We Made History-historical re-enactors,serious portrayers

Previous Programs
On February 15, 2010, Bob was invited by The Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Plains, GA, to make a presentation in the auditorium of Plains High School about Roosevelt's life, campaign and presidency. "The National Park Service requested his services for Presidents’ Day because Roosevelt was the first president to win a Nobel Peace Prize for delegating a treaty between Japan and Russia, thereby ending the war between the countries. Roosevelt is important to Plains because President Jimmy Carter lives in the town, and was the second president to win the prize for, among numerous other missions, helping to bring peace between Israel and Egypt." (Carly Farrell ,The Americus Times-Recorder.)		Lucretia (Debbie Weinkamer) and President James Garfield (Ed Haney) visit with Pat Magyarics at Mantua Center Christian Church.
Eleanor speaks for the Congress Lake Club in Hartville, OH November 4, 2009
Lake County Historical Society’s “Myths, Legends, & Graveyards Tour” Saturday, October 17, 2009	The Widow Lucretia Garfield (circa 1885) appeared at the Mentor Cemetery with her granddaughter-in-law, Eleanor Borton Garfield, LCHS volunteer, Wendy Maynard of Painesville, OH, captured the persona of Eleanor Garfield who was mayor of Mentor, OH in the 1950s and known for her hard work and vision for the city’s growth, industrialization, and quality-of-life improvements. Approximately 150 people were entertained by a visit from the past from these two ladies – related through marriage, but who never really met. According to Kathie Purmal, Executive Director of LCHS, “the guests loved you [Debbie] and Wendy and the interplay between you. They loved the costumes and really felt they had a much better idea of who these two women were.”	Lake County Historical Society’s “Myths, Legends, & Graveyards Tour” Saturday, October 17, 2009
	The “Dear Wife and Mother” program was presented by "Lucretia" during "Civil War Week" at the home of the Lakeside Women’s Club, Lakeside, Ohio.
	Lucretia emphasized the effects of the war on her marriage, family, and home life in Hiram, OH. She was raising a toddler, the Garfields’ first daughter, at the time. Lucretia maintained a household while preoccupied with her husband’s activities and safety while away at war in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. She also kept vigil with her mother and sister-in-law while they awaited word about her brother John’s fight with typhoid fever. He succumbed to the illness while fighting in Lexington, Kentucky. Every day brought word of some neighbor or relative who was touched by the war’s devastation. Lucretia also spoke about her life after her husband’s assassination and death. By 1907 – the year she was portraying – her five children were grown, married, and had families and careers of their own. Lucretia’s life was still centered on her family, but it also included some civic involvement. She also traveled to visit her children and grandchildren who were living from “coast to coast” in the U.S.

“Letters from the Front”

by Ed Haney & Debbie Weinkamer as part of
“Civil War Days” at
The Lakeside Association

Lakeside, OH 43440

There were more than 100 people in the audience who were able to listen to and experience a view of the past via Haney and Weinkamer's first-person accounts of the Garfields’ wartime thoughts and experiences.

They did this by sharing the Garfield letters that chronicled James Garfield’s service in the Civil War – 28 months that saw him rise from lieutenant-colonel to major general, from relative obscurity to national prominence.

Lucretia’s letters gave details of life back home in Hiram, Ohio: their toddler’s first words, the purchase of their first “real home,” the war deaths of relatives and local boys.

Don Miller, as General Garfield’s aid-de-camp, Lt. Ben Lake, served as the narrator for this program.

May 2007