I should point out in closing that there were other Damons who came to Wisconsin, as well as the Oliver Damon family. These were both brothers to Oliver and their descendants and in particular one individual, also named Lowell Damon, deserves some special mention. He was a nephew of our Lowell Damon here and this younger Lowell was a son of Lowell's eldest brother Luther, and by coincidence I guess, he also was a skilled mechanic and a woodworker. For many years he was employed by the leading furniture establishments in the city of Milwaukee and his work was to be found in the Schlitz Hotel and the Plankinton Hotel, which was Milwaukee's most elegant hotel in the 19th Century; a number of private homes, and also in the Wisconsin Building in the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. And it is said to this day that the Smithsonian institution owns a chair that was made by the younger Lowell Damon from wood that was taken from the oak tree under which George Washington took command of the Continental Army during the American Revolution.

There's a great deal more to the family history of the Damons and of the history of this house, but I think that this is a good point to stop.... What I've tried to share with you this afternoon is some insight into this man who Frederick Underwood regarded as a genius, a mechanical genius. And if you think about it, this was before the days in which you could go to Builder's Square or the local hardware store to purchase anything mechanical that you needed. Somebody had to make it and Lowell Damon was one of those who did the manufacturing of these items, whether they be buggies or sleighs or chain mechanisms for wells or what have you, everyday matters of life that were needed. From that standpoint, as well as the fact that he was a civil servant here in Wauwatosa -- he held the important position as town clerk -- plus the fact that he built a house that is still standing at the beginning of the next millennium is, I think a tribute to this man and is part of the reason why we've memorialized his memory through the Lowell Damon House.

Thank you very much.