What A Difference A Year Makes

DORCHEAT HISTORICAL MUSEUM, INC.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES

Dear Supporters of the Dorcheat Historical Museum,

The holiday season is approaching and with that comes a feeling of excitement!  Here at the museum we have so much to be excited about.  This year we came out of our Covid hibernation period and had our “TIE ONE ON” apron exhibit, book and fundraiser gala.  It was a wonderful evening filled with a “standing room only” crowd of friends, patrons, new faces and cakes, raising over $25K.   Our bank account looks so much better than it did a year ago; however, just like other businesses, we face the challenge of increased operating costs, so we are asking for your continued support.

After many years of service to the museum as Board President, Louise Baird Snook stepped down from her position and Mike Harper stepped up to serve as President, along with several new board members.  It was my pleasure to officially introduce Jessica Stewart Gorman as my successor as executive director on June 22, 2023.  Many were already aware of all Jessica is doing for Webster Parish.  We now have a Dorcheat Museum Channel on YouTube, where you can watch all our previous speakers on your various devices. Her passion for history has now expanded to a weekly column, “Historically Speaking,” in the online Webster Parish Journal, sharing long-forgotten stories of Webster Parish.  We also collaborated with Brookshire’s local grocery to display historic area pictures highlighting Webster-Minden history. Check these pictures out along the top of the walls all around the store.

With our new Board in place, we want to address the financial strategy necessary to start on our annex next door.  It will take a significant influx of contributions to accomplish this, to include new exhibits, bathrooms, and office space. Jessica and I both have the same vision for the stories that need to be told.  Each community in Webster parish has so much to share and this will be our way to let each one of those communities shine.  It will also be our chance to honor our History Keepers, those rare individuals that spend or spent a good part of their lives making sure our history is not forgotten.  The following are just a few that come to mind: John Agan, Juanita Agan, Thad Andress, Mrs. Thomas Campbell, Richard Carey, Frank Griffith, Christine Hunt, Ben Hunter, Dr. Luther Longino, R. O. Machen, Charlotte Martin, Carter Norman, Dr. Roy Phillips, Beth White and Marcus Wren.  I would like to include Jessica and myself in that group, also.  Without all of us, much of our history would be gone forever.  

We now have our own website, www.dorcheatmuseum.com, where we can take credit cards for purchases, as well as financial donations.  The website is a nice overview of what we are all about and our progress, including a sample of our books and an easy-click button to take you to our YouTube channel.  Check it out and let us know what you think.

Minden/Webster Parish is ever-changing, but with your help we will keep some of the past preserved.  Our rich history seems to fade more quickly than ever these days. History is not there for us to change; it is there for us to learn from.  I hope that you will continue to help us keep Webster Parish history alive for future generations.  Your financial support makes a difference to the museum and is always appreciated; remember we are a 501 C3 nonprofit organization.

 

Schelley Brown Francis                 Jessica Stewart Gorman              Mike Harper

Director                                          Assistant Director                        Museum Board President

116 Pearl Street      P.O. Box 1094      Minden, LA 71058-1094     318-377-3002

 

TIE ONE ON EXHIBIT AND 2022 GALA DRAW BIG CROWDS

 The Dorcheat Museum was finally able to celebrate 15 years of being open!  After two years of not being able to have museum functions due to covid issues, the museum patrons came out in full force.  With somewhere between 150-200 people in attendance for the cake auction.  Over 8K was raised in cakes alone.  Mike Harper the new board president presented outgoing President Lou Snook with an award for her years of service to the museum. A good time was had by all with some hot and heavy bidding wars for some great looking and probably even better tasting cakes.  Jessica Gorman was introduced to everyone as the incoming Executive Director for the museum.  Schelley Francis will be going to volunteer status in 2023 after 16 years of serving as director.  

Springing Forward For 2022

 

DORCHEAT HISTORICAL MUSEUM, INC.

SPRINGING FORWARD IN 2022 WE ARE MAKING GREAT STRIDES THIS YEAR!

