Canfield Historical Society hosts re-enactments

By BILLY LUDT

bludt@vindy.com

CANFIELD

The central green in Canfield will be wrought with ruffians, robbers, a pastor, settlers and a number of other characters pulled out of the city’s history for two upcoming evenings of guided tours.

For the second consecutive year, the Canfield Historical Society will take over the Green for two Saturdays for the Canfield History Walk, a series of performances re-telling notable historical vignettes from the city’s past.

On Saturday and Sept. 30, the historical society and its crew of actors will depict events, places and people from Canfield, dating back to 1798 and up through the 1960s.

“When we come up with an idea for a living history, we think who do we know in our realm that would fit that persona,” said Laura Zeh-Vazquez, the society’s curator.

The cast will put on several minute acts each, reaching about an hour total. The crew is composed of area volunteer actors.

Save for a recreated bank robbery, all the skits are new for this year’s history walk. Suzanne McCabe, society president, said she wants people to realize that events from the 1950s and ’60s are history as much as those from the early 1800s.

“Not everybody cares about ancient history, not everybody cares about the pioneers of Canfield,” she said. “Certainly, people can care about things in their past and their parents’ history.”

The vignettes will date back to when Canfield was referred to as Campfield, due to its entire citizenship initially living in an encampment of tents in a field. The latest skit will take place in 1968, when the final issue of The Mahoning Dispatch, a newspaper founded in 1877, was printed.

“I hope it’s well-received so we can do it again next year,” Zeh-Vazquez said. “This is a fundraiser for us at the historical society. We are a nonprofit, so this helps us to keep on keeping on.”

Not solely the subject of a vignette, The Mahoning Dispatch has maintained status as a valuable resource for the historical society. The 100-plus years of reporting helped them select and write skits based on local happenings.

One of the society’s latest archival efforts is scanning and preserving issues from The Dispatch.

“It is really fun and exciting to discover these little things when you’re doing research,” McCabe said. “It’s exciting to see the changes the city has gone through and some of the sensational events that have taken place in our quiet little village.”

The first tour of each day starts at 4:30 p.m. from the Bond House, 44 W. Main St., where the society is headquartered. From there, tour guides will take groups up to the Green.

Guides will give historical background to buildings the groups pass on their way between acts.

After the tour is a dinner at Piccadilly Parlour Victorian Tea Room, 114 S. Broad St.

Tickets for the walk are $25 individually, or $40 for a couple, and can be purchased by contacting the society at 330-533-7423. Tickets, including dinner, are cut off for Saturday’s walk, but $10 tour-only tickets are still available.