split the log by length. and you could continue splitting it and splitting it and splitting it until you could get sizes big enough for a split rail fence or the shakes or shingles on the house. it was app easier way to split the wood up. we have chinking in between and it is also called dobbing. the logs have space in between. on the outside it is a mixture of mud and straw or grass sometimes. if you had horse hair, you would use horse hair. you would have to mix that up typically using your feet to do that and put it on probably in cooler weather, in fall or early spring. because the mud mixture would need to dry pretty slowly.

otherwise, it would crack. and then you would have to continue to repair it. so you would want to do it in cooler weather. >> thanks for visit frontier cultural museum. we are open 362 days a year. please come and visit us in stanton, virginia. >> this is the first of a two-part series on the frontier culture museum. part 2 explores life on the early american frontier. you can watch this and other american artifacts programs any time by visiting our website at c-span.org/history. >> each week, american artifacts takes you to museums and historic places to learn what artifacts reveal about american history. located in stanford, virginia, the frontier cultural museum tells the story of the early american frontier.

we visit early 19th century on houses in the shenandoah valley and hear interpreters study early life. we visit two farm houses and a school house. and learn how national politics impacted this area from the civil war. this is the second of a two-part series. >> my name is joe herget. i'm marketing director. we are a living history museum with a mission focused on education. our objective here at the frontier culture museum is to teach people how unique folk culture was created through the blending of european, african, and indigenous people's cultures. today we're going to be on the american side of the pew seem and see the 1820s farm, 1850s farm, and early american school house.

>> my name is steven gallagher. my title is interpreter. those of us in costume interpreting the exhibits referred to as interpreters. i primarily work on the 1820s farm. that's where we are here. these folks were farmers. primarily wheat farmers. like most folks in the valley, mixed grain and livestock. they raised beef cattle for sale and kept cows to milk and make butter and cheese. chicken for eggs, hogs for their own use. they had a good diet but heavy in pork and corn products and raised wheat, rye and oats. it was the bread basket until well after the civil war. wheat was the money crop, the cash crop. it was kind of what tobacco was to the east of us. this 1820s american farm was originally located about an hour's drive north of here in what's now northern rockingham

county. the main part of this house is constructed in 1773 by a german immigrant. he came down here after a generation in pennsylvania, which is the typical story. that's why the museum wanted this property because the family story was shared by so many other families at about the same time. we're currently in the parlor. and this rather fancy -- fancy for a parlor. it was added by the orplg owner's grandson in 1820. but it is an older house. by the time this parlor that you can see behind me looked like this in 1820, the frontier was basically in missouri. that would be the frontier, out to the mississippi. but when the main part was built across the hall in 1773, it would depend from what vantage point you were looking. if you were in philadelphia, then, the philadelphia area, for example, which was definitely the largest city in the colonies at that time, this right here in

the valley would be the far west, the far frontier. technically today we could look back and say, well, it's really farther west from us. like over shenandoah mountain maybe an hour or two west would be technically the frontier. but it would like like the frontier to most people. when joe came down from pennsylvania he would think of himself a as going west, way west. we certainly don't think of the valley of virginia today as being in the west. but it was in that time period. this parlor and the hallway that i can see where i'm sitting a as i mentioned was added in 1820 by original owner's grandson is. we refer to that as federal style. was popular through the early 19th century. it is really english in tear vacation. you can probably see chair rails and baseboards. and a nice fluted fireplace to

my left. that is derived from the english style. but people of any ethnic background by the 18th and 19th century in america this would be the style that most folks would aspire to. we think the grandson was showing off in this room. this is fancier than most farm families would have. and even though they are skrer man ancestry, no german architecture except for the center beam. the main house, a log house as well across the hall, is similar in its floor plan to the german house we have here at the museum. we find that interesting. pause even though the man we built it, joe bowman, he had been in america 24 years before building it. very common story in philadelphia, settled in brooks county, pennsylvania 29 years.

