Port Oneida 2024: 1860s Farm Life Presented

“Let us never forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins,  other arts follow.  The farmers,  therefore,  are the founders of civilization.”

Daniel Webster 

(1782 - 1852)

The root of the historic farming presentation seen in this post is centered on this idea and quote~

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Such a wonderful fair!
(Picture taken by Larissa)

"Step back in time at the Port Oneida Fair and experience life as it was in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  The fair is held at six of the historic farmsteads in Port Oneida. Each farm has a variety of artists, crafts, food, and activities for visitors.   A shuttle bus runs between the farms on a regular schedule during the fair, so you can park your car and easily get around to the different venues."

Our first time presenting here was back in 2016,  and,  aside a couple of years when illness or other factors  (can you say  "covid"?)  prevented us from presenting,  we've been there every year since.  

I have to admit,  it's a tough haul,  for from my house to Port Oneida,  which is west of Traverse City,  is a four and a half hour drive one way,  and we drive there and back in one day,  and in between those there and back drives we do four historic farm presentations.

.

In school history classes,  topics such as farming and food and textiles are sorely over-looked.

And,  yes,  even religion.

So---here we are,  back at Port Oneida again and,  I'm happy to say,  as popular as ever.  Yes,  we had great crowds watching us for each of our four presentations,  with the temperature in the low 70s,  the humidity way low,  and a good breeze a-blowin.'  

The crowds were plentiful.

According to the National Park Service,  the Charles and Hattie Olsen Farm is the newest farm in Port Oneida.  The parcel of land was purchased from Fred Dechow in 1915,  who had owned the land since 1857.  The house and barn were built in 1918 by Paul Popa. 

That red barn you see in the back left is a good example of the hillside barn.  The lower level was for livestock and the upper level for hay storage. 

Meanwhile,  inside the Olden Farm kitchen,  we have a couple of food historians cooking bread and the like on the old wood stove.  What makes this even better is the fact that these two ladies are  "Greenfield Village Alumni" - they honed their period cooking skills mostly at Firestone Farm at Greenfield Village.  Back in those long-ago days when they worked there,  I was always around snapping pictures.

I still am - only now we are sort of working together,  which is quite an honor!

Susan Oldum shows us liquid yeast.

Sadie Wutka cleans out the pans.

Yes,  I got to try the bread!
Need I even have to tell you how good it was?

Ghosts of Greenfield Village Past~
From Left:
Larissa,  who is my presenting partner,  worked with these ladies years ago. 
She still works at the Village.
Center:  Sadie
Right:  Susan
I believe at one time,  all three had worked together.

It's so good to see those from  "the past"  who so wonderfully represented the past...and continue to do so.

You know this is an actual historic farm,  right?

You may also be interested to know they have a farm stand where they sell vegetables grown right there in their kitchen garden.

Here is the kitchen garden,  with the red barn in the 
background,  and a  "scarecrow".

Farm fresh!  It doesn't get any better!

Directly across the road from the farm house was where visitors could take a horse and cart ride around the land.  One of these times I'd like to take this jaunt.

An old building in the distance.
And you can barely make out the horse and cart.

A washtub - a ringer-washer - for kids to experience.
I love these hands-on opportunities!

This gentleman played traditional  "old-timey"  music
on the hammered dulcimer.

Hey!
A shaving horse!
I learned the young man working on it was 16 years old - - 
I love when we can see the younger generation learning traditional crafts!

Advertising our presentation - and people certainly paid attention
to it,  for we garnered good crowds - a number of them had seen us
in previous years and wanted to see us again - - in fact,  one woman
told me she was disappointed we were not here last year.

Heard you missed us,  well we're back!
Your hosts with the mosts,  myself with Larissa.
We've been doing this presentation for over a decade,  and we've been presenting
here at the Port Oneida Farm Fair since 2016.

This year my wife presented with us for the first time.
I was asked if we could do a flax processing and spinning demonstration,  and since Patty has spun flax,  she was willing - with a bit of cajoling - to take part with us.
Two spinning wheels?
Yes - the one on the left is the saxony wheel,  and the one on the right has the distaff for flax.  Unfortunately,  the flax wheel needs a bit of tweaking,  so we brought both for
the demonstration.