Dear, Supporters of the Dorcheat Historical Museum,

Spring is in the air, and even though we are still a little slow on visitors due to Covid, we have seen a surge of interest in what is going on at the museum.  We had hopes that by the fall of 2021 we would be back in full swing with our speakers at the museum….but due to ongoing concerns we have chosen to wait it out for a while longer as a safe-guard for our patrons.  We are working on two events that we hope you will participate in! 

Our TIE ONE ON Apron exhibit and event are going on now!  Even if you don’t have an apron but may have a handwritten recipe and a few older pictures of the recipe writer that will work and be included in the cookbook that will be offered at the end of the event. The TIE ONE ON exhibit will run from now until Oct 1^st, 2022.  Our BIG NEWS IS ALSO THAT OUR GALA will HAPPEN THIS YEAR….it will be a part of the TIE ONE ON exhibit and will take place Monday Sept 12^th, 2022…more details to follow on that.

It is still our hope that we can honor John Agan once we get back to hosting events. In fact we would like to highlight all three of the History Keepers with a program to include information about John Agan, Dr. Longino and Mrs. Campbell.  I think, without these three people, much of our history would be gone forever.  It seems so appropriate to us and would be a wonderful tribute to celebrate all of them together in a special evening event.

Now to tell you about the progress that we have made in just a few short months…. BIG DRUM ROLL FOR Jessica Stewart Gorman of Minden!  She has agreed to come onboard as part of the Museum family of History Keepers.  She is an avid genealogy researcher and knows so much about Minden’s past history.  Many have met her at the Genealogy meetings at the Webster Parish Library or at the museum. She has done so much work at the Minden Cemetery repairing headstones. It is amazing to see her passion to work and repair these.  She is very knowledgeable about Minden’s history and all the family connections of the past.  She has a passion for our history that you don’t see often in a person of her age.  She is very dedicated to the museum and all our history.  I laugh and I am not sure she takes it as a complement when I tell her “She is me 20 years ago”.  She is much better at newer technology than I ever hoped to be and she has worked at getting us going with a Dorcheat Museum Youtube Channel!  You can now go and watch FREE our “Nights For The Museum” speakers!  This alone will be a great asset to the museum and keeping history alive and in front of people.  We can share all the oral history we have collected since 2008!  We have over 68 videos being uploaded and more to follow.  So subscribe to our channel and check it often.  We are also sharing those on a regular basis via Facebook when possible.  I am so excited to finally have someone that figured out how to get them uploaded! 

With Jessica onboard, now we have been able to meet more people afterhours and on the weekends with call ahead visit request.  This is working out great to have someone else that is knowledgeable of both museum and cemetery.  During Christmas, we were even able to be the tour guides on the hayrides through the historic district telling our history and leading a Christmas song or two!

Another great and much needed thing we now have is a nice website www.dorcheatmuseum.com we can now take credit cards for items plus you can make financial donations online at your convenience.  We even have it set up if you would like to make a regular monthly donation.  The website has a sample of our books that you can see, easy click button to take you to the Youtube channel, it is a nice overview of what we are all about and our progress.   Check it out, we think you will like what you see.

Coming soon at Minden Brookshire’s grocery, will be a special installation of historic area pictures that will highlight Webster/Minden history and our museum. This is a collaboration with the remodel team of this store.  We are in hopes this great visual will bring much needed attention to the museum.

Minden/Webster Parish is ever changing but with your help we can keep some of the past preserved.  Our rich history seems to fade more quickly than ever these days. History is not there for us to change.  It is there for us to learn from.  I hope that you will continue to help us keep Webster parish history alive for future generations.  So many want things to do in Webster Parish…. but so few are willing to support it.  We ask that you not be that person.  Every dollar is so much appreciated and with the rising cost of everything it is needed more and more.

You can make a difference at the museum for 2022.  We will greatly appreciate any help you can offer financially.  Remember we are a 501 C3 nonprofit.  You can now donate online with our new website www.dorcheatmuseum.com  for your convenience. 

Sincerely, 

Schelley Brown Francis                Jessica Stewart Gorman             Louise Baird Snook

Dorcheat Museum Director          Assistant Director                       Dorcheat Museum Board President

116 Pearl Street      P.O. Box 1094      Minden, LA 71058     Phone#318-377-3002

Museum Welcomes Jessica Gorman

Click Here For Webster Journal Story 

By Paige Nash

Jessica Stewart Gorman is officially onboard as part of the “Museum Family of History Keepers” at Dorcheat Historical Museum. She was born and reared in Minden and graduated Minden High School in 1997. She has been a stay-at-home-mom for a little more than 19 years.  

She originally started working at the Minden Cemetery located south of Bayou Avenue by the Coca-Cola plant, close by the downtown district. She began there around March 2020 when she found herself with more free time due to Covid. The cemetery is separated into two sections, with Jessica focusing most of her work on the older section.  

“I always had an interest in cemeteries,” Gorman said, “It evolved from going to our local cemetery and seeing the condition that it is in, seeing something that is broken, and instead of just thinking, ‘Oh, that is such a shame,’ to wondering, ‘Is there something I can do about that?’ I really wanted to learn the right way to do it and be able to make a small difference.” 

The Minden Cemetery holds many early business leaders, teachers, politicians, doctors and 21 unnamed Confederate soldiers who lost their lives after the Battle of Mansfield. Many of the older gravestones were destroyed or covered during a tornado that came through the town on May 1,1933.  

“It started with just uncovering things that were buried and cleaning dirt off the stones,” Gorman said, “But now that I have attended a cemetery preservation workshop and received some hands-on instruction on how to properly do it – such as what products to use – I finally feel like I have enough substantial knowledge that I could really help to preserve and not cause harm to any of it.” 

It was in November of last year that Schelley Brown Francis, Executive Director of the Dorcheat Historical Museum Association, asked Gorman if she would like to begin assisting her at the museum. So far, she has helped get the Dorcheat Museum YouTube channel up and running where they are sharing all the oral history that has been collected since 2008, along with setting up new exhibits, such as the Minden Hospital and BB Gun exhibit. 

“She is just like I was 20 years ago,” said Francis, “I have been praying for several years about who was going to take this over after I left. When you put your heart and soul into something for so many years, you worry about it. I did not want to see all this hard work just go away.” 

Francis says she feels confident that Gorman understands the important task at hand and rests assured the museum will be well cared for when she decides to step away. She believes it will help reach a different generation, having a younger person with as much passion and knowledge about Minden’s history. 

One of the main struggles they are facing right now is getting the younger generation of people interested and helping to financially support the museum. 

“A lot of people I know, do not even know it is here,” said Gorman, “We need to start with getting more awareness out there.” 

Like most businesses, Dorcheat Historical Museum was shut down for about 6 months during Covid. They have remained slow on visitors ever since, but they are optimistic that things will be back in full swing soon. They are hoping to get back to having speakers and hosting events again. 

 The museum is now accepting online donations on their new website http://www.dorcheatmuseum.com.  

Giving To The Museum Has Never Been As Important As Now!

 

DORCHEAT HISTORICAL MUSEUM, INC.

Dear, Supporters of the Dorcheat Historical Museum,

With the upcoming holiday season approaching, we hope this letter finds you and your family healthy and happy.  The old saying “The Times We Are A Changing” has never been more evident.  We have some changes coming up for 2022!  Let me begin by telling you about the perfect person I have found to help carry on our mission statement as a docent / and hopefully a future museum Director / Jessica Gorman of Minden.  Jessica first came to the museum several years ago asking if I minded that she do some work in the Minden Cemetery as far as cleaning headstones and checking on things.  She is an avid genealogy researcher and knows so much about Minden’s past history.  She has even read all the books that we offer at the museum!  She isn’t 100% sure yet….. but I am working on her! 