and he could sell 100 acre and buy 260s here in the valley. it was so much later. so that's the motivation. but even though he had been in america that length of time he still built a very german floor planment the kitchen is the first door we enter going into the house. we have a i large hearth. a lot of people refer to it as a walk-in fireplace. behind that is the stuba or stove room. that is the living room, dining room, family room, work room. we have the spinning wheels in there. that is the main part of the house. then the parents's room is off of that. basically three rooms in the main part of the house. originally, george bowman, the name of the man who built this house. he was named johan bauman.

here in virginia a way to acquire property. it was in large attracts of land to the north of us. the fairfax tract which was given to lord fairfax and borden south of that. but huge holdings. those members of those who owned the lands were to settle it with a certain number of people within a certain number of years. there was a lot of fenagling and people acquiring title.

coming back with a guide and come canning back and seeing if that property was available for purchase and prices of course varied depending on the land. but there were problems many times in acquiring final title to a piece of property. there were overlapping claims. the folks from northern ireland were the olster scotts, the

scots irish. certainly throughout the valley. scattered with english, scots, olster scots. the north of us would have more folks in the area of germany. this was actually at one point in the early 19th century there was 12 children that survived adulthood. these folks were not slave owners. it formed a large part of the economy here in the valley. most folks didn't own slaves. these folks were fortunate to have that number of children to help work the land. their activities fluctuated with the seasons for growing crops. the women would work alongside

them as well. on the family farm a lot of people had to help. for example, right now at the museum, we're bringing in the hay crops. they would bring in a cy to mow the grass. they would have to rake the hay, get it to the wagon to get it to the barn. if they are cradling wheat, the women and children would ask as bundlers to wrap into sheaths. so it was shared work. but it was definitely -- i mean, the men didn't do the cooking, for example. the women and girls did a lot of that. and the dairying, and they did a lot of butter and cheese, was primarily the women and young girls. they thought the girls and young women were much better at tearying. a young boy would be extremely

embarrassed to be seen milking a cow in the 1800s. the wheat was ground into flour here. we think of these folks as -- or they appear in modern times to be self-sufficient. actually, their lives were determined by basically international grain markets really. because that flower belonged long distances all around the country. even out to california. so their products definitely traveled far. pork products, everybody raised for themselves. and corn primarily. that was for their own use. this area by the 1820s and up to the civil war was -- it was of no longer the frontier. it was a well settled thriving

farm area. the economy improving all the time. more mills being built all the time. moreland being put their cultivation. so people were certainly aware of the discussions going on, the slavery. they felt they wouldn't be affected by that. certainly in the 1820s they would have felt safe. and no one could have forecast at that time the problems the whole country, and definitely the valley, would have faced some 40 years later. there were a lot of -- for example, when the main part of this house was built, and this is a log house. quite a nice log house. that would be a community event. you might have four cornerman responsible for the notching of the logs. but the entire community would take part. much like the modern barn

raising amongst the amish. it would be a time for the community to get-together, catch up on news, courting, getting together to socialize. the community was much more involved in things like that. and these folks are lutheran. they went to the local lutheran church. raiders lutheran church in rockingham county. but they would also be, you know, farm projects. maybe someone was bringing in a crop. folks would share some of those duties in return for help from that family for some other jobs on the farm. not everybody went to school. in 1820s, 30s, 40s in the valley, school would be definitely a community thing. where maybe several farm families would get-together and a local farm would donate an acre, half acre of his property.

and several family would get-together and hire someone, a teacher to come. and that teacher would generally board with one of those farm families. and they would be paid but not very much, not very much. but they would get their room and board. but they would live in the community. not all children would have to go to school. if they were e going, they wouldn't go in the spring time when it's planting in the fall or harvesting. so more of a wintertime thing. we do have an 1840s one room school house, which is just out the window of the parlor from the valley as well. >> my name is andrew richardson. i'm the director of education at the tpror tear kfrontier cultur museum.

