T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Sedgwick House Vice President Jennifer Hastings-Shunn poses with a collection of various artifacts from the Martins Ferry Volunteer Fire Department displayed at the Sedgwick House.

MARTINS FERRY — The Sedgwick House Museum is set to participate in Ferry’s Fall Fest for the first time this coming Saturday.

The annual festival is presented by the Martins Ferry Lions Club and will take place at the City Park from noon until 6 p.m. Just blocks away from the City Park, the Sedgwick House Museum will be open for tours from 1-4 p.m. The Martins Ferry Police Department and Volunteer Fire Department will both be at the museum for a fire truck and K-9 unit display.

Martins Ferry native and author Joe C. Ellis will be in attendance on Saturday selling and signing books that he’s written.

“He’s a Martins Ferry Native and was a teacher here at the high school, but he’s an author that writes murder mysteries,” Sedgwick House Museum President Tom Thomas said. “He writes these murder mysteries about the Outer Banks. He’s written seven or eight books already.”

The museum has a standing bookcase located in its first room that is solely filled with books of Martins Ferry authors. Thomas said he believes that having Ellis in attendance on Saturday is a great addition to the museum’s itinerary for Saturday’s event.

“We’re very proud. Martins Ferry has a proud history of literary people that goes back to the 1800s. So we thought that it would be nice to have Joe here and share his literature because every book here is written by somebody from Ferry. It’s sort of our heritage that we wanted to focus on,” Thomas said.

Ellis found inspiration for his book series because his family frequently travels to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. The series of books is available at book stores in the Outer Banks as well on Amazon.com.

As well as participating in the Ferry Fall Fest, the Sedgwick House Museum will also be participating in the Ohio Open Doors Program. According to the Ohio History Connects website, the Ohio Open Doors program is a statewide biennial event in which building and landmark owners open their doors to the public for special tours and programs. The 2024 Ohio Open Doors Program season will run Sept. 6-15.

“Everything seemed to coordinate together at the same time and everything seemed to work out OK,” Thomas said while speaking about the museum participating in both the Ohio Open Doors Program and the Martins Ferry Fall Fest.

He added that the Martins Ferry Lions Club and Belmont County Tourism have been a big help in promoting the museum being opened during the Ferry Fall Fest.

“It seems that if we open up by ourselves the response doesn’t seem to be good, so that’s why we’re hoping with all of the stuff going on, we’ll be part of it and that might be better for us to have people come,” He said.

The museum has been open for over 50 years with the main goal being to present the history of Martins Ferry to residents from near and far. Thomas said that all of the rooms are important, but he believes that the two most important rooms are the education room and the business room. The education room shows a rich history of past Martins Ferry graduates and the business room details all of the past and present businesses located in the Martins Ferry area. “It’s all about connection, because even if you’re not from Martins Ferry or you’ve moved away, it’s amazing every time people will find something to connect to,” Sedgwick House Vice President Jennifer Hastings-Shunn said.