One thing the Pandemic has shown us is written in Ecclesiastes 3; For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: ² a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; ³ a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; ⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; ⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; ⁷ a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.  We have lost some wonderful people the past few years due to illness and age…( I feel like I have personally lost so many of my go-to people when I needed answers about Webster parish history), some of us have gotten back to our roots with planting gardens and canning food, we have hunted more wild game so we don’t depend on the supply chain, we have seen our country and city seem to be chaotic at times and then at others pull together to stand up for what we know is right and true, we have cleaned out and gotten rid of excess baggage,  we have watched as parts of history have been destroyed and removed all across our country and Minden,  we have not been able to embrace loved ones and gather as what we deemed NORMAL and we mourned for that feeling of togetherness, we have been pushed and pulled via the internet to speak out and then just go and hide away from it all, we are all looking for the time to LOVE and that is ALL THE TIME.  We pray for NO WARS… but we know those lurk on the horizon.  They say history repeats itself ….we have seen good times and bad.  History is not there for us to change.  It is there for us to learn from.  I hope you will continue to support the museum in every way that you can.  I hope that you will continue to help us keep Webster parish history alive for future generations.  That is what a museum is all about….preserving that history GOOD AND BAD!  Seems so many want a museum and things to do in Webster Parish…. but so few are willing to support it.  We ask that you not be that person.

For the 2^nd year we were not able to do our fundraiser but did a mail-out instead earlier this year.  That mail-out did great…but we are still short for the year on where we need to be!  We usually take in around $30,000 at our event.  This money is what we have always used to operate from during the year.  Not having the gala two years in a row puts us at an even bigger disadvantage financially as we move forward for the coming years.  This year I (Schelley Francis) turned 62 and have signed up to receive my Social Security starting in 2022.  This will put us in a better position to continue forward, by cutting our overhead.  As always, we are very mindful of how our money is spent.  Each year we like to have enough to move forward without jeopardizing what we already have in savings.  We know many of you are in the same situation and respect that.  You still have time to make a difference at the museum for 2021 and starting 2022.  We will greatly appreciate any help you can offer financially. 

I would like to have an exhibit of the History Keepers that would include John, Dr. Longino and Mrs. Campbell.  I think, without these three people, much of our history would be gone forever.  I would love to honor them in our building that needs to be completed.  My goal is to finish that in the next few years, but without donations that exceed our basic needs that will not be possible.  

Remember we are a 501 C3 nonprofit.  You can now go online and donate to the museum.  www.dorcheatmuseum.com is our new website and makes donating so easy.  If you are a business take a look at being highlighted on on sponsor page.  For mail in donations please use the following address Dorcheat Museum P.O. Box 1094 Minden, LA 71058.
  

Sincerely, 

Schelley Brown Francis                                                                    Louise Baird Snook

Dorcheat Museum Director                                                              Dorcheat Museum Board President

116 Pearl Street      P.O. Box 1094      Minden, LA 71058     Phone#318-377-3002

Come here some history and see some Christmas Lights

Dorcheat Historical Museum's Schelley Brown Francis and Jessica Stewart Gorman will be riding along on the hayrides to tell you the history of the area on Friday Night.

 

Dorcheat Museum needs your support!

 DORCHEAT HISTORICAL MUSEUM, INC.

 

Dear Supporters of the Dorcheat Historical Museum,

Well we made it to 2021! Due to the Pandemic…we are still finding our way through post Covid-19 sort of! We opened back up in August of 2020, with cautious navigation of how to do that safely for our patrons as well as myself. 

Yesterday Minden was hit with another sobering fact. The Covid virus is still impacting our parish in a hard hitting way. Just when we were in hopes of getting this behind us, it has reared it's ugly head again. So once again we are being more cautious here at the museum.

We have faced many challenges during the last 14 years but none that have taken the wind out of our sails like this pandemic episode has. We had hopes that by the fall we would be back in full swing….but we have chosen to wait it out for a while longer as a safe-guard for our patrons. We have lost some wonderful people the past few years due to illness. I feel like I have personally lost so many of my go-to people when I needed answers about Webster parish history. 

As many of you know we lost a very important person during all of this. John Agan, our Webster Parish historian, passed away Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at the age of 61. John’s passing is like losing a search engine of knowledge. He can never be replaced and we are so grateful that we have just a sample of his vast knowledge captured in book form at the museum. It is still our hope that we can honor John once we get back to hosting events. I would like to have an exhibit of the History Keepers that would include John, Dr. Longino and Mrs. Campbell. I think, without these three people, much of our history would be gone forever.

