THE WESTVILLE STORY

The year is 1850 and this is Westville.

The massive Singer Gates at the entrance welcome visitors into a village environment, re-created to function as a typical community from that era. Fred Rembert coined the classic nickname calling them “the gates to the past” for within these 58 acres are structures filled with some 5,000 artifacts reminiscent of the pre-Civil War years.

The idea of Westville blossomed from the mid-60’s when a group of history lovers decided to develop an outdoor “working” museum. Backed by a non-profit corporation, Westville’s roots were nourished by acquiring a period collection belonging to history professor, Colonel John Word West, after whom the “village” is named. His grandparents’ home, the West House, is also located here.

In January 1968 the Grimes-Feagin house became the first home to be moved onto the site, and by August of that year the formal founding of Westville was recognized. At present there are over 30 historic buildings at Westville, each etched in history.

Westville also showcases the craftsmanship that was practiced around 1850, all wonderful examples of the simple, but productive everyday life people enjoyed. These include spinning and weaving cotton, natural dyeing, broom making, candle making, basket weaving, soap making, pottery, quilting, fireplace cooking, syrup making, shoemaking, carpentry, log hewing, shingle riving and blacksmithing. Since some of these demonstrations are seasonal, plan to come back for the ones you miss.

My visit begins with Mr. Lennie in the driver’s seat and the mules (Sara and Grace) pull the wagon along the unpaved red dirt roads for an introductory tour of the property. Later a leisurely walk allows me to meet the “locals” and I also visit some of the buildings made from centuries-old timber, hewn by broadax and planed by hand. I notice that even the nails holding the boards together are different, rectangular rather than round.

The first craftsman I encounter is Fred, a basket weaver, surrounded by strips of white oak and a bucket of water. In 1850 his job was to supply households with baskets for gathering eggs, carrying clothes, holding cotton and substituted as suitcases for traveling around.

Fred’s first task is to chop down a white oak tree and divide it into eight-foot long pieces of wood. Next he uses a maul and wedge to “notch it out” to roughly two inches wide, then pulls the wood with a knife into flat strips or splits. When the strips dry out as he works they must be soaked in water to become pliable again, so he must remember to bury the extra wood to keep it moist and flexible.

I watch in wonder as Fred places 16 “ribs” on the ground in a circle and begins to weave the strips in and out of the ribs to eventually shape the basket. He then makes a handle and to strengthen the basket rim he wraps it twice with splits, and voila, a beautiful basket appears!

Next I step inside the Chattahoochee County Courthouse, one of the only two wooden county courthouses left in Georgia, to see the offices for the sheriff, tax commissioner and clerk of the court as well as the jury room. The two-story frame structure features entrances on all sides, and after climbing the creaky twin stairways to the second floor courtroom I discover it still has its original furnishings.

On July 4th, 1976, America’s 200th anniversary of Independence, then President Jimmy Carter, visited Westville and formally dedicated the courthouse. President Carter also had a connection to the building through his maternal great-grandfather and grandfather, who were employed as the tax collector and clerk respectively.

The oldest home in the village is the Wells House built near Buena Vista between 1800 and 1810 by a Yuchi Indian family. The Native Americans were forced to vacate the home when the Treaty of Washington was signed in 1836. The split log home belonged to the Wells family for several generations, its original interior still intact, although a two-story frame addition was built around 1826.

The Bagley Gin House, the Cotton Screw Press and the Bryan-Worthington house (built in 1831) are all part of the era when “cotton was king.” Towards the late 1840’s plantation owner William Bagley built the cotton gin house near Cusseta. Wagonloads of cotton from his plantation were transported there so that the seeds could be extracted from the cotton using the screw press. The Bryan-Worthington house hails from the Federal period of architecture and was also the home occupied by the operator of the gin house and screw press.

Westville scored a first when earlier this year (April) they became the first museum in the world to ever produce a bale of cotton on an animal-powered cotton baler. The baler was re-constructed using the form and space of a press that was in Col. West’s collection. The cotton baler remains on show, but it is only operated during the Fall Festival.

Some of the furnishings at the Westville properties border on the unusual. One that stands out is the “petticoat mirror” in the Moye Whitehouse – the mirror is placed below the table, barely above the floor to help women check if their pettitcoats were too long. Built around 1840, the Greek Revival style Moye Whitehouse was the ancestral home of Matt Moye, whose father was one of Westville’s founders.

If you visit during December make sure you stop in at the Singer House where (on December 14th and 21st) they follow the German tradition of lighting the Christmas Tree. The Singer House and the shoemaker’s shop were both built in 1838 by Johan George Singer, who brought his new wife, Louisa, from Germany to settle in Lumpkin. The Lumpkin tailor shop built by John Singer II in 1836 now serves as the Cabinet Shop in Westville.

The pottery shop is located in a log building, with the pug mill and kiln nearby. The potter is at work transforming slabs of clay into beautiful pots, dishes, churns and vases that fill every shelf and table around him. Like the basket weaver the potter starts “from scratch” with pure clay (no sand or other impurities which weakens it.) The pug mill (mule operated) is used to mix the clay with water.

Once he is satisfied with the clay mixture he goes to his “wedging” table and keeps slicing it over a wire. To remove any air pockets, the potter must knead the clay mixture like dough. I watch in silence as he puts the clay in the middle of the wheel, turning it with his foot on the treadle. Soon the clay takes shape held between his thumbs and fingers. The pot is put on a drying rack which is built over a firebox to help speed up the drying process.

After the groundhog kiln is fueled by wood (about 24 hours) it must heat up to around 2700 degrees F before the stoneware can be fired. While the potter is being fired rock salt is put into the kiln. The reason? I am told the sodium in the salt vaporizes and together with the silica in the clay it forms a glaze on the pottery. The cooling process is another 48 hours.

Walking around Westville soon takes its toll on my appetite. I ask Mr. Lennie where I would go to get some sausages and biscuits and he tells me to hop on and he’d take me there. We stop at a house with smoke billowing from the chimney and I hurry in to get my snack for the day. Trudie hands over the best sausages and biscuits I’ve ever had and they only cost two dollars with homemade lemonade!

I linger long enough to photograph Trudie and find out how the sausages and biscuits that are cooked over the open fire. The sausages are placed in a pot and suspended on an iron holder over the fire. Trudie cooks the biscuits on the hearth in a Dutch oven. It’s not an “oven” at all, but a deep frying pan with a heavy lid. Trudie places hot coals under the pan and on top of the lid to bake the biscuits.

I am disappointed that all the homemade gingerbread is sold out. Trudie tells me how to make them although I don’t know where I’d find a wood stove. These are baked in a heavy iron pan in a wood stove with a fire box. The batter is a mixture of flour and spices mixed with sugar, eggs, butter and cane syrup whisked together.

The Randle-Morton Store is the first building as you enter Westville and the last building as you leave Westville. It was built sometime before 1850 as a country store and now operates as the general store where many of the items produced by the village artisans are sold.

Westville’s authentic look has established the village as a popular venue for filmmakers. Hollywood’s Long Riders featured the Keach, Carradine, Guest and Quaid brothers, while Million Dollar Dixie Deliverance by Disney Studios and A Time for Miracles by ABC, were all shot on location here.

Westville is a triumph of man dedicated to preserving the past for the future. It is a connection that we all need to make sooner or later.