Structures

   Reverend David Baumgartner was a native of Berne, Switzerland. In 1839, at age 73, he and his wife came here to join other members of his family. Rallying other Swiss settlers, they established the first Mennonite fellowship in Indiana.
   The church is of half-timber construction with hand hewn poplar and oak timbers. Between the posts was clay, into which was kneaded animal hairs and straw to keep it from cracking. The kneading was done by having cattle or other animals walk over the concoction. At first, the smoothed clay walls were whitewashed and, later were finished with troweled plaster. This is what you see today.
   The tongue and groove floor of the women's coat room (nursery) and beaded ceiling is original, as is the ceiling in the entrance where men hung their hats and wraps. The rest of the church was recreated due to excessive alterations throughout the life of the structure. The windows are new; however, they are made of hand blown glass as were the originals.
   The benches you see were made and donated by a local furniture factory. They were patterned after an original one.
   Upon entering the church, since there is only one door, the men and women separated, and the men sat on one side and the ladies on the other. On the side for ladies, and babies one less bench was needed as there were, usually, mothers in the nursery/ladies cloak room. They needed one less bench for the stove on the ladies side.
   The church had no bell, and steeple as these were reminiscent of Switzerland's state churches which had persecuted their ancestors.
The Swiss Heritage Society thanks the Roger Fox family for their gracious donation of the Baumgartner Church which was moved to the Village in 1988 from its former home at 3906 West, 500 South.

   The proper shave and haircut was essential for every gentleman, so it came to pass that the Barber Shop was opened in Berne.
   Many barbers from neighboring towns came to Berne on Saturdays, to do whatever shaving was to be done.
   To our knowledge, Fred Hoffer was the first barber to establish a shop in Berne. Late in the 1800s, newspaper records show that Frank Foreman and Fred Wechter owned a barber shop on the east side of Main Street.
   The barber shop is 10 feet wide and 18 feet deep. There is a door on the north end and a door and window on the south end. The east and west sides each have a window.
   The inside walls are of plain tongue and groove pine boards. A chimney of brick hangs down in the center of the room just enough to accommodate a stove pipe on the north and south side. The ceiling is of narrow pine boards. There was no water except for a cistern that was close by. The building was first owned by a medical doctor, which suggests it may have first been a doctor's office.
   The barber shop was a generous gift to the Swiss Heritage Society from the late Elvira Lehman. It was part of her family home since the 1940s until its move to the Village in 1991.

   The Cheese house was built in the early 1870s by Adam Hartman and his son Daniel, who were from Switzerland and first settled in Wayne County, Ohio.
   In the late 1800s there was no refrigeration to keep milk fresh, so neighbors brought their left over milk to the cheese house and 50 to 60 pounds of cheese was made each day, 7 days a week. Therefore, cheese was a staple food often eaten at every meal.
    You will see the cheese molds that were used to produce either wheel cheese, brick cheese, or longhorn cheese.
   The cheese was pressed and all the whey was removed by a 1500 pound pressing beam, then placed in the storage room where each day for several days it was rubbed with salt or a cloth saturated with salt water to keep it from molding. The storage room is made with tongue and groove boards that carefully fit into each other to produce a fly free environment of a fairly constant temperature.
   Many thanks to Martin Kipfer for his gracious contribution of the cheese house. The building was moved to Swiss Heritage Village in 1990 from its original site near Vera Cruz, Indiana.

   A very intriguing and certainly the most unusual structure in Swiss Heritage Village is the Hauenstein family cider press. Originally built during Civil War years (1861-1864) by F. William Hauenstein in Huntington County, Indiana.
   Mr. Hauenstein was a Swiss immigrant who settled near his brother in Huntington in 1856. There he bought a farm which contained a large apple orchard. The huge trees on the Hauenstein farm became the timbers used for framing his cider press.
   One of the largest presses in the world, Mr. Hauenstein built it from his recollection of those he had seen in Switzerland. In a newspaper interview just 2 years before his death he stated that he actually figured out how to make the nut and screw assembly function to raise and lower the pressing beam in a dream.
   The main pressing beam is cut from a single white oak log. The beam measures 30 inches square and is 30 feet long. Its weight today is approximately two tons. The log is estimated to have been over 300 years old when it was cut down about 1860. The beam was fashioned using only hand tools; the ax marks are still visible on the beam.
   You will learn how the apples were taken from the orchard and turned into delicious apple cider the way the early settlers once did.
   The descendants of Mr. Hauenstein are happy to see the cider press a part of Swiss Heritage Village. During the summer of 1992 the press and barn were dismantled and moved to Berne. The press was then reconstructed and the barn rebuilt around it. As much of the original barn timbers and framing were used as possible in the reconstruction, so it is essentially the same barn which housed the press in Huntington.

