The Ben Ferrel Platte County Museum is offering residents ways to learn about the history of the United States with special programs, including one this week.
Where can you learn about a veteran from the Battle of Yorktown who moved to this area, see an authentic reproduction of Gen. George Washington’s uniform along with several period flintlock muskets and play some Colonial-era games?
The answer is at the Ben Ferrel Platte County Museum with its exhibit “Revolutionary War Era, Right Here” which runs through September. Additionally, the museum in the next several weeks will launch a second concurrent exhibit on historic woven coverlets.
One of the featured items in the exhibit is a peace pipe tomahawk given to a boy who was taken captive by Native Americans in Kentucky in the 1780s and who later moved to Platte County. Lisa Wittmeyer, museum curator, explains that this artifact has been a treasured part of the museum’s collection for years, a gift from the late Francis Hoy Hornbuckle.
“We knew the basic story but after some historical sleuthing we now can share what tribe gifted the pipe and the circumstances around this,” Wittmeyer said. “This artifact is a symbol of the conflict and friendships that occurred between settlers and Native Americans, and its story overlaps with what was happening in the frontier theater of the American War for Independence.”
On Thursday, May 28 at 6 p.m. at First Christian Church on 3rd Street in Platte City, the historical society will host a presentation on “George Washington and the Whiskey Rebellion” by Dr. Richard Faulkner. This event is free and open to the public. Whiskey cake and Irish whiskey ice cream along with a historically related tea, will be among the refreshments served.
The Whiskey Rebellion was an uprising by farmers in 1794 and a significant crisis for then President George Washington. Through images, facts and story, Faulkner, a supervisory professor of Military History at the US Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, will share the story of what happened in this uprising and its place in our nation’s history.
The historical society is featuring several “Taste of History” events this year in honor of America’s 250th birthday and invites visitors also to be part of the “Longest Tea Party in Platte County History”: they can request a taste of a Colonial-style tea when they visit the museum exhibits. Groups also can reserve a tour with a taste of historical teas.
For more information or to schedule a group tour of the museum (times available throughout the week and served with sips of teas known to have been popular in early America), call (816) 431-5121. The museum is located at 3rd and Ferrel Street in Platte City and is open Thursdays and Fridays 1-4 pm and additional times for special events.