Schoenbrunn Village to hold autumn lantern tours Sept. 16-17
The entire village looks different after sunset and can quickly transport visitors back in time.
Historic Schoenbrunn Village will hold its annual fall lantern tour celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the village on Sept. 16 and 17 from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Each group will be offered the use of a lantern to help them find their way around the village, where approximately 20 volunteers in period clothing will speak with guests and demonstrate skills needed to survive during colonial times such as candle making, woodworking, sewing, corn grinding and more.
Gingerbread and apple cider will be provided in the schoolhouse, and music will be provided in the church by Mary Lou Keener and Josh Compton, members of the First Moravian Church in Dover.
The gift shop and museum will be open, and guests can view the 250th video with information on the village’s history.
Integral to the event are two volunteers, Millie Weston and Joan Beorn, both of New Philadelphia. They have put in many hours at the village. They also assemble and organize about 400 luminaries that are set out along the roadway and inside the village to guide visitors along the way.
Using recycled 1-gallon containers, Weston finds the hardest part of the job is removing the labels. She usually fills the containers with hot water while keeping the labels dry, which loosens the glue.
“Then I cut a hole in the top so they can drop the candle in and make a little window in the side so that they can light them,” Weston said, adding she does all the prep work of the containers at her home.
Weston never has to worry about running out of the containers.
“It’s not unusual for me to pull up in my driveway and see a bag of jugs sitting in front of the garage door,” Weston said.
The women and a few other volunteers put in a lot of time getting the luminaries ready for the event. A scoop of sand is placed in the bottom of each luminary, and a candle is centered atop the sand.
“After the last event, we cleaned some of the lanterns out and took all the old candles out,” Beorn said. “So that’s a big help.”
Recently, they met and worked on getting more of the luminaries ready for the event. Luminaries are reused at each event if they are in good condition. If any get damaged, they are replaced.
Before the event the luminaries are moved to the village, where they are placed to help guide guests. The next day all the candles must be replaced before the next lantern tour including the beeswax candles in the cabins.
Weston and Beorn have done more at Schoenbrunn over the years than the luminaries. They work together to regularly clean the restrooms and sometimes the church and school at the village. Beorn has done a number of jobs including candle dipping and butter churning and now is usually found working in the gift shop.
Weston can most times be found in the Davis cabin demonstrating candle making. She is grateful to a cousin who donates the beeswax needed to make the candles.
Weston and Beorn both enjoy meeting new people and talking with them about the history at Schoenbrunn Village.
Weston spoke about one specific time at the Davis cabin.
“I go through my spiel. I talk a little bit about who lived there, a little bit about the cabin, a little bit about the artifacts around, and I demonstrate how I dip the candles,” Weston said. “Well, at the end I always say, ‘Does anybody have any questions?’ Well, usually the questions are: How long would that candle burn? Where did they get the beeswax? What did they use for wick? But this day this little boy put his hands on his hips, and he said, ‘Just how old are you?’ Of course, everybody laughs, and I thought with my costume, with my white hair, he probably thought I was there.”
Volunteering at the village, which erected the first church and school in the Ohio territory, is important to both women.
“The village needs to be here just to remind people this is where we came from,” Beorn said.
This year’s lantern tour will be the first for Schoenbrunn’s new site manager.
“I’m looking forward to see the village lit up,” Kris Eddy said. “You will get to see it in its natural state and really get a feel for what it might have looked like when the Moravians and Delaware were here.”
A new book for the 250th anniversary, “Understanding Schoenbrunn Village: Field Guide to the Moravian Delaware Village of Welhik Thuppeck,” is available for purchase at the gift shop. Welhik Thuppeck is what the Delaware called the village and the name Zeisberger used in his diaries. It’s author, Seth Angel, is another of Weston’s cousins.
In addition to the history of the village, the center portion of the book is a walking tour around the village, stopping at each of the reconstructed homes, and it also has a section to talk about God’s acre, the village’s cemetery. A time line of the Moravian missions ends with Goshen, which was founded in 1798 and was Zeisberger’s last mission.
Admission for the tour is $8 per person. Children age 6 and younger are free to attend. Historic Schoenbrunn Village members may attend free of charge. Memberships to the village may be purchased at the autumn lantern tour and last for one year.
This is a nonscary event suitable for all ages. To reserve a ticket, visit www.SchoenbrunnVillage.Eventbrite.com or call the village at 330-401-7126.
Historic Schoenbrunn Village was founded in 1772 as a Moravian mission among the Delaware Indians. With founder and missionary David Zeisberger, Ohio’s first settlement reached 100 cabins and 300 inhabitants. Historic Schoenbrunn Village is operated by the Dennison Railroad Depot Museum and owned by the Ohio History Connection. The village is located in New Philadelphia at 1984 E. High Ave., off of U.S. Route 250.