   Abraham B. Sprunger, son of Munsterberg Canton of Bern, Switzerland's Peter A. Sprunger, had a home near the intersection of US 27 and State Road 218. In this home, was the office of Dr. John Neuenschwander. Young Peter watched with fascination as John cared for the health needs of the community. However, in 1886, Dr. John Neuenschwander and his family joined Rev. Peter S. Lehman's group to begin a new settlement in Hickory Co., Missouri.
On November 22, 1862, Peter married Katharina Amstutz of Berne and they became parents of Dinah, William and two infants who died. No doctor was available when their fourth child was born. The infant died, and was soon followed by Peter's young wife, Katharina, on August 24, 1869. Her tragic death prompted Peter to become a doctor himself.
   On December 28, 1871, Peter remarried, this time to Katharina "Katie" Sprunger, daughter of Mennonite Preacher Christian and Marianna (Lehman) Sprunger. In 1996, the descendants of Peter and Katharina Sprunger totaled nearly five hundred and are scattered in many states and some foreign countries.
   Peter was a continuous member of the Indiana Medical Society, serving as a doctor at Berne from about 1872-1895.
The Swiss Heritage Society is grateful to Jerry A. Sprunger and Michael R. Evanston for the generous donation of Dr. Sprunger's Medical Office which was moved to the Village in December 1992 from its original location at 3893 south, 000 Road, Berne, Indiana by one of Peter's grandsons, Otis G. Sprunger. Otis used a cart he had made and his farm tractor to move the structure.

   The Luginbill house was first occupied by Peter Luginbill and his wife, Barbara. The house is a classic pre-Civil War Indiana farmhouse, built in 1856. The style of the house is called "half-timber", which was typically western European. In this type of construction, less wood was required than in other early American buildings. This "lumber conservative" construction was very important in Europe, where wood was scarce and costly. In early 1800 America however, there was no shortage of woodland. This illustrates how the Swiss settlers like the Luginbill family brought their culture and life style with them to the new land.
   In the "half-timber" construction, large vertical beams are hand hewn, with one to two-inch crevices cut down the sides. Smaller pieces, or slats of wood are wedged into the crevices between the beams, from top to bottom. On top of and between the wooden slats, a mixture of mud and straw, called wattle, was applied which made excellent insulation. The wattle was well mixed by having oxen walk back and forth through the mixture. In some parts of the wattle, oxen hairs and straw have been found. After the wattle had been applied to the walls, a layer of "plaster" made by the family, was spread over all.
Inside the home, the ceiling and wainscoting of the two rooms on the main floor still have the beautiful original walnut, with some exception, and the boards are tongue-in-groove and beaded.
   In front of the home you will find the typical Swiss foursquare garden. Each consists of a different type of vegetation.
   To the right side of the home is the apple orchard. Most homesteads of this time had orchards, and they were always on this side of the house.
   The home was generously donated by Ezra H., Adam and Loren Liechty, and was moved to Swiss Heritage Village and Museum in 1987 from its original site at 705 Stucky St. in the southwest corner of Berne.

   The summer kitchen is part of our Luginbill homestead. It was used from the late spring until the early fall. It primary purpose was to keep heat generated by cooking and preserving out of the families main living area. It was also used for washing, sewing, butchering and soap boiling. During the winter months it would be used for storage or as a laundry area.
   Many summer kitchens were constructed with two main rooms. One for cooking, preserving and doing dishes, the other for eating. In the eating room long tables and benches were used because as many as 30 people could be present for a meal. This was due to the large number of people needed for farming.
   Some summer kitchens, like this one, had an additional second floor which was used for storage or as a "guest room" for hired hands. Sometimes it was used to house newly-married family members.
   The summer kitchen was donated by Vernon and Jean Neuenschwander, and moved to the Village in 1988, from its original site on their farm at 300 West, 5323 South, Berne, Indiana.
   In 1991, another summer kitchen was donated by the Amish family of Crist K. Hilty and was moved from 2295 West, 250 South, Berne, Indiana. In 1993, it was moved again on the grounds and converted to an office and entrance building