children would attend but it was irregular. it was 9:00 to 5:00 with a large break in between for lunch. they went home for lunch instead of eating here. it would have been outside the busiest times of a farmer's life. during the summer and the school calendar today follows that, was the slowest time in the school house but busiest time on the farm. then in late fall -- or beginning in fall and then through the spring was your busiest times in the school house. this was a school house that was geared towards farmers's kids of all ages. there was no grade system. children from maybe as young as 6 and 7 all the way up to the upper teenage years would attend throughout the year. the students were divided amongst each other, usually boys on one side and girls on the other. but throughout the day they would actually move around based on their skills. and they would be taught the

basics of reading and writing, a arithmetic, probably a little bit of geography and history and things like that. this was not a public school. the time period we're talking about was before virginia instituted public schools in the 1870s. this was a privately funded school by the families in the community. so often it was called a community school. the supplies, most of them were provided by the individual parents of their schoolchildren. the funding for the school and for the school master was often a collection amongst the families to pay to build the structure as well as to hire a school master to come and teach inside of it. sometimes this was a farmer who got together with his neighbors and they collectively paid for it. and one of them would teach in there. the man who started this school house taught his children and some of his neighbor's children. they off had to hire outside the community. they would bring in usually a young man who might have some formal education or, sometimes not. and it was a low paying job.

often the school masters were irregular. they might not stay throughout the year. it often might be during a down semester for a college student. or it might just be somebody who answered a newspaper ad looking for pay for an amount of time. so when i mentioned earlier that the school year was often all year-round, there's no guarantee there was actually someone teaching in it all year. it was very irregular for the students because of the farm life but also irregular because it is often hard to keep someone employed in the school house. sometimes it is a shock to people that public schools did not begin as early as they thought they did. it was state by state. most of the southern states were instituted after the civil war. but it's a shock that people didn't realize public schools have been around for not that long actually. this was a very typical school house found in the shenandoah valley, especially in the mid

atlantic states. typically you are finding a man teaching in it. one of the reasons of course is men had more opportunities to form more education than women typically. but it had a lot to do with corporal punishment. you off hear lots of accounts of men teaching in the early to mid 19th century because they wanted a firm hand in charge of a lot of students. but community schools like this, one room school houses were found a lot in very rural areas simply because the population couldn't support a much larger school. they did have, especially in towns and cities, you didn't often find multiple room school houses. in the countryside where families are clustered together in little communities, it's best just to have a single room school house. the students would have to provide their own slate boards. they would also usually provide their own pen and ink when they started using that. books were hard to come by in

the sense that -- there are plenty of them. plenty of textbooks back then but books were more expensive back then. the school master might be the only one to have a book that he will use to teach from. students were in charge of their own recess. there was no gym class or toys or equipment were provided for that. instruction was very oral. so students are often having to recite or memorize things and present to the class in front of everyone. not a lot of, say, homework or worksheets were given out. rather, it was assignments that were -- where you are practicing your el ocution bocution but no turned in.

this house was built in the 1840s. there are accounts of one existing about 50 years earlier. these one room school houses were incorporated into the public school system but often replaced pretty quickly as transportation improved and the school districts were formed. but some were used for quite a while. >> my name is megan sullivan. i'm a costumed interpreter here at the museum, currently working in the 1850s american farm. the family that lived here, they were the bargers. the rhine land area. they would have traveled down shenandoah valley and settled on a piece of land they got from the land agent. and they got approximately 225 acres land from them. and they will decide that up

based off what they need for cash purposes and subsistance. ten years later they add on the kitchen, dining room, the room next door. during that renovation they add on both porches in the front and back and put siding on the house, making it a nice, big house. the family size itself will include a mom and dad and approximately 6 to 10 children. so a fairly large family size. and if they had the means a family might own a slave or rent one. and that slave will sleep inside the house. this farm came with a spring house, which is a stone building. it has a natural spring that comes from underground. the family collected that water in a trough. it is very, very cold. not only is that your source of