This will now be the second time, since the opening of the museum doors in 2008, that we have not had our annual fundraiser gala. We still don’t feel that with the size of our meeting room we can safely allow this to happen. With that being said we realize that Covid-19 has had a devastating impact on many and that even if we could have a fundraiser that we would still not feel right asking a business to donate items this year. So many business in our area have closed or can’t even find people to work. People are still struggling.  

The gala usually has 100-125 people in attendance. We usually take in around $25,000 to $30,000 at our event. This money is what we have always used to operate from during the year. Not having the gala two years in a row puts us at an even bigger disadvantage financially as we move forward for the coming years. I was able to draw unemployment for as long as the state had museums mandated closed. As always, we are very mindful of how our money is spent. Each year we like to have enough to move forward without jeopardizing what we already have. We know many of you are in the same situation and respect that. 

This past year I have watched as parts of history have been destroyed and removed all across our country. I was witness to that even in Minden. That fact alone shows me the importance of what we are trying to do here at the Dorcheat Museum. History is not there for us to change. It is there for us to learn from. I hope you will continue to support the museum in every way that you can. I hope that you will continue to help us keep Webster parish history alive for future generations. 

If you can help us financially this year, we would greatly appreciate it. We are a 501 C3 nonprofit. All donations are tax-deductible. Please send support to:

Dorcheat Historical Museum

P.O. Box 1094

Minden, LA 71058

Sincerely, 

 

Schelley Brown Francis                                  Louise Baird Snook

Dorcheat Museum Director                          Dorcheat Museum Board President

116 Pearl Street     P.O. Box 1094  Minden, LA 71058

   Phone# 318-377-3002

Museum Director Schelley Francis Speaks At Lions Club

Minden Lions Club July 22, 2021

Special thanks to Schelley Francis for agreeing to fill in at the last minute today for our scheduled speaker, who was under the weather.

Schelley spoke to Lions about the mission of the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, as well as future dreams and the challenges it’s faced over the past year and a half. She said the museum exists to help keep our rich parish history alive, and it will take continued monetary donations and volunteer help to do so. Schelley has served as the museum’s director since 2007.

The museum is currently open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. with a lunch closure from 1-2 p.m., and by appointment. Guided and group tours are currently on hold due to COVID-19. There is no cost for admission.

The museum also includes a gift shop area featuring books by local authors, postcards, prints, DVDs of past “Night at the Museum” presentations, and more.

For more information, visit the Dorcheat Museum on Facebook or call 377-3002.

Dorcheat Museum Now Open Covid Update

 Due To Covid-19 

DO NOT ENTER IF YOU ARE SICK

1. We Can Not Conduct Personal Tours At This Time By A Staff Member!

2. We Are Limiting The Number Of People To 10 At A Time In Museum.

3. Please Social Distance 6 ft. Apart

4. Please Do Not Touch Any Items Or Displays During This Time.

5. Wear Your Mask At All Times.  

6. We Can Not Offer Our Restroom Facilities At This Time.

7. We Can Not Offer Our Programs Or Rent Out Our Meeting Room.

Call Before You Visit To 318-377-3002 Due To Unexpected Situations 

Covid-19 Closure

Due to Covid-19 all museum speaker events and gala will be canceled for 2020. Our patrons are important to us. We feel that the museum meeting room is not large enough to safely social distance.

WE ARE CLOSED

In Regards To Opening Or Closing

Due To The

COVID-19 Virus

The Dorecheat Museum

Will Be Closed Until More Details

From The

CDC & State

Safety Guidelines Measures Are Available

This means we will not have board meetings / tours / speakers / or allow ANYONE INSIDE the museum in order to keep our museum safe and virus free. At this time none of us knows what will take place and what timeline we can expect with this pandemic. What we do know is staying home is the best thing we can do for each other. So please stay inside and distance yourself from people.

my number is 423-0192 or email me at iluvoldcars@yahoo.com .

Thank you and please stay safe.

Sincerely,

Schelley Francis

Museum Director

Night at the Museum with Denton Culpepper Canceled

Due to Covid-19 all museum speaker events and gala will be canceled for 2020. Our patrons are important to us. We feel that the museum meeting room is not large enough to safely social 
distance.

