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Sauder Village
22611 St. Rt. 2
Archbold, Ohio 43502
In Northwest Ohio
1-800-590-9755
Click here...
Rates. Dates & Hours
“Pioneer Settlement”(1834-1890), the newest phase of the historic timeline, will provide a unique opportunity to physically experience the development of the “Great Black Swamp” region. This new area will share the stories beginning with the journey of the first permanent European immigrants to this region and their struggle for survival that first year as they established a new community. As these settlers drained the swamp, the rich land provided for the advancement of agriculture as a commercial enterprise for their families. While focusing on Northwest Ohio, these stories mirror our national story of immigration, community building and technological changes.
Visit this page often for more details about this new addition, research materials, past and future related events and photo gallery.
Past Events Current Information & Future Events Photo Gallery Books Pioneer Family Homecoming Pioneer Settlement Overview Pioneer Settlement Artist Rendering Archaeological Survey Report "Preserving our Pioneer Past" Program Conference "Exploring our Pioneer Past" You can help make a difference!
We are pleased to report that we have received all but 10% of the $1.4 million project towards Pioneer Settlement. We are grateful for all those family descendents who have extended their generous support of this special project.
If you would be interested in supporting Pioneer Settlement and would like to contribute to keep your heritage alive for future generations to come, you can make a donation today by contacting Claire Morton at 800-590-9755.
Sauder Village is a 501c3 non-profit organization making your charitable contributions tax deductible.
The Laubers: A Journey of Faith
Thomas R. Lauber, Publisher
$39.95This book tells of life in an earlier age and positions the Lauber family in the history of their community and nation, both in Europe and the United States. It documents oral family history-handed down from generation to generation-that might otherwise have been lost. It has been published on the premise that a family history should be captured and shared with those who follow.
Out of the Wilderness
History of the Central Mennonite Church 1835 - 1960
by Orland R. Grieser and Ervin Beck
$29.95Out of the Wilderness chronicles the settlement and development of the Mennonite community and church in Northwest Ohio. It's the story of a group of people who labored together with similar goals and purposes, trying to achieve them by a certain way of life.
The Sound of the Hammer
by Carl Conrad Britsch
$16.95This is a story of the first settlers establishing their homes in the Great Black Swamp through the eyes of Hans George Britsch, who left Switzerland as a young boy with his parents in 1865 to come to America. He grew up to be a master of felling the giant trees and squaring the logs for building. He became one of the region's most noted builders. The red barn in the Homestead at Sauder Village is a George Britsch-built barn.
All books available in the Sauder Village Gift Shop
For mail orders: Call 1-800-590-9755 or E-mail: lhartman@saudervillage.org
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Schedule of Events...
Sunday, June 22
12:00 - 4:00 PM - Check-in / Registration; Homestead Room open at Heritage Inn for families to gather and share
4:00 PM - Free public lecture in Founder’s Hall presented by Neil Ann Stuckey-Levine on “Why Write Letters”
5:30 PM - Picnic Dinner in Founder’s Hall (prepaid reservations required - see registration form)
6:30 PM - Welcome and update by Debbie David, Sauder Village Executive Director
6:45 - 7:30 PM - Bob Ford, Folk Singer & Storyteller
7:30 PM - Traditional Hymn sing
8:30 - 10:30 PM - Homestead Room at the Heritage Inn open for families to gather and shareMonday, June 23
8:30 AM - 5:00 PM - Homestead Room at the Heritage Inn open for families to gather and share
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM - Sauder Village Open in select buildings for family members to visit and try hands-on activities. Weaving Shop, Spinning Shop, Tinsmith, Pottery Kiln firing and train tours of the Pioneer Settlement Area. (prepaid reservations required)
6:00 PM - Historic Dinner (prepaid reservations required)Research and planning is underway for the Pioneer Settlement at Sauder Village, an area where we will tell the stories of the early settlers to the Great Black Swamp. On June 22 & 23, 2008, Sauder Village will be hosting a Pioneer Family Homecoming... a celebration of the families who settled in Northwest Ohio and Northeast Indiana sometime between 1834 and 1859. All descendants of these early settlers are invited for a weekend full of fun and educational activities.
On Sunday afternoon our Homecoming celebration will begin in Founder's Hall with guest speaker Neil Ann Stuckey-Levine, an independent research scholar and frequent contributor of articles to Mennonite Family History magazine. Her talk on "Why Write Letters", will focus on how the early pioneers in Ohio communicated with their families back in
Europe, and with family members who lived in other areas of the United States. Using original letters written in the first half of the 19th Century, Neil Ann will talk about some of the experiences that most pioneers faced as they left their European homeland and began a new life in Ohio. Following her lecture, there will be a picnic dinner. The evening will close with special music by Bob Ford and a traditional hymn sing.
