As he walks through the vast collection of historic items collected from around Lake County, Lake County Historical Museum Director Bruce Woods’ 29 years as a Merrillville High School English teacher shine through. He easily offers a clear and concise explanation of the past with a thoughtful comparison to today.
“My theme, especially when I take my third graders on tours, is that living in the past was hard work,” said Woods, who retired from teaching in 1999. He points to the various displays of Victorian clothing and notes how people were smaller then. “You can see the clothing with the trim waistlines. This is because everyone worked so hard.”
He understands working hard, as he has spent many years working with other local historians to develop the museum.
“We opened the museum in 1982,” he said. “I always wanted a place where everything can be. I think we do pretty well. We are open to the public from May to October.”
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While Woods runs the Lake County Historical Museum for the Lake County Historical Society, he also serves as the Lake County Historian.
The Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana Historical Bureau recently announced Woods’ reappointment to the post of Lake County Historian. He has held the post for 10 years. He is one of 92 county historians in the state’s County Historian Program, established in 1981. His responsibilities include acting as a liaison between statewide agencies and local organizations and answering questions from the public about Lake County’s traditions and legacy.
He is in his 38th year as president of the Lake County Historical Society and his 33rd year as the director of the Lake County Historical Museum. The museum opened in 1982 and is located on the second floor of the Old Lake Courthouse in Crown Point. The Lake County Historical Museum is operated by the Lake County Historical Society.
The museum has everything from irons that had to be heated on a stove to manual vacuum cleaners and butter churns to horse-drawn carriages and plows. There are wedding dresses, military uniforms, a deep sea diving suit, an alligator purse and a mahogany symphonium music box with 60 different discs. He cranked up Don Brown’s “Cake Walk Kansas City Rag” during a recent visit to show it off.
The kids love the fun house mirror best, said Woods.
He said he often gives tours to elementary school students and likes to show them things they would be interested in and explain that living in the past was hard work.
“It was dangerous work and long hours,” Woods said. “They get an appreciation and they can see how their (predecessors’) hard work gave us the advantages we have today.”
His roots are deep in the soil of Lake County, as his great-great-grandfather, Bartlett Woods came to the area in 1836 from England and was a county commissioner and a state representative in 1861 and 1865, he said.
Woods said that bit of history was one of the surprises he found while researching his own family.
“I discovered my great-great-grandfather was a state representative when Oliver Morton was the governor. That’s when they had to go by carriage to Indianapolis. The statehouse had a stable under the building,” he said.
This spring, the Lake County Historical Museum is planning an event with the Crown Point Garden Club, a local version of “Mysteries at the Museum,” he said.
Woods is quick to credit the efforts of others who contribute to the task of maintaining the county’s history: Steve McShane at the Calumet Archives and Marlene Polster of the Indiana Genealogical Society. He also credits Charles McFadden, who died in January 2015, for developing the military collection. McFadden was a veteran who fought in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.
He also credits his assistant, Scott Hudnall, a cataloging specialist who also works at Indiana University Northwest Library.
Woods is also secretary of the Lake Court House Foundation, president of the Lake County Library board of trustees, a member of the Old Homestead Preservation Society, lieutenant governor of the Kiwanis Calumet Division and vice president of the Merrillville Education Foundation.
Nancy Coltun Webster is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.