A harvest of local history
WAYNESBURG – The Greene County Historial Society and Museum’s annual Harvest Festival is more than pumpkin fudge and apple dumplings; it is a gathering of the community to celebrate the artistry and history of Greene County.
“This is amazing,” said Joe Polk, a Mount Lebanon resident and first-time festival goer, as he sat munching popcorn and enjoying an art demonstration with his children.
“I like [my kids] to see the different ways people create art – like this gentleman here,” Polk said.
This “gentleman” was Tom Hritz, a chainsaw artist who impresses crowds at Pittsburgh-area festivals with his tree-trunk sculptures.
“Having him using [a chainsaw] in the opposite manner, taking something used for brute force and crafting something beautiful, the intricacy of the design, the absurdity – I’m just amazed,” Polk said.
Hritz was not the only artisan exhibiting and selling work at the 41st annual Harvest Fest last weekend. Waynesburg native Debbie Coss has been basket weaving since 1990, when she laid eyes on a gorgeous but beaten antique market basket.
“My husband said, ‘You’re crazy if you’re gonna spend $100 on a basket that’s half missing!’,” laughed Coss. So she and a friend signed up for a basket weaving class and have been creating baskets ever since.
‘It’s really relaxing. I just go to a few craft shows a year – [Harvest Fest] is neat, enjoyable,” said Coss.
Coss, whose favorite part of the festival is chatting with locals, weaved baskets at her booth while interested parties looked on.
“There’s lots of people who come every year, so you have to come up with new patterns and new designs,” she said.
While a fascinating variety of arts and crafts booths – including handmade broomsticks, alpaca accessories and digital artworks – dotted the Historical Society’s grounds, the festival was not limited to sculptors and artists. Live entertainment, a living history and a museum were among the weekend’s other attractions.
Despite technical difficulties, local musicians like Unreliable Sally and the Greene Academy Dulcimer Players entertained audiences seated around a stage in one of the museum barns. Waynesburg University’s museum curator James “Fuzzy” Randolph delighted listeners with humorous tales told between songs he played on his harmonicas and other instruments.
“When I saw him walking in with his bagpipes, I was like, ‘Aw, that’s awesome,'” said Breanna Coode, a 13-year-old student at Carmichaels Area Junior High School. Coode and two of her close friends enjoyed Randolph’s jokes and his bagpipe rendition of Amazing Grace, with which he concluded his performance.
The 140th PA Volunteers Company A performed a Civil War reenactment at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The 25-minute, action-packed battles included rifle shoot-outs and war crimes, and accurately depicted what battle looked, sounded and felt like in the 1860’s.
“I’m not old enough to know, [but] they really make it authentic,” joked Waynesburg native Gail Bowden, who enjoys all things Civil War era.
While reenactment spectators were transported to Civil War battlefields, festivalgoers who toured the Greene County Historical Society Museum seemingly stepped into Greene County circa decades ago.
“I love the furniture – it’s just gorgeous,” said Patty Eaton, a Waynesburg native who attended the Harvest Festival for the first time with her 19-year-old son, David.
“There’s this bike in here,” Eaton gestured to a room on the museum’s top floor, “[David] and I were just like, ‘How do you get on that thing?’ Very cool.”
Anthony Michaels, a recent University of Toledo graduate who hails from Ohio, was recently in the Waynesburg area for a family reunion. It was there that he first heard about the annual Harvest Festival. He and his immediate family made the short trek back to Greene County to attend the festival this year.
“My family is from Waynesburg; they came here in the 1700’s [and are] still living on the same homestead,” said Michaels. “There’s still a lot of history I’m still discovering. The historical value [of the museum] is just very important to me: you discover something new every time you come.”