Travel Back in Time to \u2018The Gathering\u2019

Travel Back in Time to ‘The Gathering’

By Janine Pumilia

A rare opportunity to step back in time and experience pre-1850s life in our region is coming up April 27 & 28 during The Gathering event at Macktown Living History Center, 2221 Freeport Road in Rockton, Ill.

You’ll meet re-enactors portraying traders and trappers, French voyageurs, Native Americans and early settlers, including Stephen Andrew Mack Jr. and his wife, Mary Hononegah, founders of a once-thriving community named Pecatonic, also called Mack’s Town or Macktown. You can try your hand at the skills settlers depended upon for survival and sample food and drink made in that era.

“This is a time period when our region was the American West,” says Ami Sommerfield, a member of the Macktown Living History board of directors. Americans were migrating here from the East Coast and building communities, traveling mostly by animal, river raft or on foot. There were no railroads or steamboats here and the California Gold Rush had not yet begun.

“Not only is this a fun event for kids and families, but it’s also a teaching event to help people understand how people at Macktown, and people of that era in general, lived,” says Sommerfield.

On the early frontier, a Gathering was a special time for people to come together to trade, socialize, share news, have sporting contests and sometimes even marry.

The Forest Preserves of Winnebago County, which owns the land on which the historic site exists, and the Macktown Living History board, are working to restore Macktown to its 1834 to 1850 historic appearance. The living history center is staffed entirely by volunteers who want to make sure our regional history is not lost.

“In some ways, the Macktown Living History site is the best-kept secret in Winnebago County,” says Connie Gleasman, former board member and longtime volunteer.

In its heyday, Pecatonic, which was located at the confluence of the Rock and Pecatonica rivers, included the Macks’ two-story home and store, a cabinet maker’s shop, an inn, a schoolroom, a shoemaker’s shop, a tavern, a trading post, fur trappers’ cabins and other homes belonging to the population of 200 to 300 people. A ferry and bridge traversed the Rock River near where the original stone trading post structure still stands.

“The Mack home was one of the first homes in our region constructed of wooden boards,” says Sommerfield. Visitors may tour the Stephen Mack Home, Whitman Trading Post and Sylvester Stevens’ Cabinet Making Shop/One-room School during The Gathering. The site represents the time period of 1834 to 1850, but The Gathering encompasses a larger time period.

“The Gathering covers a time period from the early 1700s to 1840,” explains Sommerfield. Uniformed militia units dating back to the 1700s will be present.

Depending on what Mother Nature brings, there may be black powder shooting demonstrations, if the quarry area is dry enough. There will be periodic archery demonstrations, old-time crafts and skills demonstrations, such as cooking with cast iron over an open flame, blacksmithing, bagpipe playing and more.

A re-enactor portraying Stephen Mack will welcome visitors to his home. He’ll be among 80 to 100 costumed reenactors who’ve studied the time period and enjoy sharing their knowledge.

Children will gather candy that’s shot out of a small cannon. There’ll be a paddle dance (comparable to the The Virginia Reel during the Civil War) and a discussion about popular dance styles of the 1700s and 1800s.

The Macktown Living History site is recognized as an important archaeological resource offering clues to our region’s pre-historic era, says Sommerfield. Visitors will learn more about that, too.

“We’ve found arrowheads, pottery shards and items such as a piece of atlatl – a stick used to propel small arrows,” says Sommerfield. Shell middens (dump sites for clam shells and other domestic refuse) exist near the riverbank.

Along with The Gathering, the Macktown Living History Center offers year-round Second Sunday events with themes like working with fiber, cast iron cooking, ice cutting and using an atlatl. In June there’ll be a horse-drawn plowing and seed-sowing demonstration.

“There’s a beautiful sense of calm and tranquility on this property,” says Gleasman. “There’s a stunning view of the confluence of the Rock and Pecatonica rivers. Eagles gather here. We want to make it more available to people.”

Admission to The Gathering is $7/ adults and $5/students. Children under 6/ free. The event is from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days, rain or shine. Learn more by calling (815) 624-4200 or email macktownlivinghistory@gmail.com. ❚