Left - Irene Gilbertson, at Museum which was once Gilbertsons Hardware.
Society and Community
Lose an Active, Involved Friend
No individual has taken the opportunity to support the Mt. Horeb Area Historical Society as often as did Irene R. Gilbertson, who died Friday, Jan. 21, 2000, at age 91.
Irene was born in Madison Dec. 29, 1908, the daughter of John and Isabelle Hardy Togstad. She married Otto Gilbertson in 1934. They moved to Mt. Horeb and in 1935 purchased the building which now houses the Mt. Horeb Area Museum. Living in one room upstairs while remodeling the run-down structure during the Depression, together they operated Gilbertson Hardware there for 43 years. "How many husbands and wives could work side-by-side like that for that long?" she proudly asked her pastor, Rev. George Carlson, weeks before she died. Otto had preceded her in death in 1985.
A charter board member in 1975, Irene circulated requests among friends whom she made through involvement in church and other community organizations, and people she knew from 65 years of residing in Mt. Horeb, encouraging them to contribute their wedding attire, formal and everyday clothing, quilts, and other textiles which form the foundation of the extensive costume and textile collection the Society boasts today.
She worked as a curator, receiving, cleaning, repairing, documenting, cataloging and storing items donated to the Society, and gave many of her own personal items as well. For decades her phone number was the Society's primary contact.
Still retaining part ownership in 1996 of the building which she and Otto bought and remodeled, Irene helped to encourage the State Bank of Mt. Horeb (now Amcore Bank) to offer it to the Society while interesting the Society's Board in pursuing the possibility. She took great satisfaction in knowing that the building now houses the Mt. Horeb Area Museum.
Continuing to rent her apartment above the museum, Irene herself credited all those trips up and down the long staircase to the museum with keeping her fit into her nineties.
She and Alice Johnson worked closely to recruit and coordinate enough volunteers to staff the new museum year 'round at least three days per week. She scheduled bus tours, met new volunteers with key in hand to orient them to the required tasks, and frequently brought them lemonade, coffee and cookies during their shifts. During receptions, she insisted that a person be appointed to serve coffee, rather than having people approach a large, anonymous coffee urn for self-service.
Irene tended to the museum as she did when the building was Gilbertson Hardware, emptying trash baskets daily, checking the locks and lights, cracks and leaks, and always keeping ahead of the cleaning. During the remodeling of the museum space in January of 1998, she slipped and broke her wrist while sweeping the dust around the ladders and boards at the back of the museum after the workers had left. "Isn't it just the limit?" she'd say, rolling her eyes and holding up her cast for visitors at the hospital before quizzing them about the operation of the Society and Museum in her absence.
She tended to details such as maintaining a supply of envelopes for sorting donations and purchases at the front desk in the Museum Gift Shop (always "the Gift Department" to Irene).
Although Irene and Otto had no children, most who knew them agreed that their children were the organizations they served, and their many nieces and nephews. After closing their hardware business in the 1970s, Otto and Irene continued their strong involvement in the Historical Society and numerous other community organizations. Besides the Society, Irene was a member of the Mt. Horeb Evangelical Lutheran Church and its W.E.L.C.A., a life member and Past Matron of the Mt. Horeb Eastern Star and organizer of the Rainbow for Girls in Mt. Horeb, a charter member of the Mound View Garden Club, and a 14-year supporter of the Song of Norway production.
As Irene was required to accept some extended stays recuperating in nursing homes over the last two years, it took many individuals stepping forward to cover her roles. Since we bid her farewell at a memorial service Jan. 30, Society members have realized what a large void the rest of us must now fill. Memorial funds have been established in Irene's name at the Mt. Horeb Evangelical Lutheran Church and at the Mt. Horeb Area Historical Society.
Left- Gilbertson Hardware Store, ca. 1940