By Wendy Burton
PARK HILL — Volunteers in the Adams Corner Rural Village recreate life in the 1890s.
The volunteers show visitors how to rush chair seats, finger-weave sashes, darn socks, and weave on a hand loom.
John Ketcher demonstrated hand-weaving on an old wooden loom. When the loom broke, he pulled out his toolbox and fixed it right up.
“These things break down just like cars,” Ketcher said. “This is the most simple loom though.”
He demonstrated pushing the shuttle through the strings and how the loom would have worked if the “automatic” shuttle was hooked up. Ketcher also taught the names of all the parts to curious children.
Ketcher, 87, learned weaving skills from his school teacher William A. Ames at Sequoyah Indian School in 1935. Ketcher was an orphan living in the boarding school, and upon graduation entered the Navy where he served three years in WWII.
“He (Ames) got me my first job after the war,” Ketcher said. “I wove in Briggs where there was a big cultural weaving center.”
Today Ketcher is on the board of the Cherokee Heritage Center but also volunteers to teach others his skills.
Missouri couple Ron and Doreen Ninemire were vacationing in Muskogee on Saturday. They visited the Heritage Center and talked at length with volunteer Karen Cooper.
“I’ve got some relatives that were Cherokee,” Ron Ninemire said. “I wanted to bring my wife over here to see the Heritage Center.”
Cooper demonstrated finger-weaving for visitors, and ran Smith’s General Store — a replica 1890s store.
She worked on a red and cream sash, weaving with her fingers.
“Cherokee and other Southeastern Indians did this, and the Osage are known for good finger-weaving,” Cooper told visitors. “They used this for sashes, straps, and even turbans like you see Sequoyah pictured often wearing.”
Jonathan Bruckerhoff, of Owasso, came with his father and wife to see the fiber crafts and rural village.
While watching volunteer Jim Roaix “rush” a stool seat, Bruckerhoff asked many questions, and tentatively sat on a finished chair.
“My dad says we’ve been here like 20 years ago,” Bruckerhoff said. “But I really don’t remember.”
Bruckerhoff was very curious about the old general store, and asked if visitors could go inside.
“Sure, that’s the Wal-mart of yesteryear,” Sue Brockett said.
“Except there’s no waiting in line and no plastic,” Roaix said.
Cooper ushered the small group inside where they purchased old-fashioned horehound candy and got a history lesson from the volunteer.
Roaix worked on his stool seat on the front porch of Smith’s General Store. He regaled visitors with stories of treasure hunting adventures, why people threw good china down outhouse holes, and how Cherokees of the 1890s rushed chair and stool seats.
He used Kraft paper to rush the stool, made from “the same thing the grocery sacks from Reasor’s are made of,” Roaix said.
Normally cat tail rush leaves are soaked in water and twisted to make the rushing materials, he said. Then it takes about eight hours to collect and prepare the leaves, and rush a seat.
“That is really cool,” Bruckerhoff said.
“What’s really cool is that everyone else thinks they can’t do this,” said Roaix. “That makes me look cooler.”
