Village Restoration The French Icarian Village will recreate the physical structure of the original Icarian Colony and expand it to include a welcome center and recreation area on this land. This site, while never used as a settlement by the community, was owned by the Icarians and was a part of the New Icarian Colony. The heritage center will serve as a research center for scholars, tourists, descendents, and residents. The restored dining hall and schoolhouse will become the heart of the planned complex with authentic reproductions of the Icarian homes, shops, and outbuildings will be added as the project develops. Plans also include the development of a natural, outdoor amphitheater and a vineyard on this property. Caption: The original communal dining hall has been moved on this site and placed on a new foundation. Icarian Refectory After the break up of the colonies in 1878, the New Icarian Colony was established about one mile southeast of the original site. The challenges that were faced by the break up were: First -- moving 8 houses, some sheds, and some barns (including the foundations of all these buildings), and secondly - the construction of a new refectory hall. The building that you are looking at today is the result of their decisions. Much of the information regarding the dining hall that I am giving you today is taken from Paul Gauthier's book "Quest for Utopia", The Icarians of Adams County, and we want to thank Mr. Gauthier for his efforts to preserve the history of the Icarians. I would also like to acknowledge Marie Marchand Ross for information from her book, "Child of Icaria". Both of these books are available for sale for those interested in getting more information about the Icarians. In the spring of 1879, professional carpenters were called in to build the 50' x 30' dining hall on a limestone rock foundation. Since both the Young Icarians and the New Icarians were short of cash after the break up, New Icaria sold 112 acres of land for $1,800 and borrowed $2,500 for working capital to move the houses and to build the refectory. In addition, the Young Icarians were to pay the New Icarians a removal fee of $1,500. The new refectory included a large dining hall and a small kitchen on the first floor with a full basement for food storage and wine cooling. The kitchen featured a big Charter Oak range "with an oven large enough to hold 28 pies" and one long table. The dining hall was stocked with one large cupboard, five round tables (that seated 8-10 people) and chairs that were allotted from the original colony. A beautiful addition to the refectory was a grandfather clock that Hippolite Claudy brought from France and for which Mr. Coubeilles made a new black walnut box. The décor of the dining hall was now complete. This same grandfather clock has been traced through the years, and we are hopeful that some day it will be returned to the colony for use and display in this building. The second floor rooms originally provided quarters the Claudy family and for the single men in the colony. By the fall of 1879, the refectory was completed in time for the traditional Fete Du Mais, Feast of the Corn, which served as an occasion to christen the new building. Friends and neighbors helped with the corn picking and a feast was prepared on the final evening of the harvest. After the meal, several toasts, and the christening ceremony, the tables were pushed aside and the first dance was held on the new floor. This same fall of 1879, professional movers continued the process of moving the 8 frame houses to the new location. The houses were located east and west of the dining hall and to the north on both sides in a rectangular formation. Water from the wells that were bored by the refectory and by the horse barn was good and plentiful - a real blessing to the community. Inside the fence that enclosed the village, a large windbreak of maple trees was planted to the north and west of the dining hall to protect it from the prairie winds. The huge beds of flowers, asparagus and rhubarb as well as the orchard, berry bushes, and vineyards were established during the years to come. An Icarian's day began at 6 a.m. with a typical breakfast that included vegetable soup, coffee with milk, butter or cheese and often eggs. Dinner was served at noon, usually a meat with one or two vegetables. In the summer, salad, cream cheese and often fruit, honey, molasses or preserves were part of this meal. In the evening there was soup, a serving of vegetables, stewed apples, jam, or during the summer cream cheese. Drinks were milk and water. Wine was served on festival days. This communal dining hall also served as the setting for theater productions. The following quote was inscribed on the theater curtains - "Theater Entertains, Instructs and Moralizes". All of the songs, poems or dramas presented on stage were submitted to a commission that carefully eliminated all that "could have a demoralizing influence". It sounds to me like we've been censoring what our families see and hear for a long time. In the later years of the colony, this building also served as the print shop and the library. Approximately 2,000 books had been salvaged from the vandalized library at Nauvoo. Half of those books were housed here after the two colonies split. This building was used as a dining hall until the New Icarian Colony was dissolved in 1898. Shortly after the colony dissolved, Eugene F. and Leonie (Claudy) Bettannier remodeled it into a home for his family. It was sold to Samuel H. and Jennie (Clark) Bassett in 1903 and members of the Bassett family occupied this home until 1931. Other owners of this house were Walter and Alice Bickford, a McGregor family, Howard and Faye Townsend, and Dan Kretzinger. On July 17, 2001, this building was moved from the Dan Kretzinger farm northwest of here and placed on a new foundation. The foundation that had supported this building for the first 123 years of its existence was made of limestone and was still in very good condition at the time of the move. As the movers raised this 75-ton building to transport it to this site, they realized that the