This lecture made possible in part, by Mennonite Mutual Aid and the
Ohio Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
On Monday, June 23rd, families will be able to meet at the Heritage Inn to share stories and research. Neil Ann Stuckey-Levine will be available to examine documents, and share her knowledge of early settlers. Steve Charter from the Center for Archival Collections at BGSU will answer questions about the collection and offer help with research in Northwest Ohio. Sauder Village which is normally closed on Monday, will be open to registered guests from 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM. Guests will have the opportunity to visit the craftsmen at the Tin shop, Weaving shop, Spinning Show and Brush Creek Pottery.
At Brush Creek Pottery, Mark Nafzgier will be working on pieces that will be used in the homes in Pioneer Settlement. You will also have an opportunity to see how we uses the wood-fired kiln. Mike Runyon, our tinsmith, will be working on the lighting of the 19th century. He will also discuss tinware used at the time. In the Spinning and Weaving shops, you will have the opportunity to be part of creating items to be used in the homes of Pioneer Settlement. While in the Village, enjoy a train ride along the Pioneer Settlement area to see the process that has been made since last October.
On Monday evening, we invite you to our second Taste of the Past Historic Dinner. Space is limited and reservations are required. Click here for more information or to make reservations for the Historic Dinner.
Another highlight of the event will be the debut of "The Laubers: A Journey of Faith", the long awaited book on the Lauber family. This books tells the story of the early Lauber history in Europe and has more than 200 old
family photographs. The book also contains more than 1500 local names connected with the Lauber family in the genealogy section. During this special event, several of the authors including Tom Lauber and Dr. David Rempel Smucker will be on hand for a book signing. You can pre-order your copy of " Journey of Faith" on the Pioneer Family Homecoming Registration Form.
Make plans to join us for the exciting Pioneer Family Homecoming event!
To register for Pioneer Family Homecoming...
Click here to print a form or call us at 800.590.9755.
If you have any questions or information to share, please contact Ann Lux at Sauder Village, 800.590.9755 or email her at alux@saudervillage.org.
Overnight Accommodations:
A block of guest rooms is being held at the Sauder Heritage Inn. Please call the Inn directly at 1-800-590-9755 and ask for the Pioneer Family Homecoming block. Campsites are also available in this same block.
The Search Begins at Lauber Hill...
Excitement was in the air on the morning of August 17, when archaeologist, Dr. G. Michael Pratt, and his team started walking the field owned by Lowell Rupp in search of the site of the original Christian Lauber home built in 1834. Within minutes of the arrival of the archaeological team, human hands were holding pieces of clay bottles and small pieces of china that may have been held by those original settlers 170 years ago.Although finding household pottery was exciting, the metal detectors were finding even more interesting artifacts... nails. This discovery revealed we had found an area where a structure once stood. Perhaps, it was Christian Lauber's first home or barn in America, or maybe it was the small cabin built for Rev. Jacob Binder and his family to get them through their first northwest Ohio winter. It did provide us with a reason to go on to the second phase of the archaeological survey, excavating test pits at the site.
After analyzing the information gathered from the metal detection and the electromagnetic survey, Dr. Pratt decided which areas of the field should be examined by digging test pits. In mid-September, a group of volunteers worked under the direction of Dr. Pratt on this next phase of the archaeological survey. View Photos from the survey/dig.
Research... Key to Development of Pioneer Settlement at Sauder Village...
As we tell the story of Chief Winameg and Dresden Howard living together over near Winameg in the 1820s, the story of the rest of Ohio is one of Euro-American settlers from overseas or from the East coast coming and establishing towns and villages where Natives used to dwell. The Great Black Swamp was a wonderful hunting ground for the Native peoples living here but presented a barrier to European settlement. Covered with forests, and mired in mud, the land was not the type of area that these settlers had in mind when they thought about coming to America. However, as settlement grew in the rest of the state, land prices also grew, and these new immigrants could not afford to purchase land in Eastern Ohio where other family members had settled earlier. So the search for affordable land eventually led many to look for a place in the swamp to establish their new homes.
