Last week 12 Sr. Adults from Lexington Baptist Church went on a field trip. We loaded up the church bus and journeyed non-stop all the way to the Lexington County Museum (about 1 mile!). I vaguely remember Julie and I going there for a short tour of the museum not long after we moved to Lexington in 1988.  I had not been back to the museum since then, and that's why I thought it might be a good trip for our seniors. I was sure some of them had either never been there or had not been in years.

We were not disappointed! We enjoyed a 2-hour tour with John Myers who did an outstanding job of sharing his knowledge of Lexington history and the artifacts in the museum.  But he also gave us a good glimpse of what life in the 17-1800's was like for our Lexington predecessors.



The museum actually covers 7 acres in the heart of Lexington and maintains 33 structures depicting the middle-class life of early German and Swiss settlers in Lexington.  The Germans brought with them their Lutheran faith and Lexington County became primarily Lutheran territory in the pre-Civil War days.  My grandmother was a Shull and a Lutheran from Lexington County.  In 1834 a Lutheran Seminary was established in Lexington and the original building is one of the preserved sites of the tour.






The only original structure on the property is the John Fox House built around 1832.  It has been well-preserved through the nearly 2 centuries since it was built.  Surrounding the house are a number of outbuildings that would have been part of a well-to-do rural home in an agrarian society: a pigeonniere, a privy, a smokehouse, bee hive, carriage house, 2 barns, tobacco shed, chicken house, etc. A sad reminder of part of our past which we are not proud of stands a slave house.

What really surprised all of us was that none of the outbuildings can be seen from Columbia Avenue--I had no idea so much history was tucked away on this property!  I don't recall any of that being there in 1988 when I first toured the museum.  But, I was 32 years old and not as interested in history as I am now!  (Getting older will do that to you!) 


Several other very old buildings help paint a better picture of the incredibly hard life that many common frontier families faced.  The Lawrence Corley Log House reminds one of the "little house on the prairie."  It is actually the oldest documented house in Lexington County.  Imagine a one-room home with a loft for additional sleeping space.  The glass-less windows are small so as to make it impossible for a bear or a human intruder to get in.  No running water, no electricity, but a big fireplace for heating and cooking.

I did learn a couple trivia facts:  The beds did not have a supporting mattress, but had a "netting" of crisscrossed rope. When the rope became stretched, occasionally the owner would use a tool to tighten up the bed so that if two people were in the bed they would not gravitate toward the center like they would in a hammock.  This is the origin of the phrase, "sleep tight!"  Also, the "mattress" that would lay on top of the rope base would be stuffed with hay or straw which might include a few insects.  Thus, the phrase, "Don't let the bed-bugs bite" came about.  Our guide explained the process for making thread from cotton or flax on a spinning wheel.  The contraption for winding up the spun thread was called a "weasel."  When the capacity was reached, the thread would be broken--"Pop, goes the weasel!"

There is also a 19th century one-room schoolhouse - The Oak Grove Schoolhouse that was originally in the Oak Grove area near West Columbia.  Life must have been so incredibly hard in those days.  The average life expectancy was only about 40 years.  There literally was a daily struggle to survive.  And yet, people still received education, loved music, art, and books - especially the Bible.  They spent time in learning as much as they could about the God who made them.  And they, like us, wanted to know what would happen to them after they died.  And the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be their Savior and Lord was there to bless them, guide them, and lead them to repentance and eternal life--just like He still does for us today!

The tour is only $5.00 and well-worth your time to visit! 
231 Fox Street in Lexington
803-359-8369

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