September 14th, 2020 Night at the Museum to feature Denton Culpepper

Don’t miss the 69^th Speaker for the Dorcheat Museum.  Denton Culpepper will be the Sept 14th, 2020 speaker for the May 2020 museum event.  Due to the Covid-19 this event was changed from May to Sept in hopes that things will be better.  

Denton Culpepper was born and raised in Dubberly, LA about two miles from what is now his “Ivy Vale Plantation”.  Growing up Culpepper always dreamed of restoring and owning an old plantation home.  In 2017 he would purchase what had become known to most locals as the “Old Shadows House”.  This once run down and neglected property is located in Dubberly off Hwy 531.  It has taken about one and a half years to restore the house to the showplace of a home and wedding venue that it is today.  Much attention to detail has taken place to keep things as they were while at the same time making it a wonderful place to call home for Culpepper.  

This presentation will detail the harsh environment and daily struggles that early pioneers had to overcome to settle this area, as well as how the planter class forever changed the culture and landscape of North Louisiana. You will see how a plantation arose from a small log cabin and how everything but the hinges and glass panes of the windows were made and assembled on the plantation. 

Don’t miss your chance to hear an amazing part of North Louisiana history.  The museum events are held in the Media/Learning room at the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, 116 Pearl Street, Minden, La.  Museum doors will open at 5:30 p.m., with first-come, first-serve seating.  Program begins at 6:00 p.m., admission is free with potluck desserts and snacks welcome. 

For more information contact Schelley Brown Francis at 318-377-3002 or visit www.museuminminden.blogspot.com to sign up for the museum email blast. You can also find the museum on Facebook as a group and a page. To learn more about Webster Parish’s rich history visit the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum located at 116 Pearl Street in Minden. Museum hours; Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (closed from 1-2 for lunch). Open by appointment only on other days. The museum admission is free. Also open for special tours and rental by appointment.

October 12, 2020 Night at the Museum Randy Grigsby Canceled

Due to Covid-19 all museum speaker events and gala will be canceled for 2020. Our patrons are important to us. We feel that the museum meeting room is not large enough to safely social distance.

Don’t miss the 70^th Speaker for the Dorcheat Museum.  Book signing and talk on the book “A Train To Palestine”  by Minden native Randy Grigsby.

Randy was born in Minden, Louisiana and graduated from Minden High School in 1969. After working in several jobs, including the oilfield, he enrolled in Louisiana Tech, graduating in 1978 with degrees in Journalism and History. He moved to Shreveport in the spring of 1978 and worked on the wire desk of the Shreveport Times. In November 1978, Randy began a sales career which spanned 35 years--including copiers and computer sales, and the last 25 years in the medical equipment industry. After retiring from General Electric Healthcare in June 2011, he pursued his desire to write.

However, in 2014, he found his true purpose in writing while in Israel with his wife. One night before the tour group was to visit the Yad Vashem (the Holocaust museum), he had a dream about the Tehran Children, which is the theme of his book, A Train to Palestine, which he worked on for over three years, is his first non-fiction book. The book is published by Vallentine Mitchell, a London publishing company who was the first to publish Anne Frank's Diary in English in the late 1950s.

He is married to his wife Joyce who is from Shreveport, and she also possesses a love for God and the land of Israel; a stepdaughter, Natalie and son-in-law Neal, and three grandchildren. Randy and Joyce like to travel to the mountains during their downtime.

Randy is presently working on his second book, which is also about the Holocaust. So the museum hopes to have him back once that project is completed. 

A Train to Palestine: The Tehran Children, Anders’ Army and their Escape from Stalin’s Siberia, 1939-1943

In October 1938, eight-year-old Josef Rosenbaum, his mother, and younger sister, set out from Germany on a cruel odyssey fleeing into Eastern Europe along with thousands of other refugees.

Sent to Siberian slave labor camps in the wildernesses, they suffered brutal cold, famine, and disease and hundreds perished, including Joe’s mother and sister. When Germany invaded Russia, many refugees were forced out of Siberia to primitive tent camps in Uzbekistan, accompanied by the Polish army-in-exile previously imprisoned by the Soviets.

