Marshville takes people back in time

Brooklyn Bergsma and Christy Aarts were some of the many volunteers dressed up in period costumes at the Marshville Heritage Festival. ~ Luke Edwards photo

By Luke Edwards

Over Labour Day weekend, visitors to Wainfleet were reminded just how much work it once took for something as simple as a pair of gloves.

The annual Marshville Heritage Festival returned to the community during the September long weekend. Featuring costumed volunteers, and plenty of food, fun and music, everything about the event takes people back in time.

“Overall this is a wonderful event,” said Ron Schroder, chair of the Mackenzie Printery and Newspaper Museum in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Staff and volunteers from the museum were on hand at Marshville showing visitors how printing was done in the 19th and 20th centuries. A Whitlock flatbed newspaper press - one a couple such surviving presses in Ontario - was in use much like it was for so many years producing the Thorold News.

Printing in those days required a person with a special skillset.

“A mix of artist and mechanic,” said volunteer Ashley Andrews.

Not too far away from the printers, Dan Bath was engaged in a very different, but also very important, process. He was converting three deer hides into buckskin leather, which would ultimately become gloves with rabbit hides to add some warmth. To do so he had to submerge the hides in an egg solution, and the oils in the egg solution turn the hide into a pliable, flexible leather.

Bath said learning about the process is rewarding and using the hide to make buckskin leather - as opposed to just throwing it away - shows respect to the animal. He said people were fascinated to learn the process and how the hide interacts with the fats in the egg solution.

“Really, not much changes,” he said. His process is similar to how many others would have tanned deer hides in the past.

Inside, Gwendolyn Goodfellow stood behind a table with all sorts of contraptions laid out. Unfamiliar to many 21st century types, the young volunteer challenged visitors to figure out what each device did. There was a shaving mug, a dough roller and another device for filing down a horse’s teeth, all important tools once upon a time.

The Marshville Heritage Festival is a long running event put on by a strong team of volunteers. Over the years they’ve relocated several historic buildings onto the site, creating a village that resembles life in the 19th century. The Labour Day festival is the group’s major fundraiser. 