Flashback Friday: Frontier Acres Museum and a Historian 4-Her

Hannah Spiehs with her award-winning 4-H Heritage Project.

 

Arthur B is an award-winning historian, animated storyteller, and a dedicated researcher of Nebraska history. She’s also an 11-year-old sixth grader at Aurora Middle School in Hamilton County. Hannah was the recipient of a Nebraska State Historical Society Certificate of Achievement at the 2016 Nebraska State Fair. Her project, called Frontier Acres Museum, 1969-1989, is a photo display of postcards from the Frontier Acres Museum near Spencer, Nebraska, in Boyd County. Hannah’s interest in the project sprung from her hobby of collecting postcards. “My grandma said she had some postcards from our family’s museum for me, and I was like, ‘What museum?’” Hannah said. Hannah’s great-grandparents, Arthur and Mary Boettcher, collected pioneer-era machinery, clothes, and household items and displayed them in over twenty buildings across five acres north of Spencer. The museum was available to the public for a small fee and was open May to October. The museum included pioneer houses, a train depot and caboose, a church, a one-room school house, a blacksmith shop, and an old-time photo shop, a general store, a log cabin, a sod house. Art also built a two-roomed treehouse specifically for children to play in. Mindy Spiehs, Hannah’s mom, has many memories of Frontier Acres. She was one of twenty-one cousins and all but three lived in Spencer. The museum was their playground, and it had so many buildings that they could all pick one as their “own.” “My grandparents really enjoyed children,” Mindy said, “And they wanted to preserve the pioneer way of life for them.” “Because everything was changing from the way it used to be,” Hannah said. Along with the buildings, the museum had a wide array of antique farm machinery and several dozen classic cars. “Art fired up the steam engine every Sunday and blew the whistle,” Mindy said. She added that he was always encouraging children to get their hands on the artifacts. “Grandpa let you wander around and look and if you picked up a bowl or something, he was like, ‘Play with it. Pretend you’re eating supper like a pioneer,’” Mindy said. He passed this attitude down to his daughter and Hannah’s maternal grandmother, Carolyn Conroy. “Grandma has the idea that you can have all these cool things, and they don’t do any good and aren’t any fun if they are sitting in a box,” Hannah said.

A postcard from Frontier Acres Museum, Spencer (Boyd County), Nebraska. 1969-1989

 

After Art and Mary passed away, the museum’s collections were sold off and many of the buildings were scattered throughout Nebraska and South Dakota. But Carolyn has gathered a few of the buildings, including the schoolhouse and two of the pioneer houses, for her grandchildren to enjoy. They even decorate one of the houses for Christmas and spend time popping popcorn and reading “A Night Before Christmas” before the fire – the only source of heat because the house doesn’t have electricity. “It’s always really dark in there so grandma always lights the old-fashioned oil lamps,” Hannah said. Hannah, her brother, and her cousins play in the house frequently in the summer. “And it’s pretty hot in summer. But worse is the grasshoppers,” Hannah said. “Grandma’s school is always fun because Grandma is always the teacher. You learn your ABCs in a fun way.” “A whole other generation plays in her houses,” Mindy said. “We’re not sure who has more fun – Grandma or her grandkids.” Gary and Carolyn Conroy live north of Spencer (on the farm where Art and Mary once lived) and love to show their houses to anyone who wants to stop and visit (and play). Hannah enjoys playing with all of the antiques that fill the houses. “There’s a box and you crank the handle and then put it up to your ear, and you have to spin the spinny thing,” Hannah said. “It’s a rotary phone,” Mindy explained. Hannah says the experience has given her a different perspective than many of her friends and classmates at school. “Some of my friends say, ‘I can’t live without my iPod or my Xbox,’ and I’m like, ‘Technically, you could,’” Hannah said. “Your friends haven’t got to experience hands-on history,” Mindy said. “Those kinds of things make history come alive to kids.” Hannah said when she grows up she would like to be an inventor, actress, architect, and owner of a diner, candy and jokes shop. She is in Future Problem Solvers (FPS), is a brown belt in taekwondo, and has been running in one mile and 5K races with her mom this past year. This was Hannah’s third heritage project and the third to earn a purple at the Nebraska State Fair. Her best advice for other 4-Hers who want to try out heritage projects is that you get out what you put in. “If you really don’t like it or don’t put in any effort, you’ll just get a red or a white,” Hannah said. “If you don’t put any effort in it, you won’t get results.” Hannah said she thinks of her best ideas “when my left eye is closed and I’m staring at my closet.” She enjoyed adding to her family’s already impressive appreciation of history. “We found out things we had forgotten,” Hannah said. “If you explore your family history, there’s going to be something strange and unusual.”

A postcard from Frontier Acres Museum, Spencer (Boyd County), Nebraska. 1969-1989

 

 

Become a Member!

Our members make history happen.

Join Now

You May Also Enjoy

The Story of Omaha Police Fingerprint Expert Emily Byram

The Story of Omaha Police Fingerprint Expert Emily Byram

Marker Monday: Cather Childhood Home

Marker Monday: Cather Childhood Home

Yutan Tornado – March 23, 1913

Yutan Tornado – March 23, 1913

About History Nebraska
History Nebraska was founded in 1878 as the Nebraska State Historical Society by citizens who recognized Nebraska was going through great changes and they sought to record the stories of both indigenous and immigrant peoples. It was designated a state institution and began receiving funds from the legislature in 1883. Legislation in 1994 changed History Nebraska from a state institution to a state agency. The division is headed by Interim Director and CEO Jill Dolberg. They are assisted by an administrative staff responsible for financial and personnel functions, museum store services, security, and facilities maintenance for History Nebraska.
Explore Nebraska
Discover the real places and people of our past at these History Nebraska sites.

Upcoming Events

View our new and upcoming events to see how you can get involved.

Become a Member

The work we do to discover, preserve, and share Nebraska's history wouldn't be possible without the support of History Nebraska members.

Latest Hall of Fame Inductee

The Nebraska Hall of Fame was established in 1961 to officially recognize prominent Nebraskans.

Listen to our Podcast

Listen to the articles and authors published in the Nebraska History Magazine with our new Nebraska History Podcast.

Nebraska Collections

History Nebraska's mission is to collect, preserve, and open our shared history to all Nebraskans.

Our YouTube Video Collection

Get a closer look at Nebraska's history through your own eyes, with our extensive video collections.

Additional Research Resources

History Nebraska Research and Reference Services help connect you to the material we collect and preserve.

Support History Nebraska
Make a cash donation to help us acquire, preserve, and interpret Nebraska’s history. Gifts to History Nebraska help leave a legacy and may help your taxes, too! Support the work of History Nebraska by donating to the History Nebraska Foundation today.

Volunteers are the heroes of History Nebraska. So much history, so little time! Your work helps us share access to Nebraska’s stories at our museums and sites, the reference room, and online.