Artist Terry Smith donates a painting to the Museum of Colquitt County History in memory of his grandmother, Eliza Smith.

MOULTRIE — Artist Terry Smith of Land O Lakes, Florida, presented an original painting to the Museum of Colquitt County History, as a 25th anniversary gift.

Smith donated this painting in memory of his grandmother, Elizabeth Murphy, daughter of a pioneer family in this area, William Wright Murphy. She married Henry Thomas “Tom” Smith Sr., whose son, Terry’s Dad, Tom Smith Jr., graduated from Moultrie High School.

This painting depicts a pre-Spanish Native American scene that could have existed near a waterway in this county. It will enhance the museum’s Native American Room giving visitors a view of early life in Colquitt County, the museum said in a release announcing the gift.

The museum represents almost 4,000 local families who’ve shared their keepsakes and stories. Some of them include a mother’s collection of letters, from her son during World War II who died in France, that were saved from a barn in Norman Park. There are also telegrams from a Doerun family whose son died on the USS Forrestal bombing accident during Vietnam and another Doerun family’s telegram from a husband who was MIA and wounded during his platoon’s landing on the beaches of Normandy, France, on D-Day. A tube of rocks and sand from those historical beaches is also housed at the museum.

Over the years, the museum has had the opportunity to help some visitors who’ve made DNA connections to their local “roots.” One traveled from England and another had lived in Florida. He arrived in Moultrie to meet his paternal family in time to enjoy Moultrie’s Christmas Parade and see the area his grandfather came from.

A local person participated in searching for Amelia Earhart, and another, a WWII soldier, arrived in Germany in time to free a Nazi prison camp, the museum said. This soldier’s family shared his collection of souvenirs that includes a 1933 lapel pin from a German family who toured a 13th century Cathedral in Trier, Germany. They went to see the gown, displayed there, that Jesus wore before crucifixion, which was brought from the Holy Land by Roman Emperor Constantine’s mother, Helena.

“We give credit to the County for their support in giving our local families a home for these historical keepsakes; a home for our county’s past,” the museum stated. “This effort was created, quite a while back, by the local Historical Society in the early Vereen Memorial Hospital after Colquitt Regional Hospital was built. The museum was relocated to the old County Health Department building and opened April 24, 1999.”

Many locals have volunteered their time and valuable support over the past 25 years. The current president is Fred Cook; the director is Jack Bridwell; and the board members include Prof. Tom Last, Janice Barry, Faye Bridwell and a representative of each donor club, organization or municipality.