Wolcott Mill 2012: The Reenacting Season Doesn't Have to End in the Fall

Here it is, nearing the end of October, and the "official" reenacting season is done. This past weekend was the wonderful Wolcott Mill event and it never fails at being a great way to end the season.
Wolcott Mill is a beautifully restored grist and feed mill built back in 1847 and is located in the northern rural portion of Macomb County here in Michigan.

Wolcott Mill

With plenty of trees and land surrounding it, it is a fine spot for a reenactment, especially during the autumn time of year. The temperatures were on the cool side and rain fell off and on for the first part of the weekend, then the sun appeared for Sunday - this really gave it that fall flavor.
It was great that members of both units I belong to - the 21st Michigan and the Michigan Soldiers Aid Society - all camped together in the same row...er, street. Both groups are top notch at living history and the friendships intertwine.
Anyhow, Rod Stewart once said every picture tells a story. Well, as usual, I took plenty of photos, and each one has a story to tell: 

Here is our "street." Being surrounded by trees and a gristmill gives this event that realism that many locations cannot.

Mr. Smith, the fiddler, kept us all entertained with the fine music of the day

My wife and I had our likeness taken from a traveling photographer. You can see him here setting up his camera on the tripod.

He has us in his sights...

...and here is the outcome of our image. (This is a picture of the tintype - the original is so much brighter and clearer, but, unfortunately, I have no scanner to scan photos.)

Some of the ladies had a quilting bee. Mr. Smith, the talented fiddler, entertained this time with his concertina. He is quite the talented man.

Getting ready to travel into town: Mother holds the mirror while her daughter adjusts her bonnet. 

A young lady spends her Sunday afternoon reading her favorite book, the Bible.

Mrs. Krewer is preparing to take a trip into the city and proudly wears her fancy new traveling dress.

The patriotic men of the 21st Michigan pose for a photograph. It was a tough battle but they survived.

A brother and sister sit quietly to have their image taken. A splash of color was added to give it depth.

A fine cookstove can also be a warming stove on such a cool, damp, fall day. Mrs. Root made a fine beef stew which warmed us greatly on such a cool autumn day.

All of the cooking utensils needed to cook over a campfire or open hearth are here, including a dutch oven and a reflector oven. Notice the fine pumpkin pie that was baked in the dutch oven. Yes, it was delicious!

Citizens from the mill area have their likeness taken

The Lovely Ladies of the milltown gather to share the latest news of the men off fighting in the War

Friends gather at Wolcott Mill to say, "See you next spring," for we know this will be the last big reenactment until May for reenactors here in Michigan. 

Well, at least for some.

Though many store their woolies and dresses away for the next six or seven months, there are those of us who plan to continue our time-travel excursions over the late fall and early winter with period Christmas celebrations (click HERE and HERE) as well as participating in a number of more private friendship gatherings/parlor days that we do for our own pleasure in the late winter and early spring. (click HERE).

And even period dress unit meetings (click HERE).

If you read the above links to a few previous postings from earlier this year and from last Christmas, living history doesn't have to end. There are ways and means to keep it going, whether in your own home (even modern houses look "period" with the right decor and furniture with candle and oil lamps), or by putting together a Christmas of the Past with your local historical society.
Just a little effort can keep our passion for time-traveling alive.
Here's to the fine season of reenactments we just had!
And here's to the upcoming winter season of living history!








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A Rare Political Post

This is about as political as you'll see me get on my blog this election year:

I absolutely love this!

This is what I ask of whoever gets elected President

So, that's my political stance.
Back to living history shortly...