I'm a little upset with myself that I didn't get any photos of me processing the flax for spinning.  However,  in the photo below we can see - - - 

...the flax break,  as well as  (on the table)  carding paddles  (for wool),  the scutching knife,  and,  on the right the hackle.
You can also see a variety of other home items of the past mixed in,  including a chamber pot,  a flail,  an oil lamp,  pure bees wax  (in the container),  and some flax there.

Our presentation takes the audience through a full calendar year on an 1860s farm,  though we begin with March and spring  (the season of renewal and how March was once considered the 1st month of the year,  according to ancient calendars)  with manuring,  plowing,  harrowing,  planting,  and asking for God's blessings to keep our fields and kitchen garden  "well fed."  We go though summer and haying and explain how August is actually the first month of harvest time.

So we bring along with us a variety of home life artifacts and farm tools.

My hay rake and rake - both handmade  (but not by me).
I explained how the farmers in the late 19th century would
have various outbuildings for wood-working,  blacksmithing,  leather work...

Explaining oil lamps vs candle light.
The lamp I am showing here is an actual antique from the 1880s.

We also each speak of our clothing and touch lightly on 1860s etiquette.

So,  for our 1860s farm life presentation,  Larissa & I portray ourselves as husband and wife.  Obviously we do a good job because our audience really believes we are married to each other.  And when someone asked us again this year,  we pointed out my actual wife,  there spinning on the spinning wheel behind us - - - :

And they laughed - they got a kick out of it.

I told them that Larissa and I were a country song:
"Married,  But Not To Each Other" - - !

So they got to meet my real wife:

Patty and Larissa get on great,  and there's always a bit of teasing going
on between the three of us.

We touch on subjects often not taught elsewhere,  such as manuring,  harrowing,  and even Jethro Tull's seed drill.

The best part,  I think for us,  is that people are unexpectedly interested.  When they think of farm life,  they think of  "dullsville."  But then Larissa and I speak to them as if it is they who we are speaking about - their lives in the 1860s - and it grabs them. 

Even the children show a great interest.

After our presentations,  we took time for a few interested visitors who had further questions.

In fact,  there was one guy who told me flat out he thought we were going to be boring and had his doubts.  I told him to stick around and that he would not be bored at all.

Afterward,  he said to me  (yes,  I am quoting)  "You were right!  I wasn't bored at all!"

The three of us.
Why doesn't Patty present with me instead of Larissa?
Well,  Patty gets very nervous,  so she really prefers not to and encourages
Larissa & I to continue on in our historic endeavors.
It works,  for Larissa & I work very well together,  and we just have the right
mindset to come off very natural and,  well,  we just  *click*

I would like to note a couple of lines from the book,  Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder  of which I commented on during our presentations:

Almanzo asked Father: 

"Father, how was it axes and plows that made this country?  Didn't we fight England for it?"

"We fought for Independence, son,"  Father said.  "It was farmers that took that country and made it America.

It was farmers that went over the mountains,  and cleared the land,  and settled it,  and farmed it,  and hung on to their farms.  It's the biggest country in the world,  and it was farmers who took all that country and made it America.  Don't you ever forget that." ~

Afterward,  a gentleman came up to me and also quoted his favorite lines from the book.  He,  like me,  considers it to be the best book out of the Laura Ingalls Wilder collection.

Our audience were truly interested in our presentation,  including the kids.  We know how to capture historical interest,  for we..."learned  (our)  history properly  after  (we)  left school"  (a quote from Candace Owens),  which means taking the academic knowledge of history and expanding greatly upon it,  without political agenda,  searching for the down-the-middle  truth - and not following the latest social fads - to bring,  as accurately as we can,  what the past was actually like.

That's how history should be shown and taught.

Until next time,  see you in time.

............

To visit  (or re-visit)  our previous Port Oneida presentations,

click 2016

click 2017

I have photos for 2018 and 2019,  but I did not do a blog posts for those years - I am working on a sort of  "retro-post" for these two years - of which will be posted in the future,  probably later in autumn.

2020 and 2021 were covid years,  so nothing happened

click 2022

To learn more about historic farming,  please click HERE

To learn more about farming in the 1700s,  please click HERE

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