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| Katelyn |
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| Paula |
The site is composed of farms from different periods so the event is a timeline event. There are the 1830s stock farm, the 1890s house, the 1930s house, and the 1860s Prairie House. Unfortunately, I could not get away to get photos of the other sites, other than a far away look of the 1830s site from the Prairie House.
If you've been following my blog you probably know the weather changed from warm and balmy to a bit chilly. Friday night was drizzly and cold. But we managed to stay warm without a fire. Saturday morning continued the cold and I was glad for the wool dress. Our part for the event was to occupy the front parlor of the Prairie House.
The house was built in 1851with two rooms down and two rooms up. It is not original to the site; the house that originally stood on the property burned down in the 1880s. However, this house was built in the same year, by the same builder and same architect with basically the same floor plan as the original. The original house had a dining room off the front parlor with a third bedroom over it. The house there now was owned by a doctor who had his surgery in the the main part of the house in what is now interpreted as an office/library.
As might be expected he wanted to keep the eating facilities separate from the surgery and detached the dining room and the kitchen. While a detached kitchen in Texas is quite common, the detached dining room is unusual. You can see the breezeway leading to the dining/kitchen building in the picture below.
Another group occupied the kitchen area for the weekend.
We spent the day talking to visitors, sewing and reading silly stories from Harper's Weekly and Godey's. What a hoot! One visitor sat and listened to part of one story and then returned later in the day to see how it ended.
Several activites were taking place outside the house including a school room, a military encampment, military drill, a talk on bedding of the time and square dancing.
There was a small Civil War skirmish and I understand that there were ladies on the edge of the battlefield administering to the wounded.
For lunch the site provided a Southwestern chicken soup with tortillas. The day did get a bit warmer and Miss Katelyn was able to change into her new sheer dress. I on the other hand did not even take mine.
The site traditionally provides the volunteers with a dinner on Saturday and presents each with a Texian Market Day pin. This year was no exception. We did change into modern clothes for dinner...you can only eat so much in a corset. After dinner we returned to the Prairie House, got into night clothes, lit a fire and talked about future events.
TMD is only a Saturday event. Sunday morning meant packing up, stopping for breakfast and the drive home. We all had a great time and are looking forward to next year.