   The pioneer log cabin standing near the edge of the Swiss Heritage woods was donated by Elfurt and Adele Blomenberg of Preble Township of Adams County. They are fourth generation descendants of the original owners, the Conrad Witte family who migrated to America from Germany.
    It was constructed of hewn logs in the early 1840s. It was dismantled in 1984 to make room for a modern house. The logs remained on the Blomenberg property until 1994 when they were brought to Swiss Heritage Village. The logs were in remarkably good condition and the cabin was reconstructed in the spring and summer of 1995.
   Pioneer cabins were often composed of only one room, and often without a wooden floor. That one room served as kitchen, dining room, bedroom, parlor, washroom and workshop all in one. Beds were often fastened into the sides of the cabin much like berths in a ship. The fireplace was used as heating as well as cooking purposes. Wood was in abundance, so only the large logs were carried in by the men to keep the fire burning. The cabins were lighted with Betty lamps, one end of the wick rested in a brass bowl filled with grease, and the other end was lighted. The cabins were built without nails. The hinges and locks for the doors were made of wood. The latch string was always out for the caller.

   The little red schoolhouse was built in 1881. With three brick construction, its approximate weight is 128 tons.
   The back wall contains a row of hooks, for the students to hang their coats and hats, and a shelf for their dinner pails. The platform in the front is special, as it provides a place upon which the children could perform. The bell in the belfry is original. It was rung by the teacher before and after school. The desks range from very small to very large. The left side was called the "little side", and the right was called the "big side." The holes in the desks are wells for the students bottles of ink since the writing instrument of the day was goose-quill type "pens", also used occasionally for dipping of a long braid of hair belonging to the girl in the next seat forward. The flag overhead dates to 1888. On it are only 45 stars, as Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma were not yet part of the Union.
   The ordinance of 1787 mandated that education should be provided for the Northwest Territory, therefore the farthest any student had to walk was less than two miles.
   The schoolhouse sat on the same plot of land at 400 west and 500 south for 110 years until it was donated to the Swiss Heritage Society by Chris Biberstein, and moved here in 1991.

   In the 1800s and early 1900s the smokehouse was essential for meat preservation. During those days, people ate pork primarily, as the cattle were also used for milk products rather than meat.
   After the animal was butchered, it was soaked for four to ten days in salt water salty enough to float a fresh egg. They used wooden barrels or large earthenware crock to soak it in.
   After it was soaked, it would be hung over a smoldering fire made of green hickory chips and sawdust.
   Hams, shoulders, bacon, as well as sausage was smoked to a delectable perfection. The fire below had to be kept smoldering, without flame. To produce this, a small bed of coals was heated, the green hickory chips and plenty of sawdust was placed on top of it. Hickory chips gave the meat a distinctive smokey flavor. The smokehouse had no chimney, and was lined with hard wood. It was kept closed during the smoking process, smoldering the entire time. Once the farmer had determined the meat had been smoked sufficiently, he would remove it and store it in the cellar of his house. Flour sacks were used to cover and tie up the meat.
   The smokehouse we have at the Village was originally located at 4373 South, 350 West which is Roy Balsiger's mother's farm (Bertha Moser). The house on that farm was built in 1899, and Roy believes that the smokehouse also dates from about that time.
   The smokehouse was donated to the Swiss Heritage Society by Roy Balsiger in 1988.

   The Sweitzer barn (also called Swisser or Switzer barn) with its cantilever "fore bay" and its banked animal stalls reached its peak of popularity in the late 18th century.
   The entrance ramp is flanked by two dry cellars that are partially sunk into the hill, each with a tiny window. One used for horse feed and the other used for potato storage. There was a third cellar, even better protected, that was used for the storage of turnips.
   Hay was thrown down the stairway or into the straw room, and here it was fed to the cows. Overhead, on the barn floor, were two threshing areas and two granaries; these were situated in each corner of the shoot.
   The barn is estimated to weigh about 90 ton. It is 41 feet from the foundation to the peak of the roof. It is 40 feet wide and 75-80 feet long. The main timbers of the barn were hand hewn (chopped out). This is a special characteristic of this barn. It is very well built, and even though it is over 100 years old, it should last for many more years to come.
   The bank barn was estimated to have been built in the late 1800s. The barn first belonged to John Hirschy. After that it was owned by Edwin Gilliom. Later the barn was owned by Edwin Nussbaum who had it at least 50 years before graciously donating it to the Swiss Heritage Society. It was located at 1121 west, 500 south and sat on the west side of the brick family house until it was moved to Swiss Heritage Village in May 1993.
Many variations of the bank barn evolved, all typical of Pennsylvania architecture and reminiscent of the time when the farmer was king and barns were the palaces of America.