ST. JOHNSVILLE — Sarah Donovan walked about the Dutch Barn at historic Fort Klock on Wednesday, helping guide children through the several projects taking place there.

On one end, youths were operating a wood lathe to make legs for chairs. On the other end, they were slicing small pieces off of wood chunks to create joints that Colonists used for woodworking.

Donovan, 14, is among the volunteers who spent three days at the national historic landmark to experience a bit of what life was like in the Mohawk Valley more than 250 years ago.

Fort Klock hosts its annual Young Pioneers program to introduce children to colonial life.
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“I guess I’ve learned so much over the years,” said Donovan, who participated in Fort Klock’s Young Pioneer Program when she was 10.

“Four years ago, I got really interested. I find it fun, so I just decided to help,” Donovan said.

About 25 children aged 9 to 13 received hands-on lessons about life in Colonial days from volunteers dressed as colonists did in the 1700s.

“The children come to us and experience what Colonial life was kind of like back then. We can’t get a truly authentic experience, but we try to make it as close as we can,” said Christine Evanson, one of the program’s coordinators.

On their first day, the youths were given clothing like long skirts, caps and aprons for the girls, tri-corner hats and breeches for the boys.

The youths learned to dip candles, use a wood lathe and cook over an open hearth inside the 1750 homestead of Palatine settler Johannnes Klock.

Jackson Dunn came to Pioneer Days as a participant last year, and this year he was showing other youths how to use the wood lathe.

“The wood lathe they would use to make table legs, chair legs. We’ve made rolling pins with it,” Dunn said.

Wood burned in the hearth of the kitchen, where Sara Evanson was preparing ingredients for a group of young pioneers to make “Rags and Fleas,” a souplike Hessian dish that got its name from two ingredients — cabbage and cumin seeds.

Sara Evanson was teaching her group about how the seasons affected what foods were available and how they were prepared.

Though they were having ham at the event, she said, the Colonists would wait until the colder weather to slaughter pigs so they could store the meat outside.

Sara Evanson explained the importance of a root cellar where Colonists could store potatoes and carrots, among other things, before there was modern refrigeration.

But you wouldn’t find tomatoes there in the 1700s, she said, explaining that “in the 18th century, people thought tomatoes were poisonous.”

Out in the Dutch barn, Eugene Wagner, president of Fort Klock Historic Restoration, explained how the early farmers built their barns with the doors on the east and west sides to make threshing wheat easier.

The wheat was dried in the fields and then stored in the barn until farmers would gather for a “threshing bee” and start beating the wheat to separate the grains from the wheat.

Then, they’d toss the grains in the air, and the wind blowing through the barn from the west would blow the chaff off the grains.

“Children, once they go through this, have a better understanding of what a slice of bread is,” Wagner said.

Volunteers picked up some wheat for the demonstration from Amish farmers down the road who still harvest it as it was done in the Colonial days, Wagner said.

Elizabeth Shostek said she enrolled her 9-year-old son Sam in the program for the experience.

“I thought it would be great for him to see how people lived back in the 1700s,” Shostek said.

Fort Klock caretaker Dave Klock, a descendent of Johannes Klock, said the Klock family grew prosperous in the fur trade much like Sir William Johnson, who in 1749 built his home just west of Amsterdam in what is now Fort Johnson.

Fort Klock was a fortified homestead back in the days of the French and Indian War and the Revolution, and it was protected mainly by “farmers with pitchforks and muskets,” Klock said.

From his research, Klock said he learned that his ancestors bought the property back in 1742; the home was completed in 1750.

Klock said there were about 40 similar fortified homesteads from Albany to Utica back then, and they served as a refuge for residents surrounding them.

“If it wasn’t for these, they wouldn’t have survived,” Klock said.

Fort Klock, located about two miles east of the village of St. Johnsville on state Route 5, is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, Memorial Day to Columbus Day.