810-Lancmw Farming, Saturday, May 13, 1995
** I
LORETTA GOLDEN
Cambria Co. Correspondent
PORTAGE (Cambria Co.)
Webster’s Dictionary defines
“journal” as “an account of day
to-day events” or a “record of ex
periences. ideas, or reflections
kept regularly for private use.” In
1866, James Itell began keeping a
journal and continued to do so for
a period of six weeks. At the time
he began his diary, Itell was a
16-year-old farmer who lived in
the Portage-Munster area of West
ern Pennsylvania. The journal
consists mainly of “one-liners”
some sentences, phrases, and even
just single words. It also contains
historical facts and agricultural re
cordkeeping.
This diary was the impetus for a
project coordinated by Portage
Area High social studies teacher,
Gary Yusko, and St. Josqph ele
mentary teacher, Kathleen Shuler.
Yusko is also the president of the
Portage Area Historical Society
and Shuler is the director of the
Portage Station Museum. Yusko’s
eighth grade Social Studies class
researched and presented a pro
gram for approximately 500 stu
dents from the Portage area.
Currently, the museum is fea
turing a farming exhibit entitled
‘To Everything There b A Season
A Farm Journal.” This exhibit
is based on the journal of James
Itell. All of the students toured the
museum, heard brief talks by mu
seum volunteers concerning agri
culture during the 1800 s and were
then shuttled by school bus to
Crichton-McCormick Park in
Portage. At the park, Yusko’s
class was busy preparing food
similar to that described in the
1860 s journal. All 500 students
Nick Gruse, eighth grader dressed as a Confederate Sol
dier, Is discussing gun powder, field hospitals, and lack of
anesthesia during the Civil War. If a soldier was injured,
he’d have to “bite the bullet” or a piece of wood for the
pain!
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A Farmer’s Journal Brings History Alive
were treated to tastes of sausage,
bacon cooked over open fire,
buckwheat pancakes, pure maple
syrup, popcorn popped over open
fire, pumpkin butter, mountain
pies, homemade butter, apples and
apple cider, com mush, and every
one’s favorite homemade ice
cream. The class even rented a
large hand-crank ice cream freezer
(Made 3 gallons at a time) from a
local hardware store.
Besides the food items one of
the highlights was hearing the stu
dents speak of life during the
1860 s. A few described 1800’s
baseball and croquet and eighth
grader Nick Gruse, dressed as a
Confederate soldier, captivated
his younger audiences with des
criptions of field hospitals during
the Civil War.
Quite a bit of planning and ef
fort went into the day and it was a
learning experience and fun time
for most who attended. Fifth-grad
er Chalsea Kline especially enjoy
ed the talk on hog butchering and
came to realize through this dis
cussion that no part of the hog was
wasted. Everything was used for
something.
The students who presented the
day-long program gained an ap
preciation for this “hands-on”
learning and a different way in
which to pput their research to
work. They also enjoyed doing
this for the younger students to
help them to better understand life
during the Civil War period of our
country.
One of the leisure activities
which James Itell enjoyed during
the 1860 s and 1870 s was “bal
looning.” Draw a picture of what
you think a hot air balloon looked
like at this time.
Imura, sol
Sam T
of boys.
Jenny Godlsh passing out popcorn which she popped over an open fire.
Natalie Klttell and Beth Golden making buck jat pancakes y grown
buckwheat. Buckwheat was mentioned many times In Hell’s Journal. It appears to
have been a staple In this area in the mid 1300 s.
ortxetH
Istrator, demonstrating sausage making for this group
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