Amherst County Colonial Day will be held at the Amherst County Museum from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Aug. 10, highlighting education, entertainment and farming in the county during the Colonial Era.
Colonial Interpreters will demonstrate blacksmithing, silversmithing, flax dressing, and spinning. There will also be Revolutionary War soldiers and civilians in camp, colonial music, a physician/surgeon and fifer and drummer to facilitate military drilling and marching with the Fincastle/Montgomery County Militia. The militia is a group of dedicated living historians who portray both military and civilian roles during the time of the American War of Independence.
Re-enactors conducted extensive research and documentation on all the clcothing and equipment used to be as accurate to the period as possible. “They specifically portray the Fincastle/Montgomery County Militia which was an actual unit from Southwestern Virginia that served in the American Revolution,” a news release from the Amherst County Museum and Historical Society states.
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Period games such as Graces, Rolling Hoops, Battledore & Shuttlecock, Quoits, and Ball & Cup will be available for both children and adults to engage in. Visitors can also try their hand at writing with a quill pen and carding wool. Colonial bookmaking and flint knapping will be demonstrated. Converse with two Batteaux-men and discover Thomas Jefferson’s connection with the flat bottom boat, which was first built in Amherst by brothers Benjamin and Anthony Rucker.
Examine the batteau Maple Run built by Roger Huffman, and after participating in many early James River Batteaux runs from Percival’s Island to Maidens Landing in Richmond and was donated to the museum in June 2012.
The event is open to the public with no admission fee. The museum is located at 154 South Main St. in Amherst.
The Amherst County Museum and Historical Society is a nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to discover, collect and preserve objects related to the history and genealogy of Amherst County. The society exhibits, interprets and offers its collections to provide educational experiences for people of all ages.
For additional information contact Octavia Starbuck, the museum’s director, at (434) 946-9068 or email staff@amherstcountymuseum.org.
