Heritage Harvest Festival is Saturday, Oct. 5

Heritage Harvest Festival is Saturday, Oct. 5

By Peggy Werner

Midway Village Museum will celebrate fall traditions from the past and present during Heritage Harvest Festival.

The event, formally called the Scarecrow Harvest Festival, will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, on the grounds of the museum’s Victorian Village. Queen Victoria ruled from 1837 to 1901.

Special Events Coordinator Alyssa McGhghy says the name change better describes the theme of the festival.

“The event celebrates the fall harvest through games, crafts and demonstrations. Visitors will learn about the different ways the Victorians celebrated this season,” she says.

The event is being held this year in collaboration with Paulson Agriculture Museum of Argyle, which will have farm equipment on display. The Midway Village Museum farming group will also be on site to demonstrate farming equipment.

Lonna Converso, director of marketing and social media at Midway Village, says the festival is a way to celebrate the bountiful fall harvest season while experiencing life on a farm during the turn of the century.

“It’s such a beautiful time of year because the leaves will be at peak color and the fall ambiance is just everywhere to be felt and enjoyed,” she says.

In addition to the antique farm equipment demonstrations, highlights will include opportunities to make your own scarecrow, paint your own locally grown pumpkin (limited supply), and other fall activities and crafts for kids to enjoy.

Paulson’s Chairman of the Board Gene Wheeler says several early farming tools will be on display. These include a double-row hand corn planter from the 1850s patented in Rockford; a plow that would be pulled by horses; a butter churn, corn sheller and more, all manufactured in the Rockford area.

“These are pieces you would find people using on any farm in the 1800s and beyond,” says Wheeler. “We’re hoping people will get an appreciation for how mechanization has evolved to make farm life easier and more productive.”

Wheeler and his wife, Carolyn, have deep connections with Midway Village.

In the 1960s, Wheeler milked cows in the barn that is on the Midway Village Museum grounds. His wife’s parents lived in the Pepper House and her grandparents lived in the Marsh House, both part of the village.

Ryan Johnson, vice president of the Paulson museum board of directors, says he hopes the harvest festival will generate interest in the museum at 6950 Belvidere Road, Caledonia, Ill. It consists of three buildings full of agricultural items used from 1850 to 1960. The museum overflows with farm artifacts, large and small, including more than 50 antique tractors, 700 cast iron farming implement seats, cultivators, wagons, windmills, vintage advertising signs and novelties like milking equipment and hog oilers.

“Anything you can use on a farm, we have here,” he says.

Public tours at the Paulson museum are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every second Saturday of the month through November. Individual and group tours are by appointment only, which can be made by calling (815) 885-3846.

The museum was established in 2006 by the late Warren Paulson, who died seven years ago and left the museum in the hands of a board of directors. Prior to 2006, Warren and his wife, Helen, traveled the world to collect and restore artifacts now in the museum, including the most extensive collection of Emerson Brantingham equipment manufactured in Rockford. The company later became known as J. I. Case. The words “made in Rockford” are stamped on many of the pieces.

Along with agricultural artifacts, the museum contains a model train replica of the Kenosha and Rockford Railroad line, complete with miniature local depot depictions. There’s also a large collection of cast iron toys and a farm kitchen display with items commonly used by hardworking farm women, such as a wringer washing machine, round icebox, cast iron stove, spinning wheel, butter churn and much more. A meeting room that can seat up to 150 people can be rented for clubs, business meetings, parties, receptions and other special events.

Admission to Heritage Harvest Festival is $8 for adults, $6 for children 3-17, and members and infants are free. The kits to make your own scarecrow are $10 and clothing and accessory pieces can be purchased for $2 apiece. Tickets can be purchased online at midwayvillage.com, at the Museum front desk, or at the gate during the event. The festival will be held rain or shine and no refunds will be given. ❚