News for 2009

Good News!! The Old Bradford Pioneer Village Museum will be hosting its first annual "Battle of Bradford" Civil War Days May 16 and 17, 2009. This is very exciting for us. This will be the largest fundraiser the museum has ever had. We are hoping for a very large turnout of military units from the Union Army and the Confederate Army. A re-enactment battle will take place on both Saturday and Sunday afternoons. An entertainer has been hired to perform 4 1-hour shows that will include songs and stories of the Civil War. Please call 641-220-2632 for more information.
See you there.

Kraft School foundation

Look at the new foundation and ramp at the Kraft School!

EXCITING SUMMER

We have really had some exciting things happening this summer at the Village. We have raised just over $40,000.00 now including in-kind donations of time and efforts. The Kraft School still sits on it's "pedestal". We were hoping that it would be down by now, but NO. BUT, we have had some other great up-grades. The Smith Cabin has a new roof, thanks to Jeremy Day and so does the Cottage. The Cabin was pretty easy to do, but the Cottage was a real surprise for the workers. Steve Christenson (and we) thought that all they had to do was tear off the shingles and put on the new, but it was not that easy. They started tearing of the shingles and found a layer of tar paper. Underneath that was another layer of tar paper and a full roof of old wooden shingles. So that little project cost us more than we expected! But we weren't too surprised either.

Stanton Electric showed up to put some underground wiring in for us. The Jail, Kraft School and Toy shop have not had electricity, but now they are wired. They also ran electricity underground to the Cottage and Heritage Building.

Roger and Robert Hanson donated a central air conditioning system to us to be used in the Heritage Building. This will help with climate control during the summer when it gets so hot and sticky in there.

Our Annual Meeting was held on Tuesday, November 13 at the Farmhouse Bed & Breakfast Gathering Room in Fredericksburg. We had the biggest crowd that I have seen in my 3 seasons there. It was a delicious meal and good meeting.

I am having picture problems, so hopefully I can add pictures later.

THE BIG 4 FAIR

We just finished up the Big 4 Fair for Chickasaw County, Iowa. It went very well. It was a good time. The Historical Society had a booth there and passed out brochures. We had a gift basket that we gave away to a lucky name.

Visit Us At The Fair

The Big 4 Fair. We set up our booth today and will be there til Monday, Sept. 3. This is a picture of our booth.

Mushrooms at the Museum

We have so many different mushrooms growing this year since it has been so wet. But the most interesting is the "Fairy Ring" that is growing in the front yard.

The School Is Moved

The school is moved back into the trees and if it ever stops raining, they will be able to start the new foundation. It was very interesting to watch the men work on this project. They made it look so easy.

Kraft School

Jacking up the building and putting the beam underneath and the corner that was rotten wood.

On August 21, Ron Holland's crew showed up at the Village to raise the Kraft School so that a new foundation can be built. They are going to move it back to the north and set it down. After the new foundation is built they will come back and set the building on the new foundation. They had one problem. After they raised the building by jacking it up by hand, they put hydrolic jacks underneath and the jack at the northeast corner went right through some rotton wood beam. So some of that has to be replaced before they can finish the job.

Excitement

There was some excitement at the Village last week. I heard a thud, and the lights went out in the gift shop. When I looked out the front door, I saw a pickup in the ditch out front.

The driver was ok, but the light pole was down. He said a car came at him and ran him off the road and he had to take the ditch. It took a couple of hours before we got power back in the gift shop.