water but also your refrigerator too. storage for milk and cheese. we also have a wash house. so direct access to that spring water to wash clothes. a meat house where they are going to store a lot of pork products like bacon and sausage and ham. we have a produce shed, which is where you are going to store wood so it stays dry. but also vegetables and fruits that you're harvesting from your land. we have a tobacco barn to harvest a little bit of tobacco. it is not a huge cash crop but supplements some income. our hen house with turkeys and chickens. and then the barn, which is a very german-influenced barn. it will be where you store your wheat, grain, hay and animals in the winter time. the men and boys will take care

of the can cash crop, slaughtering the animals and doing the heavier work with animals. whereas, women will be in charge of cooking, washing, mending clothes, feeding the animals, milk the cow, for instance. men will take the wheat to the market, to the mill to have it sold. so they would be going to town to have those products kind of appraised and get money for the family. they will -- men will make tools for the farm, repair tools. women will quilt and sew, take care of children while they're not in school. so those kinds of tasks. they are kind of based off spheres of the farm. the house is the domestic severe. you extend five feet and that is the women's area of work. and outside of that area is kind of the work space for the man. the fields, the barn, and kind

of harder labor is out there is for the men. this house comes from bon talk county, an hour and a half drive south and they are about average for where they come from in the county. if you compare it to other farms in the shenandoah valley, this county is a bit lower on the socio economic scale. this family would seem poorer than say a family in rockingham county, such as the 1820's house you visited already. the railroad is going to reach that family sooner than this house. it just takes a while for it to march down the shenandoah valley. other differences, because of the differences in economic status across the shenandoah valley that farm can have plastered walls, brightly colored painted walls whereas we are still using whitewash on the walls in this house.

so kind of the material goods you have access are going to be different. the 1820s house also has a cast iron wood stove that they can use to heat up a room whereas this house is still using standard fireplace for heating. and that's going to be -- just location is the major determining factor on economic status there as well as just the family choices. perhaps they didn't want the newest things. they were comfortable with open hert cooking and using the older forms of heating and just were happy with that. 1820s house is kind of showing a second or third generation family in america whereas this 1850s house is showing third or fourth generation. they're more removed from that old world country that they came from. the frontier at this point in america in the 1850s is going to rest more in nebraska and kansas. some families are still getting all the way over to california.

so the frontier is more out west, but we're still showing a family in the 1850s farm living in the shenandoah valley, but the way they live could be very similar to how people could be living on the new frontier in america more towards west. supplies and technology, the industrial revolution is allowing people to have access to more goods. machines are allowing you to cut straight boards essentially, which really shapes how you can build your own house. now you can have clapboard on the outside of your house instead of just building a log cabin as what had been previous. so those changes in technology shift how the frontier can be lived on. so that kind of shapes the differences between 1820's frontier and 1850's frontier. probably the biggest national political issue in the 1850's is slavery. that's definitely going to impact anyone across the nation. i mean, they're going to have

things like a slave reward poster that they're going to find in their local tavern or their grocery store that they can pick up and take off the wall. for a family living in the shenandoah valley, $200 might be a viable reward they want. it depends on their issues. the shenandoah valley is a little more ambiguous about how they feel about slavery. some families are okay with it and they will rent a slave. others are very against it and are more abolitionist in their feeling. that depends on their religious beliefs and kind of their family background. finding a reward poster in your local town very common. the compromise of 1850, which kind of delineated slave in free sta states, the united states had an aspect to it about the fugitive slave law, strengthening that law. reward poster like this is coming directly out of an event

like the xroes mice of 1850. you have to capture those slaves that are escaping from their owners in the south and if you happen to see the guy that is advertised in this poster, this family might see that as a good economic opportunity capture him and get that reward and benefit your slavery. slavery is definitely going to be entering your home personally even if you don't own slaves, this is going to be -- you're going to be bombarded with messages like this from slave owners. and then your newspapers as well will have advertisements for slave aukions and they will detail the reports of these national news and politics in the 1850s. the nation is really becoming more attune to the national issues so slavery is definitely impacting a family even on the frontier. education is a little spotty on

