Russ Amacher Passes 3/20/2025

The Passing of Our Curator and Researcher: 

Russ Amacher 

 

by Peg Sullivan 

 

Our museum is a treasure-trove of historic artifacts, stories, clippings, pictures, and books.  Finding an answer to our visitors’ questions requires an understanding of the collection, the filing system, and of course, what the actual question behind any inquiry really is.   Our museum had a fabulous resource, a patient listener with years of experience exploring the collection.  Russ Amacher liked to be known as our curator and researcher.  He was outstanding in both roles. 

 

A curator is the person who is a caretaker or steward of materials.  They help build access to the collection through organizing content and having a knowledge of where that content is stored.  Russ spent years reading through our cabinets and boxes of material.  During his long, tranquil hours at the museum on Wednesdays, he would occasionally greet a visitor but the slow afternoons provided him with time to explore.  His remarkable memory allowed him to recall a folder or artifact or book which might lead to a solution to a visitor’s historic quest. 

 

During a discussion for an exhibit on the upcoming 100th anniversary of the women’s vote, Russ scrambled off, when he returned he had a list of the first 40 women who registered to vote in Cambridge.   He remembered seeing it once and from that piece of information, our museum won the Wisconsin State Historical Society’s Outstanding Small Exhibit in 2020 for our local women’s suffrage exhibit.   

 

His curiosity and keen research abilities lead to many of the books we have at the museum.  One of our most popular books, “Cambridge: Then and Now” was revised in 2021 by Russ.  The photographs, cutlines, stories and newspaper clippings capture the history of each building on Main Street.   He also helped compile “The History of Cambridge & Lake Ripley in Post Cards,” a delightful, visual story of the area. 

 

In 2021, he published, perhaps his most endearing research book.  For years, Russ devoted time to documenting the stories of men from the area who served in the Civil War.  He self published, “Cambridge Area Soldiers Who Served in the Civil War.”  He tells the  story of the monument in Veteran’s Park on Main Street; a statue dedicated in 1914.   He visited cemeteries throughout Dane and Jefferson counties to find long forgotten graves, he photographed them, completed research, and told the story of the men resting beneath those headstones.  

 

Russ was a contributor to almost every book the museum has related to veterans of any war.  It is particularly moving to sit at the table in our museum’s Veteran’s Room and read through the binders he compiled of letters written back to parents and community members by servicemen overseas.  He shared his research in many formats through curated content and also, most importantly, through conversations. 

 

 He hustled around the museum answering questions when the place was busy, especially when our grade school classes visited.  But the  real joy of knowing Russ was to sit with him, share stories, or examine a single, new artifact.  Those were moments well spent.  Guests who knew his schedule would make a point of stopping by with a family treasure perhaps to donate  or maybe just to discuss it with Russ until they were ready to pass it along to the museum. 

 

Although, Russ was a quiet person, for years he was the face at the museum door.  He greeted visitors with a smile, a pleasant request to please sign our guestbook, and a soft inquiry if he could help them.   When he was invited to speak publicly, his quiet, respectful demeanor carried forward.  Whether he was talking in Veteran’s Park on Memorial Day, sharing Main Street history with people in nursing homes, or regaling school children with Civil War antidotes, he knew his facts and wove them into a compelling story. 

 

Russ was also a good sport.  Last year when we hosted the fundraiser play, Lettuce and Lovage at the Winery, I could think of no one better suited to play the surly, old historian who questioned Lettuce’s outlandish facts from the audience.  He bravely stood up and launched into his role with: “Excuse me.  Could you give me the references for that story?”  He was the prefect character to give the audience an unexpected laugh.  He was fun in rehearsals and priceless in the performance.  Russ was a wonderful actor who also participated in historical pageants in Fort Atkinson.  He could deliver historical facts on any stage.  But it was pure acting for him to be surly or confrontational.   He was always a gentleman, a researcher, and the guardian of our shared history. 

 

So we are left to celebrate his legacy as we mourn his passing. 

 

Russ’s obituary can be read at: https://www.dunlapmemorialhome.com/

 

 

February 9, 2025

SUMMER EXHIBIT: Last summer, we introduced the community to the history of Rowe Pottery Works and the unique artisan culture. that business established in Cambridge. The 2nd phase of our pottery display and history will be highlighted this summer at the museum.

We will open June 1st with our Main Lobby display featuring the work of a “clan” of local potters. Our new elevator lift will be operational by then.. We will finally be accessible to all.

Comedy Play Lettice and Lovage 2/18/2024

Tickets on sale for our fundraiser Lettice and Lovage. The play was written to take place in a historic English manor and has been adopted to take place in the Cambridge Historic School Museum. there will be one show on Sunday February 18 at the Cambridge Winery. Tickets are $20 that include desserts and beverage. Seating at 2 pm with play begiinning at 2:30.

