Historical Society sees higher attendance, membership
Society finding new topics, programs in its 90th year.
People have been flocking to the Benninghofen House in Hamilton — whether it’s a speaker or a new exhibit, the Butler County Historical Society has modern shoes filling the historic house for its events.
Brian Smith, the society’s new executive director, said attendance at the BCHS monthly speaker series has increased from around 15 attendees on average to more than 100. Smith said the increase comes from the society changing topics in its 90th year and trying to find things people want to see.
“Just because a lot of the stuff [the society] deals with is in the past doesn’t mean you need to get stuck in it,” Smith said.
Smith said some of the increase in attendance is attributed to the society winning the best museum category in the Journal-News Best of Butler County 2023 competition and placing second in the 2024 competition — putting awareness on BCHS. He said the museum has been able to combine the increased attendance and speaker series to get the community more involved.
“We’ve lucked out with the program topics,” Smith said.
Multiple speaker dates were extended to multiple sessions because the initial day was sold out. The increased attendance has also led to more memberships for the privately-funded organization. Smith said there were more than a dozen new members after the last session alone.
The 90-year-old society has no plans of slowing down and has multiple community-based events planned.
August will include a speaker series based on the history of railroads in Butler County led by John Stewart, who Smith said is a “guru” for local railroad history.
The talk will include information about past railroads in the area and historical buildings such as the CSX station previously used by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton railway.
More upcoming history events
September is a big month for the society all focused on the 35th Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Civil War. The regiment was organized in Hamilton and called the “Butler Boys” because of the number of soldiers from the County. The soldiers spent three years in action from 1861 to 1864 moving from Ohio to Georgia for the Seige of Atlanta that ended the war.
A dedication to a newly conserved flag from the regiment will kick off the month at 1 p.m. Sept. 7. The flag spent several years being restored and mounted for display.
The dedication starts the exhibit on the regiment titled “When the Storm Broke Upon Us” which will cover the three years of action the “Butler Boys” saw along with Gen. Van Derveer.
The month will conclude with a speaker series on Sept. 26 focusing on 32 soldiers and what they did during their time in the regiment. The series will coincide with artifacts at the Benninghofen House.
October will include a speaker series on the history of the Black Street Bridge with information on the engineering and original acquisition of it with information from the Butler County Engineer’s Office.