18th century history alive at Fort Steuben
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STEUBENVILLE -- Local students received a hands-on, walking and talking lesson about 18th century U.S. history Friday morning when representatives from an international group of re-enactors and educators came to Historic Fort Steuben.
It was the first of two days that the Northwest Department of the Brigade of the American Revolution spent at the fort, this time teaching about 100 seventh- and eighth-grade students from Harding Middle School, as well as homeschoolers, about pioneer life -- everything from food to firearms.
"A lot of times, schoolteachers don't have the time to do the sort of in-depth stuff that we can do. We teach a lot of the material culture of the period, (such as) 18th century tools, spinning and weaving (and) how to make maps and cartridges," said Bob Cairns, commander of the brigade's Northwest Department, said while discussing the learning experience,
The brigade will be at the fort from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday for the public, and the cost is $12 for general admission, $10 for seniors and $7 for youth ages 12 and under.
Students on Friday rotated through 10 stations, each with volunteer brigade representatives teaching about a different aspect of the 18th century's day-to-days. One such station asked students to guess various 18th century cooking ingredients based on sight and smell.
At another station, students were shown period tools and could spin a sandstone sharpening wheel. Students could hear a presentation about land surveying, which was the reason Fort Steuben was originally constructed in 1787. Surveyors venturing into the Northwest Territory, using involved and time-consuming processes for dividing land into township grids, could return to shelter at the fort, guarded by the occupying regiment.
Elsewhere, students learned of the outdated, at times ingenious and somewhat shocking medicinal practices employed by the pioneers, including natural remedies and bloodletting. Brigade volunteers demonstrated the many-step process for turning flax plant fibers into material for clothes, along with the wool spinning process.
Nearby, a volunteer portraying a white settler adopted by Native Americans showed students typical dress of the natives, as well as furs they would have traded for money -- rabbit, white-tailed deer, opossum, beaver, elk, raccoon woodland bison and black bear.
Students also had the opportunity to see, and even try on, 18th century-styled clothes. Groups were split between boys, who wore buttoned jackets, and girls, who saw the many layers women of the 18th century would don each morning.
Harding's visit closed with a special display, for which brigade volunteers fired their flintlock rifles into the air and performed a mock bayonet charge. The most explosive moment came when volunteers fired an 18th-century cannon.
Kennedy Babel and Karson Simmons, eighth-graders at Harding, agreed that the cannon display was their favorite part of the day.
Steubenville Mayor Jerry Barilla, a longtime volunteer at the fort, noted that the brigade helped with the fort's Frontier Days event in June 2022. However, he said, the brigade wanted to do another event specifically aimed at kids, which led to this weekend's event, for which volunteers from the brigade pitched tents in the fort to stay in overnight.
The brigade itself, Cairns said, is an international nonprofit organization "dedicated to portraying the life and times of the common soldier of the American Revolution." The overall organization has around 1,500 members from most U.S. states, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, Cairns said.
Cairns, who is from Canton, said that brigade volunteers at the fort come mostly from Ohio, as well as Pennsylvania and Michigan. Each member is part of a regiment and chooses what type of soldier he wants to portray.
Cairns said that brigade members, who gather mostly for battle re-enactments and commemorative events, are particularly excited about the upcoming 250-year anniversary of the American Revolution, which will take place in two years.
"We look forward to getting the public involved in learning about how their country was originated by the founders and citizen soldiers of the American Revolution," Cairns said. "I would hope that (the anniversary) inspires the boards of education to put some extra effort into looking at the American Revolution."
Judy Bratten, executive director of the fort, spoke about the importance of the brigade's educational activities, saying, "We know STEM is important, but to have an educated citizenry, history is really important."
Later, students from the Ohio Virtual Academy and the Eclectic Homeschoolers of the Ohio Valley attended the event.
Three media students from Steubenville High School, under instructor Natalie Campana, filmed the Harding students' trip to the fort. Footage will be used to make a video to be played in the Steubenville Visitor Center.