Lisle students observe and particpate in 1800s life

Dressed in her Sunday best, Donna Fousek tidied her summer kitchen for the arrival of guests.

The Lisle resident wore her hair tucked into a crocheted snood she made to match her lace collar. She readied the butter churn for a demonstration.

Around the room a pie safe, dry sink and smoke room could interest her visitors, as she explained how early settlers used each in the late 1800s.

Beyond Fousek's pristine outdoor garden and across the courtyard, Jim Sheahan wrote his name on the chalkboard in his classroom, Carl Grumbles donned a conductor's jacket and cap and blacksmith Bob Goodwin stoked the forge's fire.

These volunteers and other Lisle Heritage Society members prepared to bring the Museums of Lisle Station Park to life.

As if a casting director yelled "Lights, camera and action," the arrival of the third-grade students from St. Joan of Arc Elementary School in Lisle spurred the volunteers into action.

With the 75 students came a buzz of excitement on the history museum grounds.

"This is our favorite field trip," said teacher Lisa Brown. "The kids like seeing how things used to be."

Third-grade teacher Margaret Donovan said the field trip coincides with her class' work on the 1800s and community growth.

The students divided into workable groups of 12 to move from one area to another at the sound of a foghorn.

The first group to tour the Lisle Depot Museum heard how a pot-bellied stove warmed travelers waiting for a train in 1874. The stationmaster, and most often his children, would need to remove ashes and restock the coal to keep the stove working.

On the wood floor, conductor Grumbles pointed out a few depressions made from wayward hot coals. The children watched him demonstrate a hook used to exchange a mailbag from the train. They also learned how messages were sent via Morse code -- long before text messaging.

The students heard how everything from a special catalog dress to crated chickens and ducks came through the station's baggage room destined for earlier settlers, who probably had a horse-drawn wagon hitched up outside to carry home their cargo.

Inside the historic Beaubien Tavern, Sheahan played the teacher of a one-room schoolhouse kitted out with benches, tables and chalkboard. He told students that siblings would all be in the same classroom, with younger children sitting in front. For school, girls wore long-length cotton dresses and boys came in knickers.

The curriculum stressed reading and drilled penmanship. Each student used a slate, since paper and books were expensive. After the teacher saw a student's work written on the slate, it was erased.

All students were expected to be silent and productive. For those who misbehaved, the teacher made the offender sit in a corner wearing a pointed dunce cap.

Outside on the grassy courtyard, another group of students enjoyed playing games, such as "Buzz," or they paired off to catch and toss spinning rings with sticks.

In the Netzley-Yender house, lifelong Lisle resident Andy Yender, 90, reflected on his memories of growing up in the house, which was originally on Ogden Avenue. There was no electricity, no indoor plumbing and no central heat when he lived there.

Yender showed how he used a lantern to study. In the upstairs bedroom, where at least 10 of the family's children slept, it was cold in the winter.

Each child had particular chores they were expected to do, before and after school. Yender had to milk some of his family's 30 cows.

He told students he drove a pony cart to school until the arrival of cars made it too dangerous for a boy. He remembers when he was 18 and the family bought its first tractor to cultivate the corn crop, replacing the team of horses that had been used for that chore.

When asked what he did for fun, Yender recalled playing in the barn and making pets of all the animals. One of his early paid jobs was delivering milk for the family's Yender Jersey Milk Co. Later, he would become a housing contractor, adding to the know-how he learned growing up on a farm.

At the museum's blacksmith shop, volunteer Tom Zakosek demonstrated a lathe while Goodwin hammered away on red-hot metal bars, twisting them into practical hooks, brackets and hardware. A community of settlers could not survive without its blacksmith.

Watching large bellows pump air into the fire became a science lesson, and finding the exact center of piece of wood for the lathe was a lesson in math.

While enjoying sack lunches in the shade of a large chestnut tree that Yender planted from a nut, a few students shared their impressions.

Nick Casey liked watching the model train layout on the lower level of the Netzley-Yender house. In general, the 9-year-old learned that life in the 1890s involved making just about everything a person needed, including growing the family's food.

Alyssa Grabinski described meeting Mr. Yender as a "really cool experience." Emma Cooney and Annie Gausselin compared their school to attending a one-room school, while Zach Crescenzo and Spencer Matheu liked the outdoor games.

With the field trip complete, the students returned to St. Joan of Arc School, where they enjoyed ice cream sundaes. Some students wrote about the day's experiences in scrapbooks that chronicle their own third-grade history.

The Lisle Heritage Society members closed the historic houses for the day and began preparing for Schiesher Elementary School's field trip there in two days.

Sharing the history of Lisle and creating new history is something the group enjoys most.

Joan Broz writes about Lisle in Neighbor. Contact her at jgbroz@yahoo.com.