Trustees for Wirt Trust sworn in, collection on display

YOUNGSTOWN

Four trustees of the Benjamin Franklin Wirt Trust were formally sworn in Tuesday by Judge Robert N. Rusu Jr. of Mahoning County Probate Court.

Sworn in at Mahoning Valley Historical Society’s board of directors’ meeting were Scott R. Schulick, Rick Shale, Marilyn Oyer and Nancy Morris.

Another trustee also was to have been sworn in during the session at Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center, but was unable to attend because of illness.

Wirt was a Youngstown attorney who also served one term as the Mahoning Valley’s state senator from 1889 to 1893.

He and his wife, Mary M. Wirt, traveled extensively around the world and he collected 3,165 items that are in a collection housed at the Arms Family Museum on Wick Avenue, Shale said.

“He was a philanthropist and a collector, and a very unique individual,” Shale said, adding that Wirt amassed at least 2,000 books and collected an array of merchandise that included china pieces, coins, rare documents, pistols from the Revolutionary War, furnishings and a variety of artwork from all over the world.

Read more about the collection and the trust in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.