Spirit of ‘76 at Senate House celebration
Is Independence Day actually July 2? Maybe, says the Senate House State Historic Site’s website.
The historic site, at 296 Fair St., celebrated Independence Day and American history on Saturday. History buffs and Native Americans, volunteer weavers, openfire cooks and historically savvy musicians turned out on the grounds, most in period costumes, with antique artifacts to teach the community and local children about our American roots.
“There were a lot of loyalists in Ulster County before the Revolutionary War,” said Michelle Numssen, a history buff who enjoys dressing up and educating people about the era. “Even within one family. There was a real mix of rebels and tories.
You just couldn’t be neutral.”
In fact, her son, Michael Brako, 23, stalked the grounds dressed as a member of Butler’s Rangers, a Revolutionary War unit loyal to the British. He wore a green coat, trimmed in red.
“Somebody’s got to show the other side,” he said. “Plus, this is the most well-put-together uniform I have.”
Numssen’s husband, Chris, who descends from the Esopus and Seneca Native
American tribes, displayed a number of his carvings, from small, fiercelooking hatchets to large, carved clubs.
Mark Rust, a New Paltz musician in T-shirt and shorts, had no 18th century clothing but plenty of antique instruments. He played on the hammered dulcimer, the precursor, he said, to the piano, and helped visiting children play, too. Later, Rust performed for a crowd under a tent, which gathered slowly amid the day’s unpredictable weather.
Cindy Scherry, an Ulster County resident who’s been a volunteer at the
event for 25 years, and Mary Flournoy (a recent immigrant from England — an irony not lost on her) demonstrated the art of weaving on a “knee-loom,” also known as a “lap loom.”
“You make tape on this kind of loom,” said Scherry. The loom itself is small, the size of a wide washboard, and held between the knees. It’s used to weave a narrow flat band that can be used to edge hats or tie up bags of grain.
“In the 1700s, a man might make a fancy kneeloom for his lady love,” Scherry said.
In fact, she said, the term “red tape” comes from this
kind of weaving. “Lawyers used woven red tape to tie up legal bundles,” she said.
Not to be outdone by the ladies’ technology, Michael Kochan, a Benjamin Franklin re-enactor from Pennsylvania, in wire-rimmed specs, displayed a solar microscope and a “circle of fire,” part of an early, primitive battery.
Oh, and what happened on July 2nd? On July 2, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted for independence, legally separating from Great Britain. But the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th turned out to be the more-celebrated event.