While Cole has always saved and collected things, he didn’t begin organizing it into displays until after he and his wife, Betty, retired from Miami Industries in Piqua about 10 years ago.
Cole set up the enclosed barn to look like a street with sidewalks and storefronts on both sides. A traffic light hangs overhead.
Along the street are Cole’s five Edsels. Ford Motor Company produced the Edsels from 1958-60.
“I liked them when they first came out,” Cole said, recalling buying his first Edsel, a used 1959 edition, in the early 1960s.
He said friends laughed at him at the time, and he ended up selling that car and buying a Buick.
It wouldn’t be until years later that he bought another Edsel. Cole recalled seeing one listed for sale when he and his family were driving to church in Greenville. He later bought it, and soon added three more Edsels to his collection.
For many years, he took all five to car shows. He said that was quite a production because he needed five drivers to transport them. For the past several years, he has stored them in his barn museum.
The museum has a little of everything, from button collections to quilts to toys to early electronic items.
Cole created storefronts as a way of organizing his collection. The coal mining company displays items from his family’s coal mining days in Pennington Gap, Va. That’s followed by a lamp and clock shop, jewelry store, bank, general store, wood shop, gas station and jailhouse.
Many items in his collection came from family members.
“My mother always said, ‘If you want something to stay in the family, give it to Willard,’ ” he said after showing a pocket knife that his father gave to him when he was a child.
Other items come from friends and people in the surrounding communities.
Still other items, he has purchased at yard sales and other places.
Last year, he gave area residents an opportunity to see some of his items when he opened up the museum during Bradford Railroad Days. More than 300 people visited.
Again this year, he’ll be one of the local residents who open up their private displays as part of Bradford Railroad Days, which will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 19, at Bradford School.
Contact Beth Sears at sears@erinet.com or call her at (937) 448-0101.