weight of the building was unevenly distributed due to the heavy walnut and oak wood in parts of the house. After adjustments were made, the move was completed and the refectory was situated on its new foundation. Icarian Schoolhouse Our plans are to move the one-room wood-frame rural Icarian schoolhouse to this site in the near future. The Icarian schoolhouse is currently a museum on the northwest corner of Corning on Hill Street. The Icarians built the first schoolhouse across the road from the original colony's dining hall. When the Adams County one-room rural school system was established, schools were built every two miles. A new schoolhouse was built midway between the original colony and the new colony. Unfortunately, it burned down. Rather than rebuild it, another Adams County one-room schoolhouse, that was no longer in use, was moved to this site. It became known as Prescott No. 8 and classes through the eighth grade were held in this schoolhouse until 1948. This schoolhouse was allegedly moved one more time in 1920 during a severe tornado. The building was reportedly lifted off its foundation, turned 180 degrees and set back down on the same foundation. Therefore, the children entered the school from the south one morning, but when they arrived the next day, the door to the school was on the north side of the building. Children attended this school from both the Young Icarian Colony (which remained at the original site after the break up in August, 1878) and the New Icarian Colony (which were the members that moved to the new settlement east of the original site). The Young Icarian Colony was north of the schoolhouse and the New Icarian Colony was east of the schoolhouse. The friction that existed between the two colonies frequently erupted into disagreements at the school where children from both colonies were in attendance. Some of the teachers that taught in this schoolhouse are: Emile Person, Lucille Ambrose, Martha Herring Hamilton, Esther Colgan Hogan, Genevieve Colgan Ruef, Margaret Jensen Roberts, Margery Hanna, Ruth Miller Stucekradt, Leota Casey Jones, Georgia Keith, Glenna Lewis Hoskinson, Hazel Jamison, and Blanche Foy. If you know anyone else that taught here, we would gladly add his or her name to this list. Some of the families that had children attending this school were: Badgett, Bassett, Bickford, Brigges, Cox, Fudge, Hardisty, Hill, Johnson, Key, Miller, Olive, O'Riley, Paul, Roach, Smith, and Strueckradt, to name just a few. This is not a complete list by any means, but it gives you an idea of how recent the school was operational. The first names of the people that attended this school are on this poster as well if you are interested. The group that was instrumental in moving this schoolhouse to Corning and in restoring it, as a museum, was the Adams County Centurama Historical Society. They were hoping to preserve not only the building, but also some of the Icarian History. Today we are very thankful that some of these first steps were taken at that time. Icarians were strong advocates of education, and all children were required to attend formal classes through their 16th birthday. The education in the Adams County colony was a great contrast to the education available at the Nauvoo colony because there were only a few children that lived here. The school day started with physical exercises, next singing, then recitations. The quality of their music was so good that the children were frequently requested for special occasions both in the colony and outside the colony. The curriculum taught was entirely Icarian until the famous McGuffey Eclectic Reader was introduced. The McGuffey series included chemistry, natural philosophy, physiology, hygiene and spelling. It also contributed to the spirit of nationalism. Many of the original members of the colony received degrees at the university level and often assisted in presenting information on specialized subjects. Most of the early teaching was in French, but German and English were taught as well. Adams County has benefited greatly from the education and the experience that the Icarians brought to this area. One of the first teachers in this building was Hortence Montaldo. She was only 16 years old when she arrived in Icaria with her father, her mother, and little brother George. She had just finished high school in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was well prepared to teach by the most modern methods. Every summer, all teachers were required to attend the Teachers Institute in Corning for several weeks. Those who passed the examinations received their teachers' certificates that were good for one year. During this time, the teachers would board with families in Corning and were exposed to the outside world. In the late 1860's or early 1870's, the first electric telephone in Iowa connected the schoolhouse to the dining hall. At that time, the school was just across the road from the dining hall on the original site. The Icarians brought a library containing more than 2,000 volumes with them from Nauvoo. During the break up this library was divided in half. When the New Icarian Colony dissolved in 1898, Judge Horace Towner secured over 1,000 books from the Icarian Library. These books were later given to Tabor College and are now in the rare book room of the library at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. The artifacts housed at the school today were common to one-room schools during the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the desks were constructed from native timber from along the Nodaway River. Other memorabilia in the museum include a potbellied stove, a recitation bench, a functional pump organ, a lunch box display, and many of the original school records and report cards. In the original school were also a large atlas and slates for geography. These slates were engraved with lines of a sphere and the degrees of longitude and latitude on one side and lines forming squares for drawing maps on the other side. Icarian Cemetary The cemetery has been rededicated and some of the original markers have been re-set in the cemetery.