By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hay Post

About 140 children were able to step back in time Wednesday as part of the annual Pioneer Day at the Ellis County Historical Society Museum.

Children learned how to make a rag rug, do laundry without a wash machine, sing, fight a fire and cut wood. They also toured the Volga German house and played pioneer games.

Pat Albrecht, volunteer, showed the children how to make a rag rug. Old clothing was torn into strips, and the strips were crocheted into an oval rug.

Albrecht told the children mothers nor children were idle in pioneer times. Children hoed in the garden, helped take care of the house and did other chores, such as tearing strips for rugs.

Mary Kay Schippers, volunteer, showed the children how pioneers did laundry. She demonstrated using a washboard, lye soap her grandfather made and a ringer.

 

Heavy wind blew laundry that she hung on line just as the pioneers did, and s

he noted people usually did not do laundry when it rained.

She told the children most people had two sets of clothing. They would put one outfit on Sunday for church and then wear that outfit all week. The second outfit would be washed, and the cycle would start over the next Sunday.

“I want them to appreciate how easy life has become,” she said of the children, “and maybe have a greater appreciation of how life was before us for the early pioneers.”

Lee Dobratz, museum director, said she hoped the event inspired the children’s curiosity.

“I hope they find out the way things used to be,” she said. “I hope it sparked an interest in the way people lived here in Ellis County.”

Next year the format for the event will change. It will be conducted on a Saturday afternoon as a family event.