Murrell Home veterans retire

The staff and volunteers have contributed to many improvements at the historic site

By BETTY RIDGE

PARK HILL — One of the last things Shirley Pettengill did for the Oklahoma Historical Society was get killed in the line of duty.

Not to worry, though. Pettengill herself survived the incident, at which she portrayed an unlucky wagon train settler attacked by outlaws during last weekend’s reenactments at the Pawnee Bill Ranch.

Today Pettengill is retiring as site manager of the Murrell Home, a post she has held since Sept. 10, 1994. She has purchased a home in Tahlequah and plans to lend a hand at the Murrell Home occasionally. But she also plans to spend time reading, researching Cherokee history, and doing all the traveling she’s never been able to accomplish while taking care of historic properties.

The Friends of the Murrell Home will honor her July 12, and last Friday held a luncheon for two other longtime Murrell Home helpers who also are ending their duties. Chester “Chet” Grimm, a retired industrial arts teacher, has left his mark, literally, on just about every portion of the antebellum home, along with the nearby cabin and corn crib. Faye Turman has served as a site attendant, leading tours, working in the gift shop and performing other duties, for six years.

Grimm started volunteering at the Murrell Home in January 2000. He had moved to Tahlequah from Konawa, where he taught at Northern Oklahoma State College, to be with his daughter and her family here. His son-in-law, Dr. Bill Corbett, is a professor of history at Northeastern State University, and frequently volunteers at the Murrell Home. So it was only natural for Grimm to lend his expertise to build a display case, the first of many projects.

Pettengill has spent her adult life on historic properties working with preservation efforts. She came to the Murrell Home from the Drummond Home in Hominy, where she had been 14 years.

“I’ve always been interested in preservation projects,” she said.

She was educated in Colorado and Arizona, concentrating on history and anthropology while obtaining her master’s in Arizona. During that time she worked at the Arizona State Museum.

“Anthropology teaches you to search for the reason why,” she explained.

Her interest in anthropology was sparked when she read “Ishi,” a book about the last member of California’s Yahi tribe. He was kept and studied for many years, as something of a living specimen, at the Museum of Anthropology a the University of California at Berkeley.

Pettengill then worked at Fort Concho museum at San Angelo, Texas, then at the Old City Park in Dallas, which housed a collection of historic buildings.

“They began to move buildings there. There was an antebellum mansion, there was a farmhouse, a school, a church,” she said.

In 1980, the Oklahoma Historical Society had just acquired the Drummond House.

“I was coming to Oklahoma for a year. That’s what they told me, that the house would be open in one year,” she said.

She quickly learned that restoring and maintaining an old property is no easy task. Because of the state bidding process, it took much longer to bid and award the contracts and get the house restored. She stayed 14 years, although the restoration didn’t require such an extensive period.

At about that time, the Murrell Home was transferred to the Historical Society from the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation.

“There were six or seven properties transferred to the OHS because they had more of a historical context,” Pettengill said.

The OHS asked Pettengill to participate in researching the house’s history. She helped with the historical analysis of the structure, along with other professionals.

“They had to inventory and do all the types of things a museum would do,” she said.

She was transferred to full time site manager in 1994.

For those unfamiliar with its history, the home was begun by George Murrell in 1844 and the family occupied it the following year. Murrell had married into the influential Ross family. His father-in-law, Lewis Ross, was brother of longtime Principal Chief John Ross.

John Ross’ home at Park Hill, Rose Cottage, was destroyed by Confederates during the Civil War. Murrell himself was a Confederate. Although his family moved east during the war and the house was occupied by Ross family members, that affiliation probably saved the Murrell Home.

Pettengill said historians believe Murrell probably accompanied the Cherokees on the last group making the Trail of Tears journey. He lived in a cabin on the Murrell Home grounds for a few years before beginning his home, the last surviving antebellum mansion in Indian Territory.

Restoration has proceeded throughout Pettengill’s tenure, much of it with Grimm’s continued assistance.

Different members of the Murrell and Ross families, as well as the Latta and Justice families and others had occupied the home over the years.

“At different points in time different things were done to this house and you just have to guess when,” Pettengill said.

“What you see out front today is what we have documented proof of.”

Last year the old pedimented front porch, familiar to local residents for at least a century, was removed and restored to its earlier appearance. Work also has been done on the porches, and the east porch still needs to be restored to an earlier era. There just wasn’t money enough for that this time around, Pettengill said.

Smaller improvements have included wallpapering, carpeting, and acquisitions of furniture and other period pieces. The Murrell Home is more fortunate than many historic homeplaces, because it still contains much furniture belonging to the Murrell family and pieces associated with the house that have been donated over the years.

Several years ago Nell Stapler Bradshaw died and left the home furniture, as well as an endowment fund used for ongoing projects. She also had photos of the interior of the home that had been passed down through the family over the years.

Pettengill still would like to see an older photo of the home’s exterior.

There have been many adventures during the restoration. “Just about every room was dug into to find out what we needed to do,” Pettengill said.

Almost all the rooms had some sort of inappropriate finishes put on, including tile.

“I can’t tell me how many rat’s nests we’ve been through,” she said.

Although Pettengill isn’t supernaturally inclined, she acknowledges some strange things have happened at the home. She’s even recounted some during the annual ghost story weekends just before Halloween.

Pettengill knows the home will continue to evolve and improve as a period piece as funds become available. She’d eventually like to see a reconstruction of the old barn, that can be used as a visitor and interpretive center. Currently there are displays around the house, and the library and east bedroom are used for programs and school tour presentations. The barn would allow those rooms to be freed and restored to their former appearance.

The Friends of the Murrell Home, begun in 2003, has helped raise funds for many of the improvements, and its members volunteer for duty during special events and regular tour groups.

Grimm said he always has liked to help people out, and gained experience through his church, Konawa Assembly of God. The church wanted to build a parsonage, but didn’t have enough money for the materials. Grimm and his fellow parishioners tore down houses and obtained materials in that manner.

Pettengill has frequently remarked she didn’t know what she would have done without Grimm’s help. Even as he nears his 89th birthday, if he couldn’t do things himself physically, he has showed others how to do them.

“There’s not much he doesn’t know,” Pettengill said. “We would get into a wall and he would find out that dry rot had affected the beams. So the next thing we did was repair the beams.”

He’s worked on the porches, built the sale shop, restored the cabin after it was moved because of a flood, helped with the moving and restoration of the corn crib. Many times he has created historically appropriate hardware for the house.

“I’ve repaired the northeast corner and the southwest corner, redid the cabinets, a lot of the hardware in the house, reconstructed the cabin and the corn crib,” he said.

With his Santa-like beard, red suspenders and tool belt, he frequently paused from his volunteer work to explain to visitors what he was doing.

Turman also has helped visitors and explained the Murrell’s lifestyle to them.

As the luncheon honoring her and Grimm got under way Friday, Turman heard someone at the front door, turned her head in that direction and began to rise.

Pettengill told her to sit down and enjoy herself.

“Somebody else will have to go to the door today,” she said.

And someone else did, letting in two visitors who had arrived for a tour.