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Time-Travel Reversal

It's 2012 and I am driving down the main street in my city...let's see, there's a Kroger grocery store, a Dairy Queen, a Rite Aid, K-Mart, Best Buy, the Macomb Mall, Petco, 7-11, Office Depot, Circle K, Burger King, a Comfort Inn, Ken's Auto Repair Shop, Apple Annie's restaurant, Home Depot, Costgo, Pep Boys, Ed Rinke Chevrolet, the familiar McDonald's golden arches, and a few smaller, more localized shops. All the businesses that are as familiar to me as my own name. And the shapes of the buildings vary here and there, but are mostly rectangular boxes for the most part, with little frivolities added to their look.
Cars, SUV's, semi's, buses, trucks, and motorcycles zip past by the thousands in a constant flow of traffic. If one tries to cross this busy thoroughfare by foot it can be pretty dangerous due to those vehicles who turn right at the red light, forgetting that the pedestrian has the right of way.
And the stop lights are there, every quarter mile or so, along with street signs - probably a dozen for every 500 feet - telling the drivers to turn left here, no turn on red there, lane ends, speed limit 40, school crossing, yield...
Probably not unlike Anytown U.S.A.
Now, my mid-19th century personna is walking down the main street in my mid-19th century town...let's see, there's the cobbler and shoemaker, the millinery shop, and there's the blacksmith shop, the cabinet maker, the general store, the printer, the tinsmith, the cooper shop, the farrier, a tavern, the weaving shop, the tailor, a wagon shop, the saddler and harness maker, a baker, a gun manufacturer, and, seen on the outskirts is the gristmill. Folks on foot, wagons, carts, and carriages pulled by horses trot hither and thither - watch your step as you cross the plank road! - mud from the recent rainstorm cause puddles where there are no planks, soiling the bottoms of the trousers and skirts of the townsfolk and visitors.
Animal droppings abound.
Two different worlds...
Have you ever thought about what your town may have looked like a century and a half ago? Have you ever thought about how much has changed in comparison?
Well, okay, if you're like me and love history you probably have.
But let's reverse that dream or fantasy that many of us who attempt to time-travel to the past have: what would it be like for one from the past to jump up 150 or so years into the future?
We, having the benefit of historical knowledge on our side (i.e. visits to museums, books, the internet, et al.) allows us to study what life was like during our ancestor's time. When we "travel" back in time at a living history event or a reenactment we know what the future holds from that supposed mid-19th century perspective, don't we?
Let's reverse that.
Every-so-often I wonder how would one who was actually from 1850 react if he or she were suddenly placed from their time to our time, of how a person from the mid-19th century may recognize very little if they were suddenly placed here in 2012.

So let's imagine this happening to my 3rd great grandparents, William and Mary Anne Raby. How would they react if they suddenly found themselves in the 21st century from their 1850's existence? What would they think?

What the heck are those metal things setting there? And look at all of the telegraph wires!

Standing on a corner and seeing these...these things - hundreds, nay, thousands of these steam-type carriages of some sort - moving along without the help of horses at speeds greater than they'd ever seen!
How would they respond to actually sitting in an auto traveling along at 40 miles per hour, then entering a freeway and zipping up to 70 mph? Could their mind comprehend such speed? Could their minds take in all of the signs and sights, including the lights, the flashing billboards, and even the volume of the sounds surrounding them (including blaring music from the car radios), whipping past them in the same manner as we can?

Now, let's stop at a store...any store...

I am sure that William would clearly know many of the tools inside of the Sears tool shop, such as the gardening supplies: shovels, rakes, etc. and other tools as a hand saw, hammer, and nails. But, he most certainly would not recognize the tractor, the chainsaw, the power drill, or the staple gun.
How about the women's department at Khol's? I can just imagine what Mary Anne would think of the latest fashions in clothing and shoes!
Of course, shopping for kitchen supplies at Bed, Bath, & Beyond would make their head spin! A toaster? A mixer? A refrigerator? Ha! just the fridge alone would be unfathomable: think about it - a box that you can regulate the temperature in one area to freezing while another area is above freezing but still at a cooler temperature - inside the same box! And a light goes on when you open the door!!
Wait! What's a light??
Then there's the oven...one that can cook without the benefit of wood or coal. Some can cook even without a fire. And to top it off, one can set the exact temperature by turning a dial or pushing a button!
And then there's the microwave oven. How can one explain something that will cook food in the fraction of the time on compared to a stove?
Let's think about their reaction to television. Plasma TV's. The motion picture. Hundreds and hundreds of channels to watch. DVR.
Radio?
Records, cassettes, compact discs, MP3's, ipods?????
How about the telephone? The cell phone. The smart phone?
Digital cameras.
The internet...

Would there be anything at all inside of Best Buy that they would recognize or even understand?

I find thinking about this sort of thing entertaining, especially while at work when time allows for such thoughts.
Do you ever think these kind of "frivolous" thoughts, or am I alone in this?
I will say, however...it sure beats thinking about politics all the time!




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Into the Tornado of War: Perryville - The First Battle for the 21st Michigan (photos from the 150th Anniversary Reenactment)

The 21st Michigan reenactors on the battlefield in which the original men fought almost 150 years to the day that this photo was taken

~ Back in early September, 150 years to the day in fact, we in the 21st Michigan reenacting unit did a scenario of the mustering in of the 21st Michigan men into military service in the same town - Ionia, Michigan - in which it originally took place. If you recall, I wrote a POSTING about it. 

