Into the Eye of the Storm: Hopewell Furnace 1863

[jcraig]

Date: May 31st – June 2, 2013
Name: Into the Eye of the Storm: Hopewell Furnace 1863
Location: Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, Elverson, PA
Sponsor/Host: Jessica Craig
Capacity: @ 40 civilians

POC: Jessica Craig snowcraig@ymail.com or
Website: http://hopewell.mainecav.org/ (website will be updated soon)
Listserve: Yahoo Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/agatheringbeforethestorm/

Join us in recreating a few days in the life of an early industrial village at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site. This event builds on two previous events that depicted life leading up to the Civil War. This year, in keeping with the 150th anniversary cycle, we will portray late spring 1863.
Hopewell Furnace is located in Southeastern Pennsylvania and is a remarkably intact example of a 19th century iron furnace village. The furnace, which still exists today, was in operation from 1771 to 1883 and produced a wide range of finished goods and raw materials. The village includes the ironmaster’s house, the furnace complex, several dwelling houses, a boarding house, a blacksmith shop, a spring house, barns, and outbuildings. The setting is rural with little modern distractions and naturally beautiful.

This civilian-only event will portray everyday life in Hopewell Village in 1863. There will be primarily sustained first person interaction with third person interaction at times with the public. The event lends itself to impressions ranging from the poorest servant to wealthy visitors from Philadelphia. This is an opportunity to interpret the lives of people who not only made the iron possible, but of the villagers who made Hopewell village self-sufficient.

Hope to see you there!

Jess Craig

[jcraig]

Re: Into the Eye of the Storm: Hopewell Furnace 1863

Registration is officially open and the website has been updated. http://hopewell.mainecav.org/

We are looking for civilian men to work in the blacksmith shop and the carpenter's shop. We hope to have lots of tasks for men and women, but if you have a special skill that is appropriate for this setting, please let me know. We can accomodate lots of working class impressions, as well as middle and upper class merchants, professionals, and visitors.

Hope to see you at Hopewell!

Jess Craig

[jcraig]

Re: Into the Eye of the Storm: Hopewell Furnace 1863

Hopewell 1863 was a great success! We had about 35 men, women, and children come out for a very warm, but very fun weekend. We kept busy with work in the furnace, whitewashing buildings, carpentry projects, cooking, baking, quilting, sewing, knitting and more. The small creek that runs through the village provided all-day entertainment for the children and some refreshment for the grown-ups who dipped their feet in from time to time. The ladies met on Sunday for a soldiers' aid society meeting and came up with a shared quilting project for next year.

To keep us in first person, everyone was assigned goals or "story lines" to follow to help with interaction between participants. There was mail delivered to the village on Saturday and that provided some good topics for discussion. We also had a "surprise" visitor to town in the form of an army sergeant who was supposed to be looking for men potentially eligible for the upcoming draft. Saturday evening, after a delicious dinner (including homemade ice cream!), the group gathered for games, singing, and music.

The site is beautiful, the participants are all historically minded, the food is excellent...if you want to come out to Hopewell 1864, let me know. I will post dates as soon as I know them!

Here are some photos of the event. Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151389172062126.1073741848.521772125&type=1&l=09855f2f47

Hope to see you at Hopewell next year,

Jess Craig

[Mutt]

Re: Into the Eye of the Storm: Hopewell Furnace 1863

It was indeed a great success and lots of fun! This was my second year going to this event, a local one for me, which is even better.

You are surrounded by amazing buildings, farm land, farm animals, wildlife, a babbling brook, and, of course the furnace itself. Several of the men, including me, took to white washing buildings and walls, using period recipe for the white wash, others to making sand molds and working away in the carpenters shop. There was room for "dandy" gentlemen in the form of a furnace manager and company clerk.

The ladies were just as busy, if not busier, baking, sewing, knitting, minding the children, cooking wonderful food . . . gossiping, haha Not to mention the presence of Jim Pfeiffer, tintypist, working away in the heat to produce some awesome shots.

The Park loves having us and are great folks to work with. I'll be back next year! Gents, if you never tried civilian, I highly recommend this as a an entry event to doing so. I'm happy to be a guide to getting into the civilian side as I'm sure Mr. Craig and other fellas who were in attendance would be.

Much thanks to the Craig family for working hard to put it together with the park, as well as the hardworking cooks, sweltering in the heat and humidity that weekend.

Best,