J.W.W. Loose sees history as a now thing John W. W. Loose For many of us history may be a dry, almost dead, and useless subject. We think it is about great men of the past and their forgotten deeds in faraway places like London, Paris, and Rome. You may ask - ‘Of what practical value is history here and now? Jack McDonald is a man of many parts A man of many parts is Jack McDonald, Marietta, R. D. 1. His skills and accomplishments are so many and varied, it is difficult to decide which to describe first. John W. W. Loose, President of the Lancaster County Historical Society and head of the department of social sciences at Donegal High School, has an answer to the question about the timely, practical value of studying history. He be- lieves that if we want to _ understand what is hap- He is a geologist, gradu- ated from Franklin and Marshall, and teaches earth sciences at York Suburban Junior High School. He is qualified as a school administrator with an M.A. pening today, and what will happen tomorrow, we have to understand what hap- pened yesterday. Why? Because the present and future are being determined by people. And people are their pasts. Our ancestors have made us what we are today. “You have to understand human beings to understand history, and you have to understand history to under- stand human beings,” says Loose. Human nature is nothing more or less than the past accumulated experiences of people. ‘‘History is people,’’ says Loose, ‘‘not just great people, but all people. History is terribly human... History is not made in the world capitals but in places like Maytown, Marietta, and Mount Joy.” In other words, history is us, you and me. What could be more practical, or more interesting, than under- standing ourselves? As President of the Lancaster County Historical Society, Loose has devoted himself to assembling not the extraordinary, but the ordinary kinds of data. Recently, he added to the archives of the Society the business records of a local industrial firm. ‘Of what value are they?’ asked some historians. from Millersville. He is a chef, having served in that position at The Lemon Tree. He has also managed The Frog French restaurant in Lan- caster, and went to Montreal to recruit Parisian Ange Parodi as its chef. Presently, he is head waiter and assistant to the manager at Accomac Inn across the Susquehanna from Mari- etta. He is a restaurateur in both meanings of that French word, because he is not only an expert keeper of restaurants, but also a skilled restorer of old houses. He and his wife Judy, who teaches at Seiler Elementary School in Mount Joy, have been restoring their early 19th century house, Shag- bark Hill, between Marietta and Rowennafor the past six years. The rooms are decorated and furnished in period style appropriate for the house with many pieces the McDonalds have been collecting at auctions. For a while the McDon- alds contemplated going into the antique business, but they valued their col- lection too much to sell any But it wasn’t long before a graduate student in history found these data to be just what he needed for his research. Loose’s main interest has been in economic history. The ways we make our livings are certainly very important parts of our lives, the most vitally important. (His master’s thesis was on the subject of the iron furnaces that once flou- rished along the Susque- hanna, especially at Mari- etta.) He has tried to collect for the Society the most exten- sive possible records of how all people have led their lives. The library and ar- chives of the Society are replete not just with politi- cal, financial, and legal records of all sorts — but with the most common and ordinary artifacts of daily living. Here are the names of just a few items in the Society’s wide collection of artifacts: ‘‘one yellow and black bridle from the Civil War,” ““a 1780 fire hat,”’ “‘a pair of child's stocking stretchers,’’ etc., etc. Not that the modern and beautiful colonial-style building at Marietta and President Avenues in Lan- caster does not contain its grand objects. The walls of the lecture room are lined with paintings by Jacob Eichholtz, Lancaster’s re- nowned protraitist of the local gentry around 1800. And a small room con- part of it. They and their four year old son Scott live in and enjoy the early American environment they have recreated. The grounds of Shagbark Hill are beautifully land- scaped by Jack, who, among his many other trades, used to run his own tree nursery in Washington Boro. Jack grew up in Wash- ington Boro where “he learned from his father how to raise tomatoes. Jack and his brother Larry paid for their own educations at Franklin and Marshall by growing tomatoes — 10,000 or so every summer. Jack got interested in cooking while living as a bachelor in Pittsburgh, where he taught school right after leaving F. and M. When he first went to Pittsburgh to look for a job he was interviewed by Dr. Robert Cresswell, who was then principal of a high school in Pittsburgh. Ten years later Jack recognized Dr. Cresswell, who had also coincidentally moved to Marietta. Jack did not at first remember Dr. Cress- well’s face, but a large green jade ring on Cress- well’s finger. tains the Jaspar Yeates Law Library, which helped to establish the link between British common law and Americam law under the Constitution. Most of the Yeates volumes were pub- lished in England, many in the 1600’s. There are seven working grandfather clocks in the Society’s building. When all seven strike on the hour, Loose says it sounds like bedlam, but the serious scholars go on intently with their researches. In addition to heading the County Historical Society and teaching at Donegal, Loose is a member of the Circus comes to town August 20, 1975 Pennsylvania Historical As- sociation, the Pennsylvania Federation of Historical Societies (vice-president), American Association for State and Local History, Eleutherian Mills Historical Conference on Economic History, Lancaster County Bicentennial Committee (secretary), Heritage Center of Lancaster (secretary), Marietta restoration Associ- ates, and Southern Lancas- ter County Historical Society (former president). John Ward Willson Loose keeps himself very busy, helping us to understand ourselves — whence we came, and whither we are going. Mademoiselle Antoinette swings tonight at 6 and 8 p.m. with Lewis Brothers Circus in Mount Joy Borough Park, sponsored by Mount Joy Jaycees. Jack McDonald’s skills are endless. This past summer he added another vocation to his repertoire — travel agent. He organized a windjammer (2-masted schooner) cruise. A total of 40 local people including Linda Smeltz and Diane Rice, teachers with Judy at Seiler, went with the Mec- Donalds in two windjam- mers from island to island off the coast of Maine. One among many beautiful me- mories of that cruise was having all the lobster they could eat. One of McDonald’s windjammers off coast of Maine
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers