Today is at Ushers Ferry Historic Village. When you visit Ushers Ferry Historic Village you will take a step back to a quieter place and time. To make your experience extra-special, you are invited to choose a character to become for the afternoon. Boys and Girls can choose one of the children, Moms and Dads and Grandmas and Grandpas can take on their similar characters. Folks who don't fit those descriptions are welcome to choose any of them and 'play along' with the others in the group.

You will notice you all have the same last name--Usher. You are here to visit your cousins Alta and Charles Houseman. Alta is the daughter of Joseph Perry Usher and she has lived in the Usher House most of her life. You may find her at home, or she may be off visiting neighbors. Since it has been a long time since you visited the little town of Ushers Ferry, Iowa, you will want to travel through the town seeing old friends and taking on much of the hard work and simple pleasures that any resident of this little town would have experienced.

You may read about the different characters that you could choose when you arrive at Ushers Ferry. There you can choose your character, get dressed up in the clothes that we have set aside for your use and prepare to leave the 21st century behind. When you leave the Visitors Center you will take a step back in time to one hundred years ago.

A short description of each person is contained below. To quickly jump to a particular person, click on their name in the list at the left. More information will be made available to you when you arrive at Ushers Ferry Historic Village.

The Hard Work and Simple Pleasures tour is available during non-event open hours. There's no need for a reservation--just come out and enjoy!

Seymour is the father of the Usher Family. He runs the blacksmith shop in his town. Sometimes he comes to Ushers Ferry to help his cousin Henry in his blacksmith shop. he works long days, starting about 6:00 am to get his forge heated up. He spends his days shoeing horses, fixing plows and working on all kinds of metal. He is also starting to spend more and more time fixing gasoline engines. and has even worked on a couple of automobiles.

When he has free time, he plays tuba in the town band, goes to lodge meetings at the Grange Hall and takes his family camping in the summer. Saturday night is the highlight of his week. Before the evening band concert, he goes to the barbershop for a good shave. When he was young, he once went to Chicago for three days. He's never stopped talking about it.

Iphigenia is a hard-working woman who, despite her tendency to worry too much, has a big heart and a kindly disposition. She rises every morning at 5:00 am to make sure the stove is lit and breakfast is cooking. She loves lining in town. She grew up on a farm miles from the nearest neighbors. Now she loves being able to walk next door and visit with friends or down the street to do her shopping. Rumor has it that her town is going to build a waterworks and give every house indoor plumbing. She's not sure that she believes it, but wouldn't it be wonderful!

Mrs. Usher's week is full of tasks. On Monday she does the laundry. Tuesday is ironing. Wednesday is sewing and mending. Thursday is shopping day and the weekly meeting of the Methodist Ladies Aid Society. Fridays she cleans the house, scrubbing, dusting and beating the rugs.

She sings in the choir at the Methodist Church. They practice on Wednesday nights. She enjoys the quilting bee that the Ladies Aid Society holds every two weeks. Her zucchini once took a blue ribbon at the County Fair. She has never been out of Linn county, but she did once visit cousins in Lisbon, which is nearly out of the county.

Florence is the tom-boy of the Usher family. She can milk a cow, rope a calf, chop wood and run as well as any boy. She spends too much time with her father at the forge and is developing a real talent for working on gasoline engines. Unfortunately she has little talent in the kitchen, with a needle and thread or on the dance floor. Plants don't thrive in her care. She is good friends with Agnes Tokheim, who's father owns the machine shop in town. In fact, they recently started a Madame Curie club for the advancement of young ladies in science. Club experiments have ruined several of her better pinafores. She is always stopping by the depot to talk with the telegraph operators. She has become very good at Morse Code herself and can send and receive messages easily.

Beulah is the princess of the family. She is dainty, delicate, pretty and tidy. She loves sewing and embroidery, reading poetry, gardening and cooking. So long as she doesn't get dirty. She loves to look at Mrs. Murray's fashion magazines like Harper's Bazaar to see all the latest dresses. She can't wait to be old enough to put on a long dress and go to a dance herself. She and some of the other girls in the village have started an embroidery club with an idea from The American Girl's Handbook. In the kitchen she is best at desserts and Mrs. Usher usually lets her bake all the cakes and pies. In school she is well behaved and studies very hard.

Obekiah is just as likely to be charging the gates of a castle with his Knights as riding up San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt--at least in his imagination. He loves to imagine and play anything that has to do with bravery and fighting. He is a rough and tumble boy who keeps his mother busy patching his clothes. He often needs a bath twice a week, instead of just Saturday night. Dr. Miller knows him quite well as he often patches him up when a project from The American Boy's Handbook goes awry. The school teacher is often putting him in the corner for reading a G.A. Hentey novel when he should be studying his spelling. Obekiah takes special care of the family vegetable garden. He gets to sell some of the extra produce to get money to buy books.

Andrew Jackson Usher is absolutely crazy for baseball! It is all he thinks about all winter and all he plays all summer. His big dream is to grow up and play for the Cedar Rapids Bunnies. He saves all his money to take the train the eight miles into town and watch the games whenever he can. When he isn't playing baseball he helps out around the house mowing the lawn, feeding the chickens and weeding the garden. He works on Thursday at the print shop as a printer's devil, cleaning and replacing the shop's type, to earn money for baseball. He spends so much time outside because he had tuberculosis when he was very little; and Dr. Miller said he had to spend as much time in the fresh air as possible to help heal his lungs.

William Henry is the Grandfather of the family. He and Grandma have sold their farm to their other sons and have moved into a snug little house in town next door to Seymour and his family. It is very much like the Czech House. He spends his days taking care of their little vegetable garden, puttering in the shed and playing in the checkers down at the general store. He is very opinionated when it comes to politics and frequently gets into heated arguments with the editor of the Ushers Ferry Times, who is in William Henry's opinion a, well it wouldn't be polite to say here. He loves to go next door in the evening and sit with the children and tell them stories of pioneer Iowa. He is a member of the county Road Board, making sure that farmers either pay their road taxes or work them out by keeping the road in front of their farm in good repair.

Dinah is the Grandmother of the Usher clan. She worked for many years out on the farm cooking, cleaning, sewing clothes and helping in the fields. She was thrilled when they sold the farm and moved into the little house in town. She gets to see her grandchildren every day. She can walk to her friends' homes, to shopping, anywhere she wants to go. She never had friends this near out in the country. On the farm they only got in to town a couple of times a month. She spends her days now sewing for the Ladies Aid Society, helping her daughter-in-law in the kitchen or tending her flower and vegetable gardens. her favorite thing to do, though, is to go visiting. She will put on her best hat every afternoon and go around the Village making calls on friends.