Article published August 12, 2009 Sauder showcases pioneers whose spirit tamed a swamp Visitors get sneak peek at new exhibit
Nancy Lewis shows Edie Miller of Napoleon the beef stew she is cooking over the fire at the new Pioneer Settlement at Sauder Village in Archbold, Ohio. The official opening is Aug. 22.
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THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT
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ARCHBOLD, Ohio — As stew meat simmers in a black pot on the hearth, Nancy Lewis peels potatoes and weaves a story.
She tells about early pioneers who settled in the Great Black Swamp, a land brimming with opportunity, mosquitoes, and wolves.
In this house, one of several restored buildings serving as the backdrop in Sauder Village’s new Pioneer Settlement, Anna Sauder Witmer Roth gave birth to 10 of her 15 children.
For years the large family shared the small dwelling, said Mrs. Lewis of Bryan, a costumed interpreter who noted that Anna and her family had to go outside the house each time they wanted to go upstairs to the living quarters.
Caleb Belcher, 9, of Napoleon, a Sauder Village visitor who was treated to a sneak peek of the five-acre Pioneer Settlement yesterday, agreed with his grandmother Edie Miller that the newest phase of the village’s historic timeline is “pretty neat.”
The Pioneer Settlement, which will share day-to-day stories of early pioneers who forged a life and founded a community in Ohio’s last wilderness, officially opens Aug. 22. The date coincides with the 175th anniversary of the arrival of the first European settlers at nearby Lauber Hill on Aug. 22, 1834.
Scott Parks of Albion, Ohio, peeks through a window at a rustic shelter that represents the first structure erected at Lauber Hill.
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THE BLADE/AMY E. VOIGT
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“This is going to be a great way for people to relate to the pioneers and how they lived. They had to have perseverance, strength, and ingenuity to come up with what they needed to keep going,” Mrs. Lewis said.
As he watched her pile carrot chunks on the kitchen table in the Witmer-Roth house, Caleb said he liked seeing things he “never saw here before,” including a corduroy road, a lumpy, bumpy pathway made from slender trees, and a covered wagon.
As thunderstorms threatened to turn the area back into swamp land yesterday, Ann Lux, curator of research and exhibits, dodged raindrops next to a rustic shelter, a representation of the first structure built at Lauber Hill.
Volunteers have put mud and grass between some of the logs, but most of the messy work won’t be finished until grand-opening weekend.
Mud-daubing is just one of the hands-on activities featured at the Pioneer Settlement, a $1.4 million project funded by private donations and $830,000 from the state.
Five years in the making, the area is part of the village’s master plan that calls for the development of a 1910 Main Street as its next project, Kris Jemmott, director of historic operations, said.
As visitors explore the Pioneer Settlement, they will be “walking through time,” Debbie Sauder David, executive director of Sauder Village, said. Her grandfather Erie Sauder founded the village to educate children and their families about the struggles, hard work, and determination of their ancestors. This project, Mrs. David said, helps keep his dream alive.
Although the interpreters’ narratives focus on northwest Ohio, the stories mirror the nation’s story of immigration, community building, and technological changes, staff members said.
Interpreters will tell “real stories about real people who lived here,” Mrs. David said.
Visitors can visit a log school house that showcases the importance of education to the new immigrants; the Eicher Cabin, the original home of Jacob and Barbara Eicher, who arrived in Fulton County in the 1850s, about the time railroads were making area travel; the Peter Stuckey Farm, a re-creation of the 1870s-era farm where Peter and Catherine Yoder Stuckey lived and farmed, and the Holdeman Church, formerly located in nearby Pettisville.
The church helps tell the “faith story” that was so important to the pioneers as they dealt with tough times, Mrs. David said.
As he entered the church yesterday, Peter Frank of North Olmsted, Ohio, jokingly told the women in his group to keep their distance. Back in the day, he said, men and women were separated in the church and pews had wooden dividers to keep the sexes apart.
In addition to touring historic homes and community buildings from 1834-1890, visitors can watch various pioneer-life demonstrations.
Gail Richardson of Delta, who was making schnitzel beans in the Peter Stuckey House yesterday, is itching to get her hands dusty with flour. She will be making the first pies to be baked in the home’s six-burner stove.
Pioneers came to this area in part because land was cheap compared to property in eastern Ohio, where relatives had settled earlier. Some land in the Great Black Swamp sold for $1.25 an acre, said Mrs. Lux of Ida, Mich., who spent years conducting research to make sure the stories being told are as accurate as possible.
Other attractions include gardens with heirloom vegetables and farm demonstrations with a team of oxen named Briggs & Stratton. Oxen were used to work the land that was mired in muck, Mrs. Lux said.
“Oxen hooves are wider than horses and would not sink into the mud. Oxen were good animals to have on the farm. In desperation, they made good hamburgers.”
Contact Janet Romaker at:jromaker@theblade.comor 419-724-6006. Permanent Link
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