Well, now just as originally happened back in 1862, our boys went off to fight a battle a mere month after mustering in. It took place in Perryville, Kentucky, and the boys were as green as any could be with little time for marching and drilling. Just like the previous mustering-in post linked above, I am using excerpts and snippets from the book "Into the Tornado of War: A History of the 21st Michigan Infantry in the Civil War" by James Genco to give the reader an idea of what it was like for these young men with little training to go off to what could almost be considered a foreign land to fight in a battle they were clearly not prepared for. 

On October 4th through the 7th of this year (2012) the town of Perryville held a 150th anniversary reenactment of the battle. I did not attend but my son, Robert did. It's his photos you see illustrating this post and were taken either by him or by another with his camera.

I hope you enjoy it.

By the way, if you haven't read the mustering-in posting, you might want to read that one as a prelude to this one.

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At 4:00 a.m. on September 12, 1862, after only two weeks of training and less than four weeks before going into battle at Perryville, the 21st Michigan left camp Sigel for Cincinnati, Ohio. Despite the early hour, a large crowd had gathered at the village square to see them off. It was a beautiful morning and the residents (of Ionia) had prepared a large breakfast. The Ionia Cornet band was also present to lighten the mood with patriotic tunes.

 ~The men arrived in Cincinnati on Sunday September 14 after an arduous journey including a train accident and hot weather during the day with dropping temps at night, making for a very uncomfortable couple of days.~

It was a beautiful Sunday morning as the men of the 21st Michigan climbed down from the train  and formed in line of march to the accompaniment of church bells. To the frightened people of Cincinnati, the Michigan men, along with other troops arriving from Midwestern States, were saviors. For over a week the city had been in a state of anxiety, with Confederate forces hovering in northern Kentucky a few miles from Cincinnati.

As the Union soldiers made their way through the streets to the center of town, hundreds of citizens lined the streets to welcome and cheer them on. When they reached the Fifth Street market place, the tired and hungry soldiers were grateful to find a large breakfast awaiting them, compliments of the people of the city. Amid the cheers of their hosts on that clear fall morning, the men enjoyed what was to be their "last square meal" as a regiment until the close of the war.

With the Confederate forces menacingly near, Union General Lew Wallace had ordered the construction of a series of fortifications and redoubts in an eight mile arc in the hills around Covington. Many of the merchants of Cincinnati had closed their shops to join in the construction. Women supported the effort by bringing food and water to the weary men,

Around 1:00 p.m., the regiment reformed in a column of march and continued on through the streets until they reached the banks of the Ohio River. Since the construction of a permanent suspension bridge had been delayed by the war, the military engineers had erected a pontoon bridge to connect Cincinnati to Covington, Kentucky.

The Michigan men found the Kentucky foothills scenic but scarred with the newly erected earthworks. Private Arza Bartholomew of Company G described the area to his wife as "very hilly and broken," adding "every hill is fortified. Rifle pits are dug all over the country."

 

 

Over the next few weeks the 21st Michigan, along with regiments from the other Midwestern States, made their way south in Kentucky.  On October 7, Brigadier General Don Carlos Buell's army, in pursuit of Confederate General Braxton Bragg, converged on the small crossroads town of Perryville in three columns. Union forces first skirmished with Confederate cavalry on the Springfield Pike before the fighting became more general, on Peters Hill, when the Confederate infantry arrived. Both sides were desperate to get access to fresh water.

The Battle of Perryville October 8, 1862: 

 

During the predawn hours, Federal troops continued to arrive near Perryville, and by sunrise a substantial part of Buell's army was nearing the field of battle. Throughout the morning scattered skirmishing occurred. 

 

 

It was around this time the 21st Michigan arrived on the battlefield.

 

 

Heavy fighting ensued as the Confederates attacked their position on Chaplin Hills. There were moments when the battle reached a crescendo and the Federal line approached the breaking point, but the Union men held, and nightfall brought an end to the fighting with neither side having gained any significant ground. 

(It was) the largest battle fought in Kentucky during the war. Perryville witnessed horrific combat. Neither side could claim a clear tactical victory, but the Federals held the field and ended Bragg's invasion, thus giving them an indisputable strategic victory.

The pre-dawn hours of October 9 found the Federals remaining in line of battle, ready to renew the contest should the Confederates  attack. As they looked across the battlefield in the first hours of daylight, it was a gruesome sight.

