Historical Society programs
VERNON — The Vernon Historical Society is sponsoring “Hands On History Mornings” for children who will be entering second-, third- and fourth grades this September.
The programs will be held in Vernon’s one-room schoolhouse on Price’s Switch Road from 9:30 a.m. to noon from Monday, Aug. 27 to Thursday, Aug. 30. The activities children will participate in include 19th Century chores, churning butter, dying cloth, learning to spin wool and more. Each day is filled with a schedule of activities facilitated by accredited teacher and Historical Society member Emilie Dupont.
Parents can register their children for one or for all of the days. The cost is $15 per morning for each child or $50 for all four mornings. Additional children in the family are $10 each per day or $35 for all four mornings.
The historical society asks that families register as soon as possible so that supplies can be purchased for the program.
Fun the old-fashioned way
Monday’s activities include the 19th-century chores of churning butter, making biscuits, hauling water and carding and cleaning wool. Children will take home their homemade butter and biscuits.
On Tuesday, Aug. 28, the activities consist of fiber arts: dying cloth with natural dyes, learning to spin wool with a drop spindle, sewing, embroidering and weaving on a loom.
Wednesday’s activities include “Messy Arts” — dipping and pouring candles, making paper, squeezing ink and pressing flowers and leaves.
On Thursday, Aug. 30, children will spend the day doing activities from the time Price Switch Schoolhouse was in operation: writing with quill pens, drawing with charcoal, participating in a spelling bee and playing old fashioned indoor and outdoor games. Friday is reserved for a rain date.
To register or get information, call Emilie Dupont at 973-764-8434 or e-mail her at emilron@warwick.net.
Poetry of the Civil War
In another program, the Historical Society offers a free presentation on Aug. 26 at 2 p.m. “Private Hercules McGraw: Poems of the American Civil War” by teacher and historian S. Thomas Summers of Vernon.
Summers, an English teacher at Wayne Hills High School and adjunct professor at Passaic County Community College, will share through poetry the journey of Pvt. Hercules McGraw, a Confederate soldier (and racist) in the American Civil War. The poetry characterizes McGraw as he steps into the War to assure that slavery will exist long enough for him to purchase a slave with hopes to impress his love, Martha. As McGraw treks through the blood and mire, experiencing both triumph and tragedy, he begins to transform into a man of peace and compassion — a man who no longer sees a black man or a white man; he simply sees a man — a fellow, a brother.
Summers’s poems have been published in various journals and reviews, including "The Atlantic," "Loch Raven Review," "Literary Bohemian." Most recently, he contributed to an anthology commemorating New Jersey’s involvement in the Civil War, entitled "New Jersey’s Civil War Odyssey."
His book, "Private Hercules McGraw: Poems of the American Civil War," is published by Anaphora Literary Press.
The presentation by Summers is open to the public and will be held in the Senior Citizens Center in the Vernon Municipal Building on Church Street.
For information about this event, call Jessi Paladini at 973-764-6545.
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