On Tuesday 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades paid a visit to the Old Stone House Museum. I took a personal day to go along. I spent the morning with Cole's class and after lunch I toured with Wayne and his class.
We got a tour of the Old Stone House.
The upstairs bedrooms of the dormitory, showing the beds with hay filled mattresses that the students used to sleep on. Laid out were some examples of clothes and undergarments they would have worn.
On the very tip-top floor paintings are displayed. This spooky one shows the ghostly image of a baby on the womans's lap. No one knows for sure why, but the baby was painted over. You can still see it from a certain angle.
We had a lesson on how to make a milking stool
Next the third graders learned how to split cedar logs to be used in building a fence.
Here they used team work to build a "snake" fence.
They visited the Abenaki Room and learned local native American history and learned a traditional snake dance. (No, "snake" was not a theme for the day.)
After lunch, Wayne got to go on a hayride.
Then he learned how to build a timber frame barn with this educational model.
Last summer, Cole, Heather, Joanie, and I went to the real barn raising. This is what it looks like now on the inside.
It was a beautiful day to get out of the classroom and do some hands-on learning.
Wow! The Old Stone House Museum sure does some wonderful, educational activities with the school children. Lucky Cole and Wayne. Glad you took the day off to go along with them, Darlene!
ReplyDeleteLove that Wayne and Cole got some hands on building of the fence and splitting wood! That barn looks nice from the inside! I will have to go this summer to see it! Glad you could go, Darlene. Perhaps the spooky lady's baby died, and it grieved her so much to see the painting, that she had it painted over? Would make a great story for the kids to write their own version of!
ReplyDeleteAbout the Ghost Painting
ReplyDeleteGenealogy from "Descendants of Thomas Wellman of Lynn, Massachusetts" with my suppositions added:
Rev. Jubilee Wellman (1753-1855) married Theda Grout (1798-1839) in 1828. They had two children: Theodecia Elizabeth (1832-1856) "died unmarried" and Jubilee Leigh (b.1835).
Jubilee married Hannah Kelly in 1841. They named their second child "Theda Grout" which suggests that Jubilee was fond of his first wife. Their third child (Abner) was born July 1845 and died September 1846.
In 1834 when Walter Ingalls painted Theda, Theda's daughter Theodecia was two years old. I'll guess little Theo was included in the painting then painted out for artistic reasons. She lived for another 22 years, so she wasn't photoshopped out due to untimely death, and I doubt she could have done something shameful at the age of two.
Theda could have had another pregnancy and lost the baby in between Theo and Jubilee Leigh (born the year after the painting). However, the family history did record Reverend J's son Abner by his second wife (Abner was only 10 months old when he died) so I assume that Theda did not have a child who died in infancy. Maybe a miscarriage? But the ghost doesn't look like a baby to me. I'm betting it's Theodecia.