 In his memoirs, George Taylor wrote:

"The next day we saw some of the fruits of war - the harvest of death in the valley between the battery-crowned hills. Coming down from the hill of our first battle experience, we saw dead men thicker than I have ever seen them since...in our little valley in front of our battery, the bodies of the slain were almost like saw-logs in a boom-blue and butternut in hit-or-miss fashion."

The Battle of Perryville is considered a strategic Union victory, sometimes called the Battle for Kentucky, since Bragg withdrew to Tennessee soon thereafter. The Union retained control of the critical border state of Kentucky for the remainder of the war.

The cart pulled by oxen gave water out to the men

Between the mustering-in ceremonial reenactment in September and the Perryville battle here in October, 2012 has been an exceptional year for those of us in the 21st Michigan. To be able - as soldier and civilian - to bring the past to life in both cases on the same grounds and on the same dates as the events originally occurred is something that not every living historian has the opportunity to do, so we in the 21st do feel blessed that we could do it.
And what an honor it was.

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Autumn Food Pleasures of the Past

An autumn scene right out of 1760. Yeah, I was there...

Even though nostalgia is defined by Mr. Webster as "a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life," I once read that nostalgia is also portable, meaning that it is possible to feel a sentimental attachment to a time period one didn't personally live through.
It's pretty obvious that I was not around during the horse-and-carriage days in which I purport to live during reenactments, and yet I still have a sort of nostalgic feeling for those times.
Maybe it's because, besides actively participating for over a decade in the world of mid-19th century living history, I have also  been around the historical open-air museum of Greenfield Village (and, to a lesser extent, Crossroads Village) so much for most of my life, witnessing daily life of the 18th and 19th centuries, that I can actually have a sort of Webster definition of nostalgia for times long past - even before my great grandparent's time.

I was also in 1882...

Another example of this situation that many readers my age might relate to concerns our own upbringing. You see, my parents were both born in the 1920's and my dad fought in WWII; for me growing up in the 1960's wasn't that far off from growing up in the 1940's, for my parents both would speak of that time often and play popular music of their era (Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, etc.), and television shows during the 1960's like Ed Sullivan frequently featured performers such as Goodman and Dorsey, as well as Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Frank Sinatra. And who among you over the age of 50 did not grow up watching the classic movies of the '30's and '40's on a Sunday afternoon? Not very many I'm sure. So, in other words, we had a sort of 1940's upbringing, didn't we? Even though most of us never saw the decade, we may still have a sort of nostalgia for it because of the memories of our parent's memories.
But it can also be the traditions that so many in the modern world take part in that can give a nostalgic feeling for times before our own.
And that's where the season of autumn comes into play.
To me, fall just exudes history. From the city dwellers traveling down the country roads for cider, donuts, hay rides, and farmer's markets, to the hunters who go off to practice that most basic of human sport, to the sight and smell of autumn leaves - either on or falling off the trees or even burning in a yard. All of this tells me that late September, October, and November are probably the three most traditional/historical months of the calendar. Name me another time of year here in the 21st century that so many folks will visit a mill - that backbone of 19th century life - of any kind.
Which leads me to autumn and its association to historical Greenfield Village.
They seem to go hand in hand, don't you think?
Yep, my family and I spent a day enjoying most of the pleasures and traditions of the fall season while visiting our favorite historical place.
For two weekends in the early autumn the Village celebrates the harvest by holding a Fall Flavors Weekend where one can "experience cooking demonstrations, a farmers market, special themed dinners, local product samplings, tastings, and more" (from their brochure).
But it's more than just about food; it's a feeling one gets when surrounded by historic structures, period-dressed presenters, changing leaves, and a cool breeze.
And, yes, the food.
The kind of food found cooking in wood stoves or hearths in the autumns of long ago. At Greenfield Village, six houses were being used for cooking demonstrations, each one from a different era in our nation's history. Won't you join me as we travel into the past to visit each house by the year of its presentation, beginning way back in the colonial times:

Daggett House from 1760

Preparing roast beef, johnnycakes, rice custard, and potato pudding inside colonial Daggett House

A colonial feast!

Now onto the 1860 Susquehanna Plantation:

Oh! The smells that greet you as you walk inside these historic homes!

The ladies of the Susquehanna Plantation from 1860, like the ladies of Daggett a hundred years earlier, cook on the open hearth. Here they bake shrimp with rice and tomatoes, ginger nuts, and fried onions.

