On a crisp October morning, a thick blanket of frost covered the still-green grass, and an icy mist hung over the Holmes County countryside. Smoke curled from chimneys on Amish houses and schools. Cozy lights shone from barn windows. And just as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon, a group of area men gathered to perform a task months in the planning.
At the Amish Mennonite Heritage Center outside Berlin, about fifty Amish (and a few English) men stood on the foundation of the barn they would raise that very day. The 1840s-style bank barn, funded largely by community contributions, was built to house an exciting display of area artifacts -- the most impressive of which is a restored 1830s Conestoga wagon.
Conestoga wagons were developed and built in Conestoga, Pennsylvania (Lancaster County) as early as the 1720s. Over the next century they became a widely-used mode of land transportation, moving both goods and people (somewhat like tractor-trailers today).
The wagon which will be housed in the new barn has quite a history, as it is believed to be the wagon that brought some of Holmes Countys early settlers -- siblings Christian and Barbara Yoder -- to the area in the 1870s.
The driver of that wagon was probably Jacob Eash, a Johnstown, Pennsylvania Amish man who "ferried" people from Pennsylvania to Ohio and Indiana. Interestingly, this particular wagon was sold some time later to another Amish man, who stored it in his barn for nearly seventy years! Luckily, it was discovered by the Eash Yoder Conestoga Heritage Inc. (descendants of Jacob Eash and Barbara Yoder), fully restored and saved. It is the only known wagon of its kind in the area.
The wagon and other anticipated exhibits will offer "a tangible reminder of our heritage that can be shared with both the visiting public and our local community," said Paul Miller, executive director of the Amish Mennonite Heritage Center.
Miller said the barn will house displays of a variety of farm and home artifacts of nineteenth-century pioneer life -- items such as farm equipment, carriages and tools.
One inspiring exhibit is already beginning to take shape, he said. Twenty-five sandstone foundation stones -- one from each of the areas original homesteads -- will be used to build a staircase to the upper level of the barn.
At the end of that October day -- the barn's birthday -- its exterior was almost fully constructed, with one layer of siding and several layers of roof already secured.
"By interacting with the displays, we hope persons may begin to understand their roots, the character of their ancestors and the values which guided them," Miller said. As a physical asset, the barn offers a resource to use in our programming that we could not begin to accomplish in our present setting. It opens new possibilities we could only dream of previously."
Editor's update: as of Summer 2003, the barn's interior was still under construction, and the barn was not yet open to the public. Watch local newspapers and publications for announcement of this event, which has yet to be scheduled.
(Jan/Feb 2003 Edition)
*Source: Conestoga Area Historical Society