Pageland history needs to be protected

I am immersed in Pageland’s history right now, so much that I have to take occasional breaks to find out what’s happening in the here and now. I’ve got a century worth of spotty documentation that I can never possibly finish reading and, even if I could, these newspapers would tell only a fraction of this town’s story.
And it is most certainly a story. An epic, even, with re-occurring characters and themes that will probably become more apparent over the course of our 100 Great Pagelanders series.
Last week, Mildred Graves submitted some information about her late father-in-law Dr. “Luke” Graves. Part of this information was his obituary, which included the names of many prominent Pageland citizens of the day, including many men who have already been included in 100 Great Pagelanders. It’s probably not a coincidence.
Many of our 100 Great Pagelanders are on the verge of being forgotten. Even a man of Van Lingle Mungo’s stature is a veritable unknown to many people under the age of 30. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know who Mungo was when I moved here, but what I’ve recently learned has left me baffled as to how much local history has slipped through the cracks.
Mungo’s niece Martha Horton visited my office last week after reading my column. She brought with her family scrapbooks dating back to the 1930s containing newspaper clippings from around the nation, cartoons, telegrams, letters, baseball cards and other assorted memorabilia related to Mungo’s storied athletic career. There were photos of him with Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey, incredible headlines from newspaper like The New York Times singing Mungo’s praises and much, much more.
My first thought was that these books — or reproductions — needed to be in a museum. Not a museum in Columbia, but a museum right here in Pageland, a place where children can keep in touch with the roots of the community.
The problem would be finding someone willing to take the responsibility for such an effort. Organizing and creating the museum would probably be easy. Maintaining it and paying the utilities (not to mention the salary for a curator) might be another story.
I can think of two local groups who could do this, particularly if they worked together. They are private groups so I won’t put them on the spot, but maybe I will prompt some discussion on the subject. After all, if Pageland doesn’t preserve its heritage, nobody will.
Last week I mentioned that Mungo had 155 career losses as a pitcher, which was either my own typographical error or a mistake on the part of my source (either way, the mistake is mine to own.) According to Dan Mungo, his cousin had 115 career losses. My apologies. And don’t forget to visit us at The Scout (pagelandturns100.blogspot.com) and sign the online petition to get Mungo into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

— Wallace McBride, editor