The poor Susquehanna ladies are plum tired, and the day is not over yet!

Next we'll head to the Adams House from the 1870's:

The Adams home, built around 1840, is one that I have imagined that I would live in had I lived back then. I'm not sure why, but it just seems to say to me, "Come in. Welcome home!"

In this woodstove is baking a savory rabbit pie.

A table decked out with autumn vegetables, including Heidelberg cabbage

At the Ford Farm it's 1876...

...and the ladies of the Ford home are quite busy this autumn day preparing beef hotch-potch, fried cabbage, apple brown betty, and pumpkin fritters

Every ingredient was homegrown on their farm, though...

...they could have gone to their "local" general store (only a few miles walk from their home!) and purchased whatever they needed. It was cheaper to grow your own!

And now we travel a few years into the future, to the farm owned by the Firestones in 1882.

A beautiful fall setting greets us as we make our way to Firestone Farm. Can you see the farm workers in the field?

Besides the macaroni noodles, the ladies of the farm are making baked chicken pie, stuffed squash, and potato bread.

Like the Ford Farm, all of their ingredients are homegrown and readily available just by stepping down into the cellar.

It takes a while and quite a bit of stoking to get the stove at a good baking temperature.

From 1882 we jump a few decades into the future to the homestead of Thomas Edison's grandparents, set for 1915.

Early signs of autumn are beginning to show.

Yes, Hallowe'en was celebrated quite extravagantly in many houses in 1915.

I see a roast chicken, pumpkin pie, and other delectable delights on the thoroughly modern (for 1915) stove

A fine fall greeting at the kitchen doorway

And finally we have the Mattox Home from the 1930's:

Such a tiny stove for a family, even during the Great Depression.

Simmering pork chops, fried sweet potatoes, baked corn muffins, and spicy gingerbread is what the lady of the house has planned for her family.

As you can see the houses are showing the different styles and foodstuffs from their original region and era in history. Seeing just how the food would have been cooked during the year represented, whether it be the era of the hearth or of the wood cookstove. What was pretty neat was the visitors could pick up a recipe card of what was being cooked at each home.
The Firestone Farm also had a threshing machine from 1904 that was in fine working order, showing the many visitors how it could separate the grain from the stalks. Something I did not know until the day we visited (September 29) was that it was rare for a farmer to own his own threshing machine, for it was much too expensive. However, many times local farmers who lived near each other would pool their money and "rent" the machine by having its owner take it from farm to farm to have their grain threshed.

The 1904 threshing machine in action. Can you imagine how thrilled farmers were to have such a machine do this back-breaking labor for them? .

Throughout the farm acreage the visitors could watch and question the men of Firestone Farm, who were busy working in the fields, gathering stalks, harvesting vegetables, and "winterizing" the land.
Fascinating.
 
By the way, normally we are able to learn about and even taste the heirloom apples growing in the Firestone orchards, brands such as Rambo, Baldwin, Belmont, Roxbury Russet, and Hubbardston Nonesuch can normally be found there, all having different characteristics, flavors, and ultimately were used in different ways, either for sale, or for the family’s own use. Unfortunately, we here in Michigan had quite an unusual spring in 2012 with a week-long string of 70 and 80 degree temperatures in mid-March when it should have still been in the 30's and 40's, and then suddenly dropping down into the 20's and 30's. That sealed the fate of our fall apple season, including the heirloom apples at the Village.
Ah well, nature has its own ways, doesn't it?
Another neat thing that Greenfield Village had was a farmer's market, a place where one could purchase nearly anything MADE or GROWN IN MICHIGAN from vegetables to maple syrup to broomsticks to homemade soap to honey to fruit not affected by the spring weather to ground flour to pumpkins, gourds, & squash to, well, you name it.

This young lady makes and sells her own soap

This year it seems that Greenfield Village is getting so much closer to its now long-defunct Fall Harvest Weekend from the 1990's where, besides what I mentioned above, they used to also show the process of winnowing, giving hay rides, live old-time music from a string band, cider & doughnuts, and the procedure of 19th century corn shucking. I certainly hope they do bring some of this back, for I would gladly forgo the overly expensive cider mill and its animated hillbilly bears and haunted houses to visit a real authentic harvest weekend.

A broom maker's wares at the farmer's market

Spending an autumn day at Greenfield Village is something almost magical...and definitely nostalgic to me for times gone by - even if those times are from long before I was born.

If you would like to read more about how harvest time was celebrated in the 18th and 19th centuries please click HERE.

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