Students learn about pioneer life on farm

More than 650 preschool through elementary age students, from inside and outside Bartholomew County, learned about life in Indiana during pioneer times through the Spring on the Farm program’s hands-on activities.

The Bartholomew County Historical Society partnered with the Bartholomew County Public Library to put on the event May 12 and 13 at the Henry Breeding Farm, located in rural Bartholomew County near Edinburgh.

Adult mentors supervised eighth-grade students from Hauser Jr./Sr. High School, who did the teaching and demonstrating, according to the historical society.

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Students learned about making butter, popping popcorn on a fire and making ice cream — and sampled all of it.

They also learned about making brooms and performing household chores, such as washing in a tub with a washboard and ironing with a fire-heated iron. Students tried rug weaving, toured the Breeding farmhouse built in the 1870s and saw period pieces and antiques from the Breeding family.

The students toured a working blacksmith shop and learned about sawing wood, hammering handmade nails and milking cows and goats. They helped make rope and watched pioneer cooking over a fire.

Students also got to see historic steam engines in action both days and witnessed stationary engines working pulleys to operate a corn sheller and pump water.

A very early Worth car from about 1911 and a Model T truck were on display from the historical society’s collection.