Bell County Museum

I've been driving by the Bell County Museum in downtown Belton for the past few months getting anxious to visit it. I've been hoping it will have fascinating and detailed stories about all the homes in the area with historical markers in front of them. I decided that since Tim is a social studies teacher he would, of course, be dying to check out this small town museum. Turns out that Tim is a very agreeable guy (which might be more significant factor than his occupation as a social studies teacher in explaining his cooperation) and so we went!What we found, was a working water pump, corn shucker and grinder, and cotton gin. All fun hands-on features at the free museum. We also found some miniatures of a few historical buildings in Belton and their stories. But by far, the most surprising and interesting thing we found, was the story of Belton's 'Sanctification Sisters'. WOW. Apparently a group of women in post-Civil War Belton determined that it was God's will for them to celibate. Not a big deal, except that they were married. Long story short, these women and their 'sanctification' movement tore up many families and left the community distraught. They eventually earned enough money doing domestic tasks for their old friends/neighbors and unlicensed dentistry (!) that they bought, owned and operated a successful hotel. Not the heritage I'd hoped to discover, but you get what you get!