In continuing our series on county historical societies in our area, we’re now taking a look at the triple museums of the Yates History Center.

It’s technically the Yates County Genealogical and Historical Society in Penn Yan, which operates the Oliver House Museum; the L. Caroline Underwood Museum; and the Scherer Carriage House, all on the same complex accessible from Main Street or Chapel Street.

Oliver House is a brick 1852 Italianate home where five major rooms exhibit home life in the Victorian era.  There’s a space dedicated to the Native American history of the area, and another for changing exhibits — currently, “Steamin’ on Keuka.”

Several years ago the more modern home next door on Chapel was repurposed as the Underwood Museum, honoring the long-term teacher whose bequest made this addition possible.  In addition to interpreting and communicating about local life, one exhibit here showcases 44 personal objects that she desired always to be on exhibit.

This home’s 1930s garage was converted into the Scherer Carriage House, centered on the eighteenth-century coachee of Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend. Jemima was a key founder and mover of white settlement in our region.

The coachee is a small vehicle theoretically seating six including the driver, who rode inside. The chassis supported the vehicle on which the Friend rode up from Philadelphia to the Dresden area near Seneca Lake in 1790. Originally from Rhode Island, Jemima Wilkinson was the founder and the center of an idiosyncratic religious sect. She had sent followers ahead to establish a settlement for the group and to make an earthly home for her. She later removed to Jerusalem on Keuka.

Once she arrived in the lakes, the carriage wasn’t used too much. Jemima preferred riding (her sidesaddle is also in the new exhibit space), and the roads, such as they were, didn’t suit well for carriages anyhow. But by 1810 they’d been improved, and Wilkinson was feeling the effects of age. She sent her carriage to Canandaigua to be rebuilt as the coachee. On the back transom are the flourishing letters “U.F.” (Universal Friend), along with a Latin cross and a star of David.

The coachee passed through several hands once Jemima “left time” in 1819, and was gifted to Ontario County Historical Society in 1941. But though rebuilt in Canandiagua, the coachee’s spiritual home was in Yates County, and it remained a sort of poor relation for years. Finally it was transferred to Yates in 2004.

Now the carriage house is dedicated to the Friend. Jemima Wilkinson’s 1816 life portrait is here, and her broad-brimmed beaver hat. Her slippers are here, and the conch shell she used to call worshipers to meeting. There are saddle baskets given to her by Seneca Indians, and a silk velvet purse with elaborate metal embroidery, given by a French aristocrat for whom she provided hospitality. You can see the Bible she pored over, the lap desk she labored on, the clock by which she managed her time, and a Queen Anne chair she inherited from her mother.

So a visit to Yates History Center gives you a taste of local life from the late 1700s right through the middle of the 20th century.  And that’s not even considering the research and genealogical resources that are available by appointment.  Take a drive out to Penn Yan, and get a feel for how our region grew.