Within weeks, the commander of the army, General Wladyslaw Anders, received orders to relocate his army to Iran to train to fight alongside the British in North Africa. Instructed to leave without the civilians, Anders, instead, ordered all evacuees, including Jews, to head southward with his troops. Joe and the refugees were again loaded on trains, accompanied by the Polish soldiers, and sent to the port of Pahlavi on the Caspian Sea. Then, transported by trucks over treacherous mountain roads, they finally arrived in Tehran where they struggled to survive in horrifying conditions.

In October 1942, the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem accepted responsibility for the nine hundred orphaned Jewish children in the camp and by January 1943, the agency secured travel certificates for the Tehran Children to evacuate to Palestine. Joe and the other children, after five terrible years, finally reached safety at the Athlit Detention Camp, north of Haifa, on 18 February 1943.

Readers will find the story is one of the swift brutalities of war, and the suffering of civilians swept up in the maelstrom of fierce conflict. It is also a testament to courage and the human spirit to survive. Drawing from eyewitness accounts, A Train to Palestine recreates a remarkable, and little-known story of escape and survival during the Second World War.

Don’t miss your chance to hear an amazing story.  The museum events are held in the Media/Learning room at the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, 116 Pearl Street, Minden, La.  Museum doors will open at 5:30 p.m., with first-come, first-serve seating.  Program begins at 6:00 p.m., admission is free with potluck desserts and snacks welcome. 

For more information contact Schelley Brown Francis at 318-377-3002 or visit www.museuminminden.blogspot.com to sign up for the museum email blast. You can also find the museum on Facebook. To learn more about Webster Parish’s rich history visit the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum located at 116 Pearl Street in Minden. Museum hours; Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (closed from 1-2 for lunch). Open by appointment only on other days. The museum admission is free. Also open for special tours and rental by appointment.

Night At The Museum March 9th, 2020 TRADED TO THE ENEMY THE STORY OF ADOLF “WES” WESSELHOEFT

https://www.facebook.com/events/2955592781175151/

Night At The Museum March 9^th, 2020

TRADED TO THE ENEMY THE STORY OF ADOLF “WES” WESSELHOEFT

Don’t miss the 68^th Speaker for the Dorcheat Museum.  “Traded to the Enemy” is the subject of the evening and the name of the book written by Wesselhoeft about his amazing life story.

Wes Wesselhoeft will share his incredible story at the Dorcheat Museum on Monday March 9^th, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. located at 116 Pearl Street. Wes was an innocent six-year-old American boy who was caught up in the events of World War II. No longer playing on the beach in Chicago, going to school and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, he and his parents were suddenly taken away to a desolate internment camp in Texas. One year later his family, and many U.S. citizens like himself, were traded for other Americans with our enemy Nazi Germany into an active war zone. Taken to Hamburg, he endured the heavy bombings by the Allies, followed by hunger and deprivation in post-war Germany.

In spite of these events he took the first opportunity to return to America and join the Air Force. After 22 years of service, including two tours in Vietnam, he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. Now legally blind from Agent Orange exposure, Wes competes in tandem bicycle races and still lets very little stop him. Wesselhoeft tells his story of faith in God, American perseverance, and love of country.

Copies of the book "Wesselhoeft: Traded to the Enemy" will be available for purchase after the program. 

Don’t miss your chance to hear an amazing story of courage and love of country. The museum events are held in the Media/Learning room at the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum, 116 Pearl Street, Minden, La.  Museum doors will open at 5:30 p.m., with first-come, first-serve seating.  Program begins at 6:00 p.m., admission is free with potluck desserts and snacks welcome. 

For more information contact Schelley Brown Francis at 318-377-3002 or visit www.museuminminden.blogspot.com to sign up for the museum email blast. You can also find the museum on Facebook. To learn more about Webster Parish’s rich history visit the Dorcheat Historical Association Museum located at 116 Pearl Street in Minden. Museum hours; Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. (closed from 1-2 for lunch). Open by appointment only on other days. The museum admission is free. Also open for special tours and rental by appointment.