Living history interpreter Tom Melville participates in a previous 19th century Independence Day Celebration at the Piatt Castle Mac-A-Cheek. He’ll provide a program on cricket at this year’s celebration on Sunday. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)
The Piatt Castle Mac-A-Cheek hosts a 19th century Independence Day Celebration Sunday, June 28, with free outdoor activities from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 10051 Township Road 47, West Liberty.
Attending the 19th century Independence Day Celebration each summer at Piatt Castle Mac-A-Cheek has become a tradition for some local families. For others, it is a new experience where they discover what people used to do to celebrate July Fourth.
Tom Melville, the popular living history interpreter, returns for the festivities this year, and will teach anyone and everyone to play America’s first national pastime, cricket.
Other historical games will be available along with the craft of making “safe firecrackers” called Thunderbolts and Flying Whirls, popular in the late 19th century.
The AM250-OH Commission will offer free activities for children. In addition, local individuals, bakeries stores and restaurants collaborate to provide 19th-century “pick-a-nick” treats, beginning at noon and served until 3 p.m., or as supplies last. In 19th century usage, “pick-a-nick” meant small trifles eaten out of doors.
The trifles will not include meat or dressings, so visitors might choose to take their own picnic items to round out a meal.
Visitors can also enjoy free hot dogs, first sold in America in 1871, the year Abram Piatt finished building Mac-A-Cheek Castle.
Host Sharon Maylum will serve samples of 19th century picnic fare, as supplies last, at Sunday’s Piatt Castle Mac-A-Cheek hosts a 19th century Independence Day Celebration. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)
Piatt Castle Mac-A-Cheek features new exhibits and programs developed through AM250-Ohio and the location is one of Ohio’s Homecoming & Picnic sites.
Throughout the day, demonstrations and performances will occur. These include musket firing, a short interactive readers' theatre story about a July Fourth celebration in West Liberty in 1840.
The audience at this humorous scene will play the residents who cheer and wave handkerchiefs demonstrating how people behaved while listening to a July Fourth oration.
Another performance will introduce three distinguished 19th century gentlemen by a living history interpreter playing actress and journalist, Celia Logan. Miss Logan’s story represents conflicts and successes by individuals who in the 1870s were still working for “a more perfect union.”
The final performance titled, “Declarations of Independence,” includes a reading of that founding document, customarily read aloud at community celebrations. Listeners will discover how every-day Americans participated in creating the original work and how the document inspired other declarations.
The Independence Day Celebration concludes with a flourish through a recreation of a 19th century toast to Independence, the sight of watching the Flying Fancies glide from one of the balconies at Mac-A-Cheek Castle and with the boom of the outdoor cannon.
Sponsored by the Mac-A-Cheek Foundation for the Humanities, a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization, the event is support by AM250-Ohio, the Columbus Foundation, and other businesses to be listed on the program.
A detailed schedule of all event activities is available at www.piattcastle.org .
Regular tour fees apply on June 28. Piatt Castle Mac-A-Cheek is now open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for facilitated self-guided tours.
Historical reenactors participate in a previous 19th century Independence Day Celebration at Piatt Castle Mac-A-Cheek. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)
