Johnson Farm & Indian Agency Day Trip

Today we enjoyed a great trip to Piqua to see the Johnson Farm and Indian Agency plus a piece of the Miami and Erie Canal on the backside of the property.

John Johnson became an Indian Agent, using his farm as a place to work and trade with the Indians. Construction of the farm began prior to his appointment but he and his wife did not move there, from Fort Wayne, until his appointment.

The farm was constructed in the early 1800s and was initially a log barn and home but included a fine brick home, quickly.

Our tour began in the home. It was a very large home with multiple fireplaces, Two upper floors and a lower level Winter Kitchen as well as a number of out buildings, including the Summer Kitchen, and barns which were also used for storage of the trading items.

We had a couple of great guides (they split us into two more manageable groups). The family was large and included a master bedroom, rooms for the girls and also some for the boys. Girls helped with the house work, cooking, sewing, etc. Boys did their studies and helped around the farm.

Master Bedroom

Boy’s Room with Table for Study. I thought it was interesting to see the booklet on “Good Manners”. Perhaps  it would be good to use, even today!

Girls Room with their Spinning Wheel and Dress Form.

Winter Kitchen (lower level of home)

Summer Kitchen (outside)

Indian Agency office with a few Trade Items (lower level of home)

Garden and Fields

After seeing the home and agency we had our meal (provided by Dorothy Lane Market), and then walked down to the Miami and Erie Canal. They had a nice boat, two mule power and we took a nice slow ride with the help of the two mules.

The kids on the boat seemed to enjoy looking for fish in the water as much as they enjoyed the ride. We were pulled a way past the farm then turned around to return. As we turned around we saw another boat that wasn’t so fortunate. It seems that is sprung a leak and was abandoned.

The building behind the sunken Canal Boat is actually a garage over part of the canal where they can keep the boat during the winters. The canal was shut down during the icy season!

Now, we see the mules doing the other direction and we could see the farmhouse in the distance. It was interesting that Johnson became a Canal Commissioner and a piece of the canal went through his property!

After our ride on the Canal we had a little time to visit their museum, prior to our return home.

There are only small areas of the canal still in existence and most of the canals started to go into serious disrepair in the early 1900s. The 1913 Flood pretty much finished the job for this discontinuation in the Dayton area. I thought this rendering of an Aqueduct for a canal crossing of the Mad River north of Dayton was very interesting. There were several others of these across the state.

Our trips wouldn’t be possible without the help of our drivers. This time we had too many people and too much supplies to use just the bus, so we had a second vehicle mostly for the food and water.  Thanks to Bob Turner for driving the bus and for Lisa Poe for taking the van.

I highly recommend anyone visit this site and see the farm and canal. Check it out on their Internet Website!

Mark Twain–Young@Heart Luncheon

We had a very special program for July with very special guests.

Our grand-daughter, Elizabeth Koerber, did our piano prelude. This is the second time she joined us and she brought her parents, our daughter, Michele, son-in-law, James, and two of her siblings, Nathanael and Abegael. It is always fun to spend time with them. They live down in Blanchester.  Elizabeth did a nice program at the piano! If you missed this part of the program, you can hear some of it, HERE!

Our very special guest this month was non other than Mark Twain; also known as Stephen Hollen, to us! We are trying a number of different programs this year and this is one of those. We will do two more this year and several more next year.  Be sure to invite friends to join us for the fun.  Stephen has a number of different programs, so maybe next year we will try another of his fun programs.  He is a great storyteller, as we experienced, today.

As our Young@Heart people arrived, Mark Twain was here to great everyone!  I think many of you had difficulty thinking of him as someone born in 1835, when you talked with him.

Mark didn’t bring along his key figures from his real stories, Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn!  Perhaps, that was because I mentioned that all children were to be under control of their parents or grandparents!

Unfortunately, our Young@Heart people did not bring many of their grandkids! Nancy and I did our part by bringing three of our grandkids for the program. They got a big kick out of seeing someone who wrote some of their favorite stories. I think Jim Weiss also brought a couple of their grandkids but they didn’t join us for lunch and I don’t think they even had an opportunity to talk with Mark. So, I get to show off a couple of our grand-daughters!

Mr. Twain was a great author (I was a boyhood fan of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn) and also traveled as a lecturer and storyteller. Or course, our real life storyteller, is actually Stephen Hollen and some of the stories that he told were the same ones told by Mark Twain in his speaking engagements across the country and around the world.  One of those stories is the one he told here about the frog. Twain also had a great interest in technology and even hobnobbed with the likes of Thomas Edison.

The following photos were taken during our program. I am also including a recording of the program HERE!

Remember to click on any image to see the large version!

Next month, we will try another new program. Our August 13th program will feature Bill Corfield. No corn, there! Bill is a very popular vocalist and also has a band. He will be here to sing some of your old favorites, Including gospel and popular. I heard his voice and I really like his music and so will you. Be sure to join us in August!