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PARKERSBURG - The summer season got off to a good start Sunday for one of the area's oldest museums.

During the annual Henry Cooper Day, over 100 visitors came to the Henry Cooper Log Cabin Museum in City Park on opening day to enjoy tours and refreshments.

The Centennial Chapter of the Daughters of American Pioneers, which operates the museum, greeted guests and answered any questions they had as people made their way through the two-story building.

"This has been one of our largest turnouts ever," said Charlotte Modesitt of the local chapter. "We are really pleased with that."

The cabin has been a local landmark for years.

"This is the oldest local museum in the Mid-Ohio Valley," Modesitt said. "I think that is awesome.

"We call it 'Henry Cooper Day' in honor of the man who built it," she said. "We just hope people come out and see it."

DAP member Patty Cooper was outside Sunday in period costume portraying Lydia Cooper, Henry's wife, and greeting people as someone might have in their time. Other members offered visitors a cool glass of lemonade.

During Henry Cooper Day, volunteers were available to help people who believe they might be a Cooper descendant trace their genealogy.

"We hope we get a lot of Cooper descendants," Modesitt said at the beginning of the event.

"We hope they enjoy looking through all the books we have with all of the names."

At the end of the day, the chapter had four Cooper descendants that they had not spoken to before.

"We are really pleased with that," Modesitt said.

The Henry Cooper Log Cabin originally stood on Elizabeth Pike in the Mineral Wells area.

Henry Cooper of Virginia built the cabin on a plot of ground which consisted of several hundred acres over 200 years ago in 1805. The Daughters of American Pioneers Centennial Chapter in Wood County was founded in 1899 as a result of the 100th anniversary of Wood County. Since its founding, the chapter has been active in preserving American heritage in the local area.

"Also, what makes this an extra special museum is every artifact in it was donated by local families," Modesitt said. "None of it was purchased, it all came to us.

"I think that makes it extra special."

The museum is divided into two sections. The downstairs houses items from 1800 to 1865, including furniture, toys, cooking utensils and more. The upstairs houses items from the Victorian era, 1865-1910, including dolls, furniture, clothes and more.

"We wanted people to understand the two different time periods," Modesitt said. "It is really unique when you know it all came from local families.

"These items paint a picture of what the families were like in this area by what they had in their homes."

In August 1910, the city of Parkersburg purchased the cabin for $400 from Cooper descendants, F.L. Barnett and M.L. Lemasters, to be preserved as a specimen of early architecture of the white settlers in the region. It is believed to be the first two-story cabin in the local area. The cabin was dismantled log by log and rebuilt at its current location in City Park.

"The Daughters of American Pioneers work to maintain it for our community," Modesitt said.

The cabin is open every Sunday, from 1 to 3 p.m., this summer until Labor Day and by appointment. Admission on those days will be $1 for adults and 50 cents for children.

"We're trying so hard to keep it alive and to let people know it is out there," Modesitt said.