County of site: Saline County
Location of site: 1600 Feazel St., Harrisburg
Phone: (618) 253 - 7342
Festivals: Visit the living history and pioneer craft demonstration held the 3rd weekend in May, and the Bluegrass festival held in October on the Museum grounds
The Saline Creek Pioneer Village & Museum is a place to "see and touch memories." Located on the south side of Harrisburg, there is a sign on Hwy 13. The grounds were an original 175 acres when purchased in 1863 by the county for $1,402.50 to be used as a place for those who could not care for themselves. Over the years the aline County Pauper Farm was sold with only 3½ acres remaining today. It is now leased to the Saline County Historical Society and is on the National Register of Historical Places.
As you enter the museum grounds, on the left is a boiler plate jail cell, from the 1860 Saline County Jail. Noted published, Carl Small wrote of it in his book as the "Mean Old jail," and Charlie Birger, Southern Illinois notorious gangster of the prohibition days, was incarcerated here on several occasions.
To the right is the Tourism Center, an original one room log house with plank side-lean-to added on the back. Visitors are welcome to pick up maps and brochures. All the log buildings are original, built in the 19th Century. They were found in Southeastern Illinois, dismantled and restored on the museum grounds.
Central to the museum is the 3-story brick Pauper House. The original 12 rooms were built in 1877 and a west addition was added in 1904. Over the years the poor farm became an orphanage, a jail, an insane asylum and a place for refugees. Today it contains a formal parlor, a bedroom and a dining room all from the 1890's. In the basement is a kitchen refurnished from the turn-of-the-century. Other exhibits include musical instruments, cameras, toys, fossils & minerals, artifact and fancy works. There are rooms depicting medical, dental and law professionals; the area's mining industry and military memorabilia.
Around the grounds are clustered buildings of the Chenault School, the Cain Church, The Aydelott Cabin, and their Thresher Floor Barn, Davenport Home, a General Store and the Post Office and a replica two story blockhouse.
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