WEST NEWTON, Pa. (AP) - When Ben Markle was 13 and began a lifelong passion of collecting the history of West Newton, he thought his friends wouldn’t understand.
“It was hard to explain,” said Markle, now 32. “It was a weird hobby. I didn’t tell my friends.”
His interest in the past of his hometown began with a few trinkets from his grandmother, including a silver spoon marked “Souvenir of West Newton, Pa.”
Markle has since embarked on a path of preservation and community redevelopment as a board member of Downtown West Newton Inc. and former president of the dormant West Newton Historical Society.
A 2001 Yough graduate, Markle said he’s learned preservation on a small scale from searching for items from the town on the Youghiogheny River. Incorporated in 1842, its population is about 3,000.
“You can sort of be nostalgic for small-town life, but it’s not nostalgic for me,” he said. “I look at the problems we have across the country, and it’s scary and challenging, and a lot of hard work.”
The son of Dan and the late Becki Markle, his grandfather was the Rev. Arthur Day, a Presbyterian minister who served as president of the West Newton Historical Society at one time.
One bedroom of Markle’s home on Cort Street is covered with signs and collectibles, including an announcement that Warren G. Harding’s funeral train would pass through town, early West Newton High School diplomas and a restored bass drum from W.A. Landsparger’s Military Band, named after a general store owner who sponsored the group.
His collection fills basement cabinets, where dozens of soda, milk and medicine glass bottles tout their origins as “West Newton, Pa.”
One of Markle’s favorite pieces is a violin made at the turn of the last century, marked “Geo. T. Finley, West Newton, Pa.,” for the rosewood instrument’s creator from Railroad Street.
“He was a carpenter by trade, and his family was partner to a lumber company in West Newton, which is probably how he got access to the different types of wood,” Markle said.
After graduating from Washington & Jefferson College in 2005 with a business administration degree, Markle continued to work at his summer job at West Newton Cemetery and started a groundskeeping business.
Now, when he’s working, he’ll notice names like Finley’s on headstones.
“When I go past these people’s graves, I always ask them where the stuff is. … ’How many violins, George?’ I want to find more,” he said.
His summers at the cemetery have afforded him winters to organize his collection with a wall of labeled storage bins alongside filing cabinets and binders.
George Thuransky, former mayor of West Newton and a past president of the historical society, said Markle’s attention to those details shows his dedication.
“He takes intense pride in the things he finds,” Thuransky said, and that carried over into his leadership of the historical society.
“Ben was always there. He was the first one there and the last one to leave,” Thuransky said. The group’s dwindling volunteers and upkeep of the John C. Plumer House, built in 1814, led it to go dormant about 2006.
Without the club, Markle said he hopes cataloging his collection will help him reach the goal of displaying part or all of it in some public place in town.
“I think this is a great opportunity to leave a legacy,” Markle said. “You can’t take any of this with you, but you can leave it in the best condition possible.”
Markle’s helped compile West Newton walking tours for visitors to the Great Allegheny Passage, which passes through town, and may display some of his collection once a railroad car along the trail is fully restored.
He plans to continue to give history talks in the winter at West Newton Library and at the West Newton Woman’s Club.
Jay Hawkins, a friend and fellow collector from Turkeytown, said Markle isn’t out to find things for their monetary value but instead sees the story of West Newton unfold with each new piece he uncovers.
“He gets fired up, and that’s the great thing about him. He has a passion for what he does,” Hawkins said.
Knowing about the past creates a sense of place for the present and the future, Markle said, but without the community marking time together, it’s difficult to move forward.
“At the end of the day, that’s all you have left,” Markle said. “Community is the way to leave that legacy of some sort.”
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