in Orangeville, Trumbull County and the world, then you can probably locate them a few doors down at the Boyd Orangeville Historical Museum.
Aiming to preserve local history, these spry old-timers opened the museum about six years ago and since then have collected numerous local artifacts and memorabilia to help illustrate the good old days in Orangeville and surrounding communities.
Why they did it: "We'd talked about opening this museum years before it actually happened," Wade said.
"We wanted to preserve Orangeville's history so people could remember what things were like when people like us were no longer here to tell about it."
But though they are way past their 21st birthdays, Boyd and Wade can still tell tales and recall facts with a clarity and crispness that's downright remarkable and at the same time charming.
"We're both old geezers, but he's the really old one," Boyd said, pointing to Wade, as the two kid each other about their ages and talk about days of their youth.
Boyd and Wade were born in Orangeville in the early 1900s. And if anything happened there during the last century, they undoubtedly know all about it.
It is the pair's own vivid recollections, and not just the museum's collection of memorabilia, that make a visit interesting.
Bank robbery: For example, a mention of the town's old bank prompts a tale about Orangeville's famous bank robbery and the Bonnie-and-Clyde-like shootout that followed.
"There were five robbers in an old Packard touring car. They pulled up in front of the bank and one of them went in with a gun and came out with some cash and the teller as a hostage. My dad and another man heard about it, so they drove to the only bridge out of town and waited with a shotgun," Wade said.
"When the robbers got to the bridge, one of them pulled out two pistols and started firing. Nobody got hurt, but the robbers got away and were never caught. Nobody knows exactly how much money they stole."
Old newspaper clippings about the Shenango Dam spur stories of the year Orangeville lost half of its residents when the federal government bought half of the village land and flooded it to build the dam in nearby Sharpsville, Pa.
"Half the town picked up and moved away in 1964," Boyd said. "The government tore down 65 buildings, and 50 families relocated. It really changed Orangeville."
The pair also share many humorous little anecdotes, such as the story of the man who tripped over the state line -- Pennsylvania is literally just across the sidewalk in Orangeville -- or the barber's dilemma of how to shave a man with deep dimples in his cheeks.
What's there: Since the museum opened, residents of Orangeville and nearby communities have donated countless photographs and keepsakes of local interest.
Museum relics include a century-old barber's chair, the front window of the old post office, a large wooden auger from the town's old gristmill, a crank telephone from the old telephone office and Orangeville's original charter dated 1868.
A fat, old tree trunk with a second tree embedded within it is a puzzle and one of the museum's most popular conversation pieces.
"Someone in town cut down this tree in 1994 and there, inside a hollow part of the trunk, was this second tree trunk with an old horseshoe imbedded in it," Wade said.
"The tree was growing next to where there was once an old blacksmith's shop, so that explains the horseshoe, but it's harder to explain the tree inside the tree."
Growing outside the museum, a building Boyd purchased that was once used as a garage, is a massive white oak estimated to be about 250 years old.
"This is probably our most valuable thing," said Boyd pointing to the towering trunk.
Before retiring, Boyd owned a Chevy car dealership in Orangeville, and Wade worked as a letter carrier at the Burghill Post Office. Wade was also a leader for The Boy Scouts of America for 31 years. His vast collection of Boy Scout memorabilia is on display at the museum.
The two say they hope someone will care for the museum, which has had visitors from as far as Australia and Alaska, when they are no longer around.
"We hope what we have preserved here will always be preserved for future generations," Wade said.
The museum is on State Street just south of state Route 609. It has no set hours, but to visit it, call Wade at (330) 772-4171 or Boyd at (330) 772-3492.