The Story of Heritage Village
Celebrating 25 Years
by
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Today, the old Edmore Jail has two cells. Jean Brundage tells how she visited Sauder Village in Archbold, Ohio, and took pictures of the cells in the jail there. She then showed them to her volunteers who designed and created the cells accordingly. These cells are now inhabited by “jail mate mannequins.” Brundage recalls that one year a little boy came to her with his dad who said the boy was afraid to go into the jail because of the mannequins. He thought they were real prisoners! Jean told the boy, “Come with me,” and led the youngster and his dad to the jail and into one of the cells. She had just put the “dummies” together with salvaged clothes of her husband’s. First, she took off the boots, then the shirt, and then the head. The little boy responded, “I knew it wasn’t real all the time!”
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About the Book
With the humble beginning of two historic buildings acquired in 1986, the Montcalm Heritage Village has grown to include more than 25 original and reconstructed structures and hundreds of artifacts from local areas depicting life in Michigan at the turn of the 1800s to 1900s. The Village comes alive during the annual Heritage Festival the first weekend in August and includes a one-room schoolhouse reenactment, a working blacksmith shop, and a civil war encampment.
The Story of Heritage Village, however, is not simply a story of buildings, amazing as they are. This is a story about people – those who lived in and among these structures in days gone by, and those who have labored to reconstruct and preserve them, and bring them to life. It is the fabric of these individual narratives that has been woven together to make The Story of Heritage Village.
About the Author
Gary L. Hauck (PhD, Michigan State University) is a member of the Heritage Village Committee and serves as the Dean of Instruction and Faculty at Montcalm Community College in Sidney, Michigan where he also teaches humanities, religion, and history.