Pictured above is an item the museum found years ago and was recently identified as a cigar mold by intern, Ryan Baumann from CSUCI, and is now on display at the museum. Photo credit Fillmore Historical Museum.

Pictured above is a blue banner with gold lettering that reads, “Fillmore Band”. Since the museum has no reference to the Fillmore Unified High School, they believe it was for the Fillmore City bands organized by Frank Erskine and Clarence Arrasmith. Photo credit Fillmore Historical Museum.

Courtesy Fillmore Historical Museum

Since the Museum was founded over 50 years ago by Edith Moore Jarrett and others who felt preserving the history of our area was important, we have many items donated to us. We only accept things that reflect the history of the valley, so unfortunately, we have had to refuse several pump organs and pianos which were not even owned by a former resident (and also would take up a lot of storage space which we don’t have).

We also have to politely refuse things that don’t really add to the story of our area – like a cement block out-house. It is true that originally the Hinckley House would have been served by a privy, but probably not one made from cement blocks. We were also concerned someone might think it was ready for use.

One item that we have had for several years but couldn’t identify was recently identified by our intern, Ryan Baumann from CSUCI. He took one look at it and said “could it be a cigar mold”. We went to the internet and sure enough there were many pictures identical to our item. It is now on display in the Depot next to a tobacco cutter from Lindenfeld’’s market.
Another item that is on display is one we didn’t have to guess as the person donating it could tell us its provenance – it’s a femur which was amputated about four inches above the knee with a musket ball hole. Etched in the bone is “Dr. Leon Hammond, October, 1864.” Dr. Hammond was a Union Army surgeon. This may have come from the Cedar Creek Battle. During the Civil War little could be done under the drastic circumstances to save a leg or an arm. Not amputating could lead to gangrene and death.

Dr. Parker Hubert practiced dentistry in Fillmore in the 1920s and 1930s. We did an article about him a few months back highlighting his pastime as an amateur film maker and rider. His son, Robert Hubert, also gave us a set of “Gold Bugs” he had made from dental gold.

We have found two other things in the Museum which we have no clue who donated them. Unfortunately, after the 1994 earthquake many of our items were damaged or destroyed and records were also damaged or destroyed.
One item was found rolled up on top of some cabinets. It is blue with gold lettering and just says “Fillmore Band”. Since there is no reference to the Fillmore Unified High School we believe it was for the Fillmore City bands organized by Frank Erskine and Clarence Arrasmith. If anyone has photos of the early Festival parades that might show this banner, we would love to see them.

The other banner has a more national connection. It simply says Fisk and Brooks. Clinton Fisk and John Anderson Brooks made up the Prohibition Party ticket in the 1888 presidential election. Fillmore had a very strong temperance league led by Mrs. Hattie King (https://www.fillmorehistoricalmuseum.org/hattie-king-and-the-wctu ). Since Fillmore had just been laid out in 1888, the banner was probably used elsewhere.