Hillsboro museums gear up for festival
The Hillsboro Museums are gearing up to celebrate with many interesting events during the Hillsboro Family Folk Festival, which will be the largest ever. The museums' events at the Hillsboro Family Folk Festival will be held May 29.
"This is a benchmark year to celebrate," said Stan Harder, director of museums. "As Kansans, we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition coming into what would later become Kansas, it is also the 150th anniversary of the Kansas-Nebraska Act which created the Territory of Kansas, and it is the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. the Board of Education, an important event in civil rights."
"For local historians, this is also an important year. This is the 130th anniversary of the settlement of the immigrant Russian Mennonites in Marion County, it is the 120th anniversary of the founding of the City of Hillsboro, and it is the 95th anniversary of the building of the Schaeffler house," Harder said.
"This is even the 10th anniversary of the rebuilding of the Friesen Windmill, here in Hillsboro," Harder commented.
The museums will focus on four main areas: the Friesen Windmill, the William F. Schaeffler House, the Kreutziger School and the Peter Paul Loewen House. There will be tours of the Loewen house which Peter Paul Loewen built in the Mennonite settlement village of Hoffnungsthal. It is the last one of its kind in North America. Tours of the house and barn will focus on how the innovative Mennonite immigrants lived and worked.
"New research into the life of Peter Paul Loewen and early 1870s Mennonite immigrant settlers in general is yielding interesting perspectives on life in the typical immigrant home," said Harder.
At the Kreutziger School there will be demonstrations of homemade crafts, authentic crafts to make and take home, late 1800s schoolyard group games, hands-on exhibits of toys and domestic task items. Irv Schroeder will retell Low German tales in the schoolhouse, and there will be authentic 1800s German vocal music lead by Jonah Kliewer.
The Friesen Windmill, rebuilt 10 years ago, will be demonstrated, wind permitting. The original mill, built in 1876, was an important landmark in the Mennonite settlement village of Gnadenau.
The 95th anniversary of the building of the historic William F. Schaeffler House will be celebrated with an open house and tours given by costumed tour guides. Tours will concentrate on the life and times of the Schaeffler family.
"The William F. Schaeffler house museum carries the story of Hillsboro forward. The 1909 Schaeffler house examples the growth and prosperity of Hillsboro that resulted from its pioneer entrepreneurial spirit," Harder said.
Grilled German sausage sandwiches and other good things to eat will be for sale at the Scout House. In the morning of May 29, cinnamon rolls and coffee will be available in the Visitor Center. In addition there will be free horse drawn hay wagon and carriage rides, baking and craft demonstrations, boating on the pond with the area Boy Scouts, and many other interesting things to see and do.
