KNIGHTSEN — Although Brentwood Elementary School third-graders had been learning about the chores, games, customs and manners of the late 1800s for months, their eyes were still wide last week with wonder when exposed to the history of the region’s early settlers at the East Contra Costa Historical Society and Museum.
“Even though they have been role playing the history since (last) Tuesday, this makes it more real to them,” said Brentwood Elementary parent Nydia Scott during the museum’s final Pioneer Day for this school year last Friday.
In total, 1,450 third-graders from far East County and 300 parents visited the museum off Sellers Avenue for Pioneer Days this academic year. During their field trips, the students pump water, make ice cream and butter, gather eggs, wash clothes with a scrub board and write with real ink and quill pens.
They tour both floors of the Byer/Nail house that was built in 1878 and check out the “tool shed,” where they learn about antique farm equipment and tractors. Most of the visiting classes sport traditional clothing of the time period and even sing songs from that era.
For the first time this year, students completed a 30-minute lesson in a historic one-room schoolhouse that was moved to the museum grounds from Eden Plain Road in 2009.
The school operated from 1868 to 1906 and was one of 14 former schoolhouses in Byron, Knightsen, Oakley and Brentwood, according to museum docent Mary Black.
“When they enter, we tell them ‘we are going to travel back to 1888,'” Black said.
During the lesson, students recite an old-fashioned flag salute and learn about the significance of U.S. Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. flag, according to Black. They also learn about the virtues of kindness, cleanliness and honesty and are expected to follow traditional manners when addressing an adult.
The living history lesson doesn’t stop during lunch. Black explained that students must pack a lunch that fits the time period with no processed foods allowed.
While touring the kitchen of the main house, students learned that people living in 1888 gathered fresh eggs daily, canned and smoked a lot of their foods, only took a bath and did laundry once a week and hung their clothing on a line outside. Local students tour the grounds in the fall and spring for Pioneer Days.
“The teachers have to teach them a lot before they get here,” Black said. “They learn about the outdoor games of the era, the former flag salute, the manners and four songs that we sing.”
For more information on the museum, call 925-634-8651.