In Amish Country many things are handmade. In Dover is a museum dedicated to some extremely beautiful handmade works of art.The Ernest Warther Museum and Gardens celebrates the life and work of the carver Ernest Warther.
Ernest Warther was born in 1885. He started carving after finding a rusty knife in the dirt. At the age of 14 he started working at the local steel mill. At the mill he found his second love the steam engine. Through out his life he would be carving, sometimes his simple wooden pliers design, sometimes elaborate steam engines and trains.
Eventually his work would outgrow his home and a museum would be opened. The museum would be in his home’s backyard. Visitors from around the world loved his work and the museum too out grow his home. An expansion was built in 1963. For the next decade more carvings were added until Ernest Warther’s death in 1973. 15 years later the museum was expanded again to include the original workshop, and a theater telling the life of the artist. To this day the museum is still in the process of expanding including a kitchen cutlery shop and factory.
The first thing ones sees as they tour the museum is the original workshop. Basically a small shed. The shop is set up as it would be when Warther used it. The tools and materials telling of how intricate the work of carving was. Inside the next room the wall cases are filled with more tools and very small detailed pieces of his work. This is where examples of the more hidden pieces on the larger displays are shown. The carvings look beautiful, but when the small hidden details are shown the work takes on a whole new meaning. With such details one can return and find new things to be awed by. In the center of the room is an animated model of the factory where Ernest Warther worked, including some of his coworkers.
In the theater a short video retells a little of the life story that has already been heard, but also expands on the story of the wooden pliers. The pliers were a simple carving that could be made with under 6 cuts. The design became iconic of Warther and he was seen working on them and giving them away almost all the time. The room includes a large pliers tree with branches made of pliers made of pliers. It is a sight to see.
Finally the last section of the museum houses the larger carvings of trains, canes, and other things. This large section has each work beautifully displayed in a glass case with great lighting. Some of the trains here were made for, or displayed, during Warther’s New York Railroad Tour.
The museum can be toured in half a day, but also begone back through to review any carvings before leaving the grounds. Outside of the museums are Ernest’s wife Frieda’s gardens. They are lovely and worth giving time to. Inside an out of the way building is her button collection. Freida was known for collecting and displaying them. The room is filled floor to ceiling with them.
While most have not heard of the artist, or might have heard of his grandson David Warther, who’s museum is on the main drag between Berlin and Sugarcreek, Ernest Warther’s museum tells the story of his life while focusing on the work. It’s the reason people have been coming to a small home in Dover for the past 80 years and is one of Ohio’s many hidden gems.
Random Ohio Reviews 