Farm museum offersglimpse of Americana

By CHARLES W. JOHNSON / News Editor for the Southern Standard

Tommy demonstrates some of the items used for butchering swine as wife Georgie looks on. The large wooden box is a hog scalder which was used to help clean the skin of a pig after it was killed. (Charles W. Johnson photos)

If you love antique farm equipment and implements, then you have quite a treat in store. All you have to do is take a jaunt to picturesque Viola and pay a visit to Viola Valley Farmer’s Museum & Collectibles.

Located on the square near the post office, the building, formerly a welding shop, is filled with literally hundreds of fascinating examples of farm tools, machinery and memorabilia, some dating back as far as the 1700s. The museum is the creation of Tommy and Georgie Wright, who moved to Warren County from Virginia three years ago.

The couple’s passion for collectibles, combined with a desire to share their treasures with the public, led them to establish the exhibit. They are retired farmers with three children who encouraged them follow their dreams.

“My wife and I inherited a lot of the things that are in here,” Tommy said. “So we bought this building here and we’ve made a museum out of it so people all over can enjoy it. These things are hard to find today that are in extra good shape, and we were fortunate to find them.”

Georgie says she and Tommy decided to start the museum partly because of the interest people showed in the collection.

“We had a lot of these items in our home,” Georgie said. “People would just drop in to see them and they were so interested in them, and we thought well, hey, this would be good to share with others. We’ve just enjoyed working with them and getting it fixed up here for everybody to enjoy.”

The museum has no regular hours, and tours are by appointment only. Admission is free, but the couple does accept donations which are then sent along to various charities they support, particularly the St. Judes Children’s Hospital.

The museum has a variety of familiar vintage farm implements and machinery, but also includes a number of obscure devices and inventions which were used on farms around the country.

One interesting device on display is a mechanized corn planter which used a coiled wire with knots at regular intervals. The wire was then strung out along straight lines in a field. Then as the horse- or mule-drawn planter was pulled along the wire was reeled back in and whenever a knot passed through a trigger device, corn seed was automatically dropped, thus planting the corn in perfectly spaced rows.

Though many of the items were passed down in the Wright family, the Wrights have also purchased and accumulated many more over the years. Wright says he has been collecting since he was around 16.

The museum includes everything from vintage Farmall and John Deere tractors, to a covered wagon that once belonged to a McMinnville bank. There are old-time butter churns, grain threshers, coffee grinders, lard presses and sausage grinders, a hog scalder for dressing out pigs and even a sickle that Tommy says dates back to the 1700s.

There are also a few items from other local people on display at the museum.

But the real treasure at the museum is Tommy and Georgie’s exhaustive knowledge of the tools, utensils and machinery. Tommy can identify and give a detailed description of most any item you point out, and some of them are pretty obscure.

A trip through the museum is very much like a trip through the history of farm life in America. The Wrights say they will be glad to schedule tours for clubs and community groups, school children, or individuals.

For more information, or to schedule a tour, contact Tommy or Georgie Wright at 635-2332.