A dinner menu will be aailable for those wishing to stay after the play for dinner. Proceeds from the play will go towards purchase and installation of a stair lift system at the museum. This will make it accessible for all. Help suport this project and enjoy a play with friensds and neighbors.

Advance tiickets will be availble Wedesday and thursday Feb. 14 and 15 from 4 to 6 pm at the museum or can be pruchased if still available at Cambridge Winery on Feb. 18th.

THIS WOULD MAKE A WONDRFUL GIFT FOR YOUR SPECIAL VALENTINE!

New book in our gift shop

Margaret McFarlane Davidson

DAUGHTER OF IMMIGRANTS; MOTHER OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIALS

 

A New Book by Peg Sullivan

 

Early Cambridge resident, Margaret McFarlane grew up on Lake Ripley prior to becoming the mother of sons who founded the Harley-Davidson Company.  This book chronicles her childhood in the Cambridge/Lake Ripley area.  Provides background on her family and their connection to the community as well as many historical names and places long associated with Cambridge.  She and her family were immigrants form Scotland who settled the Lake Ripley area.

 

As an older adult she returned to the lake each summer with three of her adult children who owned homes on Lake Ripley.  The book focuses on the woman and her life.  She was orphaned when both of her parents die just three years apart.  Margaret and her three, younger siblings are separated yet maintain close relationships with their mother’s extended family.  One uncle, her mother’s brother James, would play a key in the launch of the Davidson brothers’ motorcycle industry.

 

Margaret McFarlane was an independent, self-supporting domestic worker until her marriage to William Davidson.  She worked both in Madison and Milwaukee during the 1860s.   Like many women from the period, her life captures the hard work, determination, and strengthen that exemplifies the first-generation, immigration experience.

This book is now available in our museum book store. Until we re-open with normal hours, you can contact us at www.cambridgehistoricmuseum.org for ordering details. Cost is $10.99.

 

EXPANDED SUFFRAGE EXHIBIT

The 1906 Historic School Museum in Cambridge has featured an exhibit this summer on first 41 local women to vote in 1920.  The local exhibit also includes pictures of local parades the women marched in and some national information/history on the movement.  We have now added to our exhibit by bringing in a touring exhibit from the Wisconsin Historical Society entitled “We Stand on their Shoulders”.   It covers the history of Wisconsin women and voting.  It provides a timeline of when women in Wisconsin gained political rights and highlights some key leaders.

The combined exhibits will be up in October and open to the public on Thursday and Friday, October 15, 16, 22 and 23 from 1 to 3pm and on Saturday, October 17 & 24 from 10 am to 3pm.  The exhibit is free to attend.  We are following Dane County Health guidelines so we will limit the number of people going through the exhibit at any one time to allow for social distancing. Masks must be worn. 

New Museum Suffrage Exhibit

The first 41 women in Cambridge to register and vote in the 1920 election will be featured in a new exhibit in 2020. The CHS Museum is honoring these women during the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendement. These women helped to capture the wider history of women in the United States. They were business owners, mothers, grandmothers, teachers and farm wifes. The women of Cambridge marched in parades in white dresses. This became the uniform for the suffrage movement. A photo was taken of them during a Fall Festival parade around 1910. The exhibit will be open for touring during summer and fall 2020. Visit our Facebook page to see photos and bio of many of these women.

New Structure Report Captures Past, Envisions Future

A Historic Structure Report is a prerequisite to establishing a long term plan for restoration, growth and grant writing in the museum world. The Cambridge 1906 Historic School and Museum now has one!

Working with a team of professionals, under the direction of Preservation Architect, Charles Quagliana, the Foundation created a comprehensive report. The structural report captures three critical components:

  1. The history of the 1906 building.

  2. The buildings existing condition.

  3. Recommendations for the future.

The report was time a consuming, interesting and exciting first step in bringing new life to the 1906 Historic School. It diagrams the building’s solid history in the community and offers and intriguing glimpse into its future. Copies of the report will be available for review at the museum this spring and summer.

Museum receives preservation award

Historic School Museum received a preservation award recently.

The Wisconsin Trust for Historic Preservation has awarded their 2019 Preservation Award to Cambridge Historic School Foundation(CHSF). This annual award was presented to Nancy Amacher, president of CHSF at a ceremony in Oshkosh on April 12th.

Other nominees included Northland Hotel in Green Bay, Welford Sanders Lofts in Milwaukee and The Howard building in Oshkosh. The Wisconsin Trust committee was impressed with the efforts of restoration to the 1906 Historic School building. CHSF was the only organization recognized at this event who had accomplished so much through fundraising efforts, without using tax credits to date.

Research your roots at CHSM

Ancestry.com is now available to all members of Cambridge Historic School Museum. Stop any Wednesday or Saturday from 12:30 to 3 pm to work on genealogy. We have a dedicated computer set up in the lobby of the museum for you to use. You can lookup census data, military records, birth, death or marriage information. Documenting your family’s history history can be an exciting and rewarding experience. And through the use of resources available through your museum membership you’ll begin finding your roots.