ORIGINAL PICKER
By Pat McTaggart
Register Reporter
The days of the old country schools in Clayton County may be long gone, but part of their history remains at the George Maier Rural Heritage Museum in Elkader. Maier has brought more than 150 clocks to the museum this year, several of them coming from rural township schools dating back to the 1920s.
Included in the collection is a clock from Volga Township School #7, the school Maier attended as a youngster. Maier said he remembers when that particular clock made its appearance at the school.
"I was six years old when our school got the clock in 1924," he commented. "My dad was the school director, and I remember him telling me that the clock cost $9. The delivery charge to get it here was $1.50."
Maier began collecting clocks in the early 1950s. As the rural schoolhouses were sold or set to be torn down, he picked up several clocks at the schoolhouse sales. He has clocks from four of the seven country schools that were in Volga Township, and also has clocks from rural schools in Elk, Jefferson, Read and other townships in the county and adjacent counties.
School clocks are only part of his collection, which at one time numbered about 400 pieces from the area. Included in the collection at the museum are clocks from area businesses, including two left-handed (backward running) advertising clocks that were specially made for the Kramer Service Company, an Elkader business operating in the early 1900s.
Earlier this year, Maier was featured on the History Channel's American Pickers. He wasn't impressed with the two fast-talking stars of the show that were looking to buy antiques at bargain prices.
"They left me with a bad taste in my mouth," Maier said. "They thought they could take me. I cut them off quick and told them it was time for them to go."
Maier said he wanted to bring part of his collection to the museum just to see what visitors would say about the clocks. "I wanted to let people see these before I die," he added. "So far, people visiting this year have been impressed."
A visitor to the museum, 10-year-old Ellie Johnson of Johnston, was touring the facility last week with her family. "These things are really neat," she said. "I really want to come back here again."
Besides attracting visitors from around the state, the museum has seen people from Tennessee, Illinois, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Texas and South Dakota come through its doors this year. Maier said the museum survives on free-will donations from its visitors.
"I'm not making any money here," he said. "I really have all these things on display for the younger generations, so they know about these things from a bygone time."
Posted on July 7, 2010
