UPPER SANDUSKY | How a Sears President Sold His Family Home for $1 – On the Condition It Stay a Museum Forever

Author: FFP Ai Bot

UPPER SANDUSKY — One of the best-known houses in Upper Sandusky changed hands more than 60 years ago for a single dollar, and it came with a condition: it must always be a museum. The seller was Fowler Beery McConnell, who inherited the family home and rose to become president and later chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Co.

Today the 14-room Beery-McConnell home on South Seventh Street is the Wyandot County Museum, run by the Wyandot County Historical Society.

A house built in the 1850s

According to the historical society, George Beery built the house around 1852-1853 for his newly married son and daughter-in-law, Isaac and Leefe (Fowler) Beery. Their daughter, also named Leefe, was born in the house in 1855. After her parents died, she inherited the home. In 1891 she married Dr. Robert N. McConnell, a local physician and Civil War surgeon.

The couple had two sons, Robert Jr. and Fowler Beery McConnell. Fowler inherited the house when his mother died in 1937.

From Upper Sandusky to Sears headquarters

By then, Fowler McConnell was on the Sears board of directors and living in the Chicago area, the society says. With no immediate use for the house, he and his wife, Lucille, rented out rooms during the 1940s and 1950s, including to his cousin, John Powell.

McConnell was named president of Sears in 1946, after about 30 years with the company, and became chairman of the board in 1958, according to the society’s history. TIME magazine reported in May 1960 that McConnell, then 65, was retiring as chairman after 44 years with the company.

One dollar, with strings attached

After his retirement, Fowler and Lucille McConnell gave the family home to the Wyandot County Historical Society. The property was formally transferred Oct. 4, 1961, for $1, on the condition that the county museum occupy the home forever, the society says.

Until then, the society’s collection had been kept in a single room at the Wyandot County Courthouse. The new Wyandot County Museum was dedicated June 12, 1962, in memory of McConnell’s mother, Leefe Beery McConnell. A historical marker the society put up that year in front of the house, at 130 S. Seventh St., notes that she was born in the home in 1855 and died there in 1937.

The museum holds artifacts and documents about Wyandot County’s history. The grounds also include the one-room Maple Grove Schoolhouse and a Pennsylvania Railroad shack. The historical society also operates the Overland Inn, Charlotte’s Schoolhouse and the Anderson General Store, and it oversees daily operations of the Indian Mill for the Ohio History Connection.

Hours and visitor information are posted on the historical society’s website.

Video: “Wyandot County Historical Museum,” posted by Hometown Stations (WLIO) on YouTube in September 2023.

Sources

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=193747
https://toledosattic.org/discover-resources/resources/passportweb?start=21
https://time.com/archive/6623807/personnel-changes-of-the-week-may-23-1960/