Backus Page House Museum

Recently we went to the Backus-Page House Museum in the Chatham Region.   We stopped in after visiting Greenview Aviaries.  We had an excellent time there with a brand new tour guide.  She taught us a great deal of information and walked us through the history of the area.   She later told us a great place to go to see Lake Erie. 

Pictures at Backus Page House Museum

The problem with going to museum and learning a lot of information is, unless you write it all down, it’s easy to forget much of what you learned.  

The individuals pictured below I believe were another important family in the region at the time.  I cannot recall their names. 

Backus Page House Museum Artifacts

As with all museums there were tons of artifacts.  I was fascinated by the sugar tools, our student loved the hats, and my son was intrigued by the many posters they had scattered around. 

At the Backus Page House Museum we learned that women were rarely given land, but one of the settlers in the area was given her full allotment (120 acres I think).  Sometimes the man in charge would not give settlers there full allotment and would keep some of the land for himself.  Talbot (I think) was the land agent and was known for disliking Scotsmen. 

The Honey House

The honey house on the property is actually a replica as the original was burned down.  It was used to house bees.  Slits were cut in so the bees could go in, they were baited with honey poured on hot stones.  Large boxes were placed in the bee house for the bees to use.  The honey was later removed from the boxes with large knives. 

More from the House

All three of us were intrigued by this antique doorbell.  I’d like to see one like this on my own front door.

We looked through all the bedrooms, saw their living room, dining room and kitchen.  We couldn’t go down to the basement for safety concerns. 

They have a shelf near these kettles that is laden with a variety of knives. We were allowed to pick them up.  Some are surprisingly heavy and many still have a good edge to them.  I was so pleased we could handle them.

The Loom

Our student was much intrigued by this old loom at The Backus Page House Museum and even asked questions about it from our tour guide.   This would have been a room model, and not quite suited to this space but it’s the one they had on hand.  🙂  Sometime I would like to try my hand at running a real loom, wouldn’t that be fun?

Follow up

We learned that end of end of July Backus Page House Museum will be hosting a civil war reenactment.  We hope to attend if time off and finances allow it. 

It was a lovely hour and bit there.  Our host was friendly and accommodating and unlike most museums we were allowed to handle specific real artifacts.