By Starla Pointer
Yamhill Valley News-Register
MCMINNVILLE, Ore. — When Yamhill Valley Heritage Center volunteers speak to students about life in the early days of Oregon, they sometimes demonstrate with whatever they have on hand.
Retired Dayton Junior High teacher Tim Duerfeldt, for instance, has been teaching about fiddle music by pantomiming a bow running across the strings of a violin. Fiddle and violin are both names for the same instrument, he’s told children, using his voice to mimic the fiddle’s country music and the violin’s classical sound.
He’ll no longer need to pretend. A Newberg family recently donated a vintage violin for use in the heritage center’s educational programs, reported the Yamhill Valley News-Register.
The center hosts Pioneer Days and field trips for fourth-graders from throughout Yamhill County.
Volunteers like Duerfeldt teach classes in the historic Hutchcroft Schoolhouse; others discuss the Oregon Trail, show off vintage farm equipment and household items, and lead students in 19th century games and crafts.
Allie and Mason Schuback, of Newberg, were among students who attended Pioneer Days, Allie last year and her brother the year before. Both youngsters went home brimming with stories about the event.
Allie especially liked the crafts, such as candle dipping. Mason enjoyed the historical aspect of the program, as he’s a history buff with a special interest in the Civil War.
Mason said he wouldn’t have wanted to attend school back then, though. As he learned at Pioneer Days, discipline was strict.
“You couldn’t do any misbehaving,” he said.
Mason and Allie’s stories about the pioneer music lessons struck a chord with their relatives, especially their grandfather, Paul Schuback. He happens to be a violin maker who trained in France as a teen and has operated a violin shop in Portland for more than four decades.
The violin maker was looking for an appropriate fiddle, one from the time period discussed at Pioneer Days. He found one from the late 1800s that he figured would be perfect.
His wife, Ginevra Blake, was joined by their grandchildren in delivering the instrument to the heritage center. Duerfeldt and other volunteers, some in pioneer costumes, welcomed them.
Following the presentation, Julie Cruikshank Siepmann, a member of local bluegrass band the Yamhillbillies, tuned the vintage violin. She pulled the period bow across the strings, producing a rich chord redolent of wood, firelight and pioneer spirit.
“It has a really rich, cool sound,” she said, noting that every fiddle has its own unique voice. “What an honor it is to play such an old instrument!”
Then, fingers and bow flying, Siepmann entertained the group with a song that made Oregonians dance 150 years ago — “Old Joe Clark.”
“Fare thee well, old Joe Clark/ Fare thee well, I say / He’d follow me ten thousand miles / To hear my fiddle play … “
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