Diane Marburger, Butler County treasurer, stands next to artwork by the late county commissioner Joan Chew at the Butler Government Center in Butler on Tuesday, April 18. Chew, the county’s first woman commissioner, died in 2021. Marburger found the paintings and other relics while settling Chew's estate and asked the court's permission to hang them inside the pedestrian bridge to the courthouse. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle

Three paintings recently hung for public display show a little known or forgotten side of an adept, barrier breaking county politician and philanthropist.

Paintings by the late Joan Chew, who ascended from teaching elementary school at Center Avenue Elementary School in Butler to become county treasurer and then the first female Butler County commissioner, have been hung in the county Government Center after being discovered following her death in 2021.

Chew's painting depicting a scene along Slippery Rock Creek and her oil paintings of the county courthouse and Diamond Park are displayed in the walkway connecting the courthouse and government center.

County Treasurer Diane Marburger, a friend of Chew's and executor of her estate, said she had been in Chew's home in Butler many times, especially in her waning years, but never looked around the house until she died.

Chew didn't have children, and her closest relative, a nephew who lives out of state and is her heir, asked Marburger to sell the home and all of the contents, she said.

Items from the Joan Chew estate are on display at the Butler County Government Center in Butler on Tuesday, April 18. Chew was the first woman commissioner in the county. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle

The contents included the paintings that Marburger found in a parlor in Chew's home. Chew painted the Slippery Rock Creek scene while she studied art and education at Slippery Rock University in the 1940s, and she completed the oil paintings sometime in the 1950s, Marburger said.

“I thought it was done by an artist,” she said about the Slippery Rock Creek painting. “I didn't know she was an artist until she died.”

The Nov. 3, 1999, edition of the Butler Eagle hangs inside the Butler County Government Center in Butler on Tuesday, April 18. The headline reads “Chew breaks gender barrier” and was part of Chew's estate. Cary Shaffer/Butler Eagle

The scene of the Diamond Park painting includes the Nixon Hotel that was located where Morgan Center now stands. The view of the painting appears to be from the direction of the courthouse, she said.

“It's just a step back in yesteryear,” Marburger said.

The perspective of the courthouse painting appears to be from the backyard of Chew's home at the corner of Walker and Center avenues, she said.

Marburger said she donated the paintings to the county and received permission to display them along with a plaque she made that includes Chew's image and highlights her trailblazing career in government, service on the board of trustees of SRU and Butler County Community College and her philanthropy. She said Chew was a prudent investor who donated a lot of money to many organizations, including her church.

She said she met Chew when they served on the American Cancer Society board in 1992, and Chew hired her to work in the treasurer's office in 1998. Marburger was elected treasurer the same year Chew was elected commissioner — 1999.

“She had that distinction — there’s only one No. 1,” Marburger said. “She was an adept politician. She supported candidates. Anyone wanting to seek office would go see Joan first.”

The display can be viewed by the public during regular business hours at the government center.

Joan Chew