the frontier. if your community can afford to build its own school, then your children might have a chance of being educated. if your family has a history and background of educated their family members, then it could be passed down just through family members and your children could be educated. but without that public school system that we really kind of celebrate today, it's a little bit uneven across the nation. but most children are going to have a rudimentary knowledge of how to read and how to write. so a newspaper might be accessible to them so they can understand the new politics of the day. technology once again is allowing newspapers to become more accessible to families and therefore that's going to kind of do a whole push and pull factor and inspire a rise in literacy as a result. so the kind of cause/effect

relationship. more newspapers and books available, more people are going to want to know how to read them, so a rise in literacy. the big bullet point and theme that we try to tell people about the 1850s farm is that it is the last chapter of this museum. if you're thinking about it as a big book, the big message that you want to take away is that people coming into america are slowly blending all of those cultures together, the english, irish, german, west african, and native american. traditions and beliefs are all coming together. by the 1850s, you have the beginnings of that american culture as a tangible thing. you can see that in the way that they're living in this house, the foods they might be eating, the house they might construct for themselves. so, for example, this family is a german immigrant family, but by the 1850s they will be speaking english in their home and at the church. so an english influence that's coming into their lives. in terms of their food, you

know, sitting down to dinner with them, yeah, they're going to have sauerkraut now and then, still an american favorite today, but will mix in things like okra, black eyed peas, watermelon, crops native to west africa and then corn is definitely going to be a staple of their diets. native americans are teaching europeans how to cultivate it and grow it, so they're going to combine that staple grain with foods that they traditionally would have eaten in europe. so cornbread is an example of a literal blending in a dish. native plant to north america and bread, which is very common in europe, coming together to create cornbread essentially. even in food in culinary practices. in terms of architecture, the room we're standing in resembles very much an english parlor. so you're displaying your fanciest of furniture, dishes on display to show fancy china. an english influence on architecture to create a room for guests and to display your

fanciest goods, but we're right next to a very german bedroom. having the mom and dad of this household sleeping on the first floor is a very german tradition. that master bedroom is right next to this english parlor. then you kind have the cultural blending in this very room. and then we have porches on the front and back of this house shgs which are a west african influence on american architecture as well. the house itself is just a whole big story of how these cultures are coming together and blending to create this new american culture, of course, that we still add to today. it's not finished by any means, but this is kind of where we're at by the 1850s. >> thanks for visiting the frontier culture museum today. we're open 362 days a year. we'd love to see you out here, so please come and visit us in stanton, virginia. >> this is the second of a two-part series on the frontier culture museum.

part one explored daily life in europe for migrants before they came to colonial america. you can watch this and other american artifacts programs any time by visiting our website at c-span.org/history. john hinckley was the president that shot president reagan and president reagan was not wearing a bulletproof vest that day. a short trip from the white house. the thing is john hinckley was stalking jimmy carter before this. >> sunday on q&a, ronald fineman author of the book "assassinations threats and the american presidency" talks about various assassination attempts and physical threats made against presidents and presidential candidates throughout american history. >> while there's been 16 presidents who have faced assassination threats, although none directly, since ronald reagan, 16 presidents, i also cover three presidential candidates. i talk about hughey long, who in

1935 was assassinated, and i talk about robert kennedy in 1968 who was assassinated and george wallace who was shot and paralyzed for life in 1972. i cover candidates as well as presidents. and it's a long list. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span's q&a. ooshg archaeological excavation of a slave ship off the coast in 1974 is adding a new chapter to the story. the smithsonian national museum of african-american history museum and culture is a global partner in the ship's discovery, recovery and exhibition. director lonnie bunch and curator paul gardullo talked with american history tv about the saga of the ship called sal vose. >> take us back to december 27th,