Society Ponders Museum Site by Keith Heim 3/2002     Our family heritage, represented by photos, documents, artifacts, etc., is rapidly slipping away. Once lost, it is gone forever. For some time, the Historical Society's Board of Directors has been considering various possibilities for sites for a museum where items can be preserved and made available to those interested in family history.    While we had hoped to be able to acquire the original home place of the first of the Pennsylvania families to migrate to Nebraska, the Jacob G. Heim place, it simply is not available. The best option at the present time would be to purchase the Henry Heim home (see photo) just northwest of Dawson, where Paul and Bessie Heim and Ron and Carolee Heim lived in more recent years.    The house, which has come down through the family, now belongs to Lloyd and Donna Heim Epley. It was built in the 1890's by Chris Heim, Johnnie and Margaret Heim's son, and was later sold to Henry and Regina Heim, who lived there from 1897 to 1930. The two-story house, in Victorian style, would with some renovation, be eminently suitable as a repository for our heritage, and is, as Carolee Heim wrote us recently, in excellent shape. A workman once remarked to her, "They don't build them like this anymore." The purchase of approximately two acres of ground surrounding the house would provide space for a picnic area, parking, and a building to house farm implements of historical interest. The house sits on high ground, and the view of nearby Dawson, the Heim Cemetery, and the Nemaha Valley is magnificent!     The farm, originally purchased by Johnnie and Margaret Heim on their arrival from Pennsylvania in 1881 , has been in the family continuously for well over a hundred years, and is intimately connected with the history of the Pennsylvania Colony. The house was the site of births and weddings, and the first Pennsylvania Colony picnic was probably held on the lawn in 1914. Appropriately, the family piano, around which many in the family and the community gathered over the years, was donated to the Society by Ron Heim and would be returned to its place of honor in the living room! As Carolee put it, "This home has woven itself into many lives, and we honor it, and love it."     The Society has been offered the house and surrounding ground for the appraised price, which in any case will not exceed $10,000. It is a generous offer. We think that the house would make a fine museum and that this is an opportunity that should be acted upon in the very near future. However , we do not want to act without the input and concurrence of the members of the Pennsylvania Colony in general. Without your support -your continuing support- the museum cannot succeed.     Therefore, we plan to have a meeting of the general membership -indeed, of all interested individuals with a connection to the Pennsylvania Colony- at the Dawson United Methodist Church on Sunday, March 17, 2002 at 2 p.m. (cookies and coffee will be served). At that time, the facility and our plans for its renovation and conversion into a museum will be discussed in detail. We welcome your comments and input. If you cannot attend the meeting, please send your comments to us. Write Robert Williamson, RR 1, Box 127, Dawson, NE 68337, e-mail: wb20437@alltel.net, phone 402-855-2485. Your opinion is important-please let us hear from you. -Keith Heim