Living History Festival Educates the Community: 23rd Annual Heritage Days Hosted by LC

By Amy Proter
Editor in Chief

     Hidden from view of the messy construction on Godfrey Rd., LC housed the 23rd annual Heritage Days. The two-day festival held on Sept. 28 and 29 featured everything from Fife and Drum Corps and live cannons to hide tanning and rope making. There was face painting and crafts for children, story telling, traditional food and an endless supply of period crafts.
According to the program, “Our goal is to educate the public in the customs, manners, clothing food and tools used by the early settlers from 1700-1840.” And that they did, once again.
     Everett “Butch” Lyerla has been making rope since the first Heritage Days. “What fascinates me about making rope is it’s the one thing in the history of time that hasn’t been modified past the point of recognition,” said Lyerla. “Rope making today is the same as it was 200 years ago, only now it’s faster and made mechanically. I made rope at the first Heritage Days and I’m still making rope. I go to 25 or 30 schools every year to educate the young people the craft of making rope.
     “You can make a rope any length or any size. Back in Boston, it wasn’t unusual to see rope a mile long.” Lyerla spoke of many sayings coming from the rope making trade including “all tied up in knots, hanging by a thread, at the end of my rope and hang myself.”
     He demonstrated how to make rope with a simple machine using string and pulleys.
     Lyerla’s stand featured a plaque which read “Behold the work of the old… let your heritage not be lost but bequeath it was a memory, treasure and blessing… Gather the lost and the hidden and preserve it for thy children.” This is Heritage Days’ theme and purpose.
     Viola and Russell Brenner sold French inspired fabrics and clothing. “Russel builds the looms and I weave the fabric,” said Viola. “It’s marvelous to be [at LC] where there’s paved parking. Most of the things we sell are French influenced. The French always set the style, so we do that.”
Heritage Days has not always been at LC.
At the very end of the Heritage Days rounds were a group of men dressed in red standing around some impressive-looking cannons.
“We are the French Colonial Artillery,” explained Jim Chestney. “This is different from the Royal French Army. We’re reenacting the French and Indian War. The treaty signed in 1763 ended in influence of France in New France, which was North America. In the treaty, [France] gave up Canada so they could keep their islands full of spices.
“A lot of people reenact the War of 1812 and the Civil War. The French were [in America] in the early 1700s. If you were from France, you were automatically in the militia. The militia soldiers were similar to the National Guard. They were the civilian soldiers and took a lot of time doing road repair. When they were called into service, they were scouts. They fought like Indians.
“Most people around this area were farmers. This was the middle of no where. The French were in Cahokia in 1699 and have been here ever since.”