The treasures at the Greene County Historical Society Museum are never ending, surprising even the staff with their uniqueness and relevance, not just to Greene County, but to the entire region.
For November’s artifact, we take a glimpse at the types of entertainment the people of Greene County were fond of in the mid-to late-19th century. This is a late 19th century Lithograph of a small-time band, out of Fayette County, that toured the region in the years during the Civil War (1861 – 1865) through the 1870s and likely into the 1880s.
Having read that, many of you may be asking why this is such an interesting item. There are a few reasons. Nearly everyone in Greene County would have heard of the Hostutlers. They commonly performed at weddings, celebrations, fairs, and just about any social event you could imagine. They are also interesting because the four siblings (Catherine, 1835-1890; Bartholomew, 1845-1908; Jesse Samuel, 1842-1923; and John Hostutler, 1829-1911) were all born blind! There is no indication in the research that the Hostutler family received any sort of formal education in music, though it was normal at the time for 19th century educators to instruct music in schools for the blind. The Hostutler’s music was covered by newspapers in Greene, Washington, Fayette and Westmoreland counties throughout the last half of the 19th century and was well-reviewed. It’s rare to find any other group of local musicians of the era to receive as much high publicity as this quartet did.
Remember that history is nothing more than our past, and the present and future are a continuation of that. History isn’t something that is beyond us. It is something tangible, something we all experience without knowing it in our lives every day. A century from now, researchers will be studying our time, learning about us, and wishing they had the chance to speak to one of us just to get the full picture of what life was like in 2021. By examining and learning about people like the Hostutlers, we’re getting a glimpse of what people, just like you and I, were like over a hundred years ago. The human story always has been, and always will be something worth preserving!
All of us at the Greene County Historical Society Museum would like to thank everyone who helped to make our 50th Annual Harvest Festival the tremendous success that it was! Keep an eye out on our Facebook Page for upcoming presentations, and for our Opening Date for the 2022 season!