Harmony Historical Society

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Harmony Historical Society

The Harmony Historical Society is located at 1943 Open Meadows Road, Ashville, Chautauqua County, NY

05/28/2026

Did you know that HHS has a sizable local yearbook collection available for visitors to view? We recently received a donation of Chautauqua Central School yearbooks from the Chautauqua Central School Alumni Committee. That collection now covers the years from 1950-1990. Other yearbooks currently held in our library are:

Panama Central School, 1944-2024
Lakewood High School, 1926& 1941
WCA Nursing School, 1954
Chautauqua Lake Central School, 1997, 2007, 2012

If you have a yearbook of local interest you are looking to rehome, please consider donating it to our library.

05/27/2026

Send a message to learn more

05/25/2026

Join us for the 2026 Give Big CHQ!

Mark your calendars for June 11. It will be a day for everyone to support our campaign "Archival Tools" at

https://www.givebigchq.org/organizations/harmony-historical-society

HHS is looking to raise $1,500 for our "Archival Tools" project to purchase archival boxes for storing large items like quilts & tablecloths and to purchase additional digital storage to catalog the wonderful donations we receive.

A little can go a long way when we get together and give together on June 11 for Give Big CHQ!

05/20/2026

Beautiful family quilts and spreads - new to our collection!

Recent additions to our collection come from Addrienne Ploss, owner of Hickory Hurst Farm. Adrienne tells us:

"The seven quilts I donated last week to HHS were made by and belonged to my paternal grandmother Dorothy Baker Ploss and her mother Laura Treadway Baker. They lived on lot 43 (township 2, range 13) along the east side of Wall Street road circa 1899 to 1913. Grandma was the youngest of four children born to Charles Henry Baker and Laura Treadway; his second marriage. Charles had lived on the same farm on Wall Street for several years; his first wife Eva Hardinger and six-month old son Ernest died from typhoid fever in 1897. Charles met Laura Treadway when she worked as a laundress at Chautauqua circa 1898. The Baker schoolhouse, Harmony District No. 18, was named for some of Charles relatives.

Laura Treadway was the oldest of 12 children born to Christopher Columbus Treadway and Marintha Jane O'Dell in Steubenville, Ohio. After her father served in the Civil War, he wanted new beginnings. In 1879 on a train bound north, Christopher rounded up his three surviving (of six children already born), along with his wife, and got off the train at Fentonville. (Six more children would be born and survived after the move.) Most of the Treadways in CHQ and Catt counties are descended from this family.

I inherited the quilts when my grandmother died in 1984 and have stored them in trunks or totes since that time."

Just think of the generations of this family who were kept warm on many a cold winter's night by these handmade quilts!

05/18/2026

Arrowheads, pestles and stone tools added to the collection!

Today we have a very interesting collection of artifacts donated by Adrienne Ploss, owner of Hickory Hurst Farm, whose great-great grandfather Hamilton W. Ploss owned. She told us:

"It is my understanding that most of the arrowheads, pestles, and stone tools were found on my gg grandfather Hamilton W. Ploss's farm on lots 24 and 32 on the south side of Magnolia-Stedman Road, approximately on-half mile west of West Lake Road. Hamilton and his older brother Willard were the highest bidders on the sheriff's auction in 1866 of the former Phineas R. Davis farm. They purchased 200 acres; Willard sold hi share two years later by quit claim deed to Charles Strunk, a maternal cousin. Hamilton and his wife Anna raised four children at that farm, two of whom lived to be adults. One child, Laverne Polss, was adopted. Son Howard was my g grandfather.

Hamilton died in 1903; his widow died in 1919. My great grandfather Howard saved many things from his childhood farm, including the arrowheads. Those arrowheads and stone tools have remained packed in boxes for the past 125 years and remained untouched in a cupboard in my house, the farm that Howard would move to in 1907 at Magnolia."

Stop by on Tuesdays, 1-3 PM and see these and other items in our collection of artifacts from years gone by.

05/15/2026

Spring Clean up Days this Friday and Saturday.

05/13/2026

Harmony School No. 1, 1904-1905

Here we have another wonderful class photo of the students who attended the Harmony School No. 1 which is the schoolhouse that sits on the Harmony Historical Society campus. You can visit the schoolhouse on Tuesdays, 1-3 PM or even better during the annual Living History Fair on Sep. 19, 2026 (don't forget to mark you calendars!).

The best part about this photo is that there are names on the back. Those are priceless for people searching for their ancestors.

Back row: Jessie Allen, Harold Wiltsie, Bertha James, Ray Wellman, Harold Spooner, Hazle Ball, Lee Simmes, Leslie Powers, Philip Simmes, Archie Wing, Harold Kofod.

(Middle row)
Hubert Wing, Hugh Simmes, Bernice Westcott, Etherl Burlege, Loretta Wing, Geraldine Arban(sp?), Leland Powers.

(Front row)
Agnes Kofod, Ethel White, Edith Wellman, Claude Ball, Harry Slayton, Juanita Fisher, Willis Aiken, Hazel Wing.

05/09/2026

Today! Bring us your clean cans and bottles and help support the Harmony Historical Society-today from 9-noon!

12/31/2025

Happy New Year from all of us at HHS!

Here are more vintage New Year's postcards for you to enjoy. From the funny to the cute...and weird. Stay safe out there!

12/30/2025

Due to weather conditions outside, the Harmony Historical Society will be closed today. Be safe if you have to go out!

Address

1943 Open Meadows Road
Ashville, NY
14710

Opening Hours

12pm - 3pm

Telephone

+17167823074

Website

http://Harmonyhistoricals.org/

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