History museum planning for exhibit of all community’s original high schools

If you know Barry Frazier, it’s no secret he’s a history buff.

Frazier has collected local history items for years from places such as eBay, Facebook Marketplace, flea markets or local yard sales. 

Some of the items he’s given to other locals who may have a bigger interest.

“For instance, I acquired a Mt. Sterling Trojans duffle bag that belonged to a close friend and classmate of Curt Steger’s, and it seemed right for him to have that. I also once purchased 1916 and 1917 Mt. Sterling High School yearbooks—they were fascinating time capsules,” Frazier told the Advocate.

Some of those yearbooks even had perfectly preserved school newspapers in them. 

As another example, Frazier said he once acquired a football program from the early 1950s of a game between DuBois and a black school in Bourbon County (pre-integration).

“Of particular note, the DuBois team had exactly 11 players ... every player played every single down on both offense and defense! Those were some tough young men,” Frazier said.

The Montgomery County History Museum is planning on having exhibits at the museum for all of the community’s original high schools. An old Trojan megaphone that was just featured at Trojan Retro Night as part the Recreation Bowl is among items that will be included. 

Frazier also happens to the be president of the Montgomery County Historical Society.

If anyone would like to the lend the museum memorabilia from their high school (Mt. Sterling High School, Montgomery County High School, Camargo High School, DuBois High School or Montgomery Training School), Frazier said the museum would love to receive those items. (School jacket, uniform, scrapbooks, anything with the school logo on it for example). 

Photos can be emailed to mchmky@gmail.com or dropped off at the history museum. 

Each high school’s display will also include a digital photo frame that will have a slide show of photos and items the museum may not have complete space for in the display cases. 

“We’d also love to start a library of high school yearbooks from Montgomery County. It would be great to one day have all of the yearbooks in one place. And who knows, maybe at some point in the future, we could make many of them viewable from a digital database (if we’re not violating copyrights),” Frazier said.