From this archaeological survey we hope to find out more about how these first settlers lived when they came to this swampy, heavily forested part of Ohio. This information will be used in the development of the Pioneer Settlement... the next phase in the historic timeline at Sauder Village. Guests will walk into this next time period (1834 -1859) as they are leaving Natives and Newcomers. The stories of Christian Lauber and the other families who came with him will be told in a rebuilt Lauber home and a new cabin to replicate what Jacob Binder's family might have had that first winter. There will be a barn for the animals, and gardens and fields to show how they grew their food. We also plan to show how those early settlers worked to drain the land so that they could make it into
the fertile farmland that it has become today.We will tell the stories of settlers who came here from other parts of America to find a better life for themselves. The story of Anna Sauder Witmer Roth will be told in a structure that was moved to Sauder Village in 1998 from Grabill, IN. That home, which was built about 1844, will be put on a permanent foundation this winter. Research has begun on Anna's story, as she was the mother of 15 children. Surely her story is one of hardships, joys and endurance.
Other structures currently at Sauder Village that help tell the story of that era will also be moved to this area. The Log School, a replica of the first school in Fulton County, will help focus on the importance of education to these earliest settlers. The Eicher home and the Jail will complete this part of the historic timeline.
The planning committee for this new addition consists of three advisors with backgrounds in local history and research as well as Sauder Village staff. These three advisors, Dr. Tom Knox, Associate Professor of History at Bowling Green State University, Peter Wilhelm, Director of the Heritage Arts Center at Northwest State Community College, and Jim Buss, PhD Candidate in History at Purdue University, bring a wealth of knowledge about the history of that time period to our committee. Jim is also serving as the primary researcher for this project. Dr. Ted Ligibel, of the Sauder Village Board of Trustees, also serves as the Board liaison for the committee. Tom Lauber, who has done extensive research on his family from their days in Europe through the move to a new country and up into the late 20th century, has generously shared his work with us and continues to offer support to our committee.
Our partnership with Northwest State Community College has also resulted in a grant from the college toward the archaeological research being done at the Lauber Hill site. Archbold Area Foundation, the Ohio Humanities Council and Wal-Mart Foundation have also given grants toward funding this project.
Our founder Erie Sauder was dedicated to having the guests at Sauder Village understand the hard work and sacrifices these early folks made that laid the foundation for the progress and prosperity that we enjoy today. We are excited about the additional research being done to bring more of the stories of the early settlers to life for our guests and will keep you informed of the progress in this new area of the Historic Village.
“A picture is worth a thousand words,” or so the saying goes. Well-known local artist and long-time friend of Sauder Village, Norma Thomas Herr, has created a rendition of that first rough dwelling that the Lauber Hill settlers used in August of 1834 for housing in the weeks before more permanent cabins could be built.
In addition to this first shelter, the painting also shows the farm wagon, complete with canvas cover, which would have been pulled by oxen on the journey from eastern Ohio. Norma took great care to incorporate the details from the research gathered on this project to make the picture as accurate as possible.
Special Program... "Preserving our Pioneer Past"... at Sauder Heritage Inn
Thursday, March 20, 2008, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Free & Open to the PublicDuring the half-day session of "Preserving Our Pioneer Past", Dr. Ted Ligibel, Director of the Historic Preservation Program at Eastern Michigan University, talked about preserving historic buildings, some of the things Historic Preservation students learn and why it is important to preserve historic buildings. One of his students, Jeff Weatherford, talked about what the Witmer/Roth home has 'told' him as he has worked on the Historic Structures report on this building in preparation for our restoration of this house. Potter Mark Nafziger talked about the research and process of creating reproduction pottery for Pioneer Settlement. And the final speaker, Debbie Sauder David, gave an up-to-the-minute report on the work that has been done on Pioneer Settlement and a peek at the next steps in creating the "Walk Through Time" in the Historic Village.
Conference... "Exploring our Pioneer Past"... at Sauder Heritage Inn
Monday, March 12, 2007, 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Free & Open to the Public"Exploring Our Pioneer Past" Conference was an excellent opportunity to arrive at a better understanding of the lives and times of the earliest settlers of NW Ohio. This all-day conference, which was free and open to the public included...
- "Farming & Foodways of Pioneer Settlement"... discussing farming, gardening and foodways of the settlement period... Sauder Village Staff
- "Clothing of the Settlement Period"... a report on research done by BGSU graduate students presented by their professor... Dr. Larry Nelson
- Pioneer Settlement Update... where we are in the construction and furnishings of the Pioneer Settlement... Sauder Village Staff
- "Not Just Grandpa's Trousers and Grandma's Apron"... Keynote Speaker Rabbit Goody, a nationally know weaver and founder of Thistle Hill Weavers, spoke on the textiles of our immigrant ancestors and the weaving heritage they brought with them. (Note... Rabbit presented a two-day workshop, March 13 & 14, on patterned rag carpet weaving.)
There was also a special presentation on Sunday, March 11. Steve Charter of the Center for Archival Collections at BGSU presented a program at 7:00 PM on their BGSU Collection and how it can be of help to those researching family history. There was also an opportunity to visit and share information.