Osawatomie Gears Up For Annual Freedom Festival

Osawatomie will celebrate the centennial anniversary of John Brown Memorial State Park Sept. 18-19 during the community’s annual Freedom Festival.

The two-day festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days at the park, Main and 10th streets.

The festival will include an arts and crafts fair, frontier artisans, food vendors and performances by Civil War re-enactors and first-person narrators. The following is a list of planned activities.

SEPT. 18

10 a.m. Civil War weapons and drill demonstration.

10:30 a.m. Florella Adair, half-sister of John Brown, will be portrayed by Mary Buster, great-great-granddaughter of Florella Adair.

11 a.m. Robert E. Lee, portrayed by Norman Joy.

Noon: Civil War weapons and drill demonstration.

12:30 p.m. Deborah Sampson, Revolutionary War soldier, portrayed by Anna Smith.

1 p.m. Vintage baseball game.

2 p.m. John Brown, portrayed by Kerry Altenbernd.

3 p.m. President Theodore Roosevelt, portrayed by Joe Wiegand. Roosevelt gave the John Brown Memorial Park dedication address on Aug. 31, 1910.

4 p.m. Reenactment of the Battle of Osawatomie.

SEPT. 19

10 a.m. Church service featuring the Voices of Praise.

11 a.m. “John Brown: Saint or Sinner?” lecture presented by Grady Atwater, site administrator for the John Brown Museum State Historic Site.

Noon: Osawatomie time machine.

1 p.m. Reenactment of a Civil War battle between Union troops and Confederate guerillas.

2 p.m. President Theodore Roosevelt, portrayed by Joe Wiegand.

3 p.m. Miss Clara Gowing, missionary and teacher to the Delaware Nation during territorial Kansas times.

4 p.m. Odds and Ends, traditional country music.

For more information about the festival, call the museum at (913) 755-4384 or email adaircabin@kshs.org.

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Posted by Doug on Sep 8 2010. Filed under News and Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry