BY CINDY SCHROEDER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ALEXANDRIA -- Until Friday, 13-year-old Nicole Fields didn't know that pioneer women often married at her age, or that the country's first white settlers taught the Indians how to scalp their enemies.
"I can't imagine living back then," said the seventh-grade student from Dayton's St. Bernard School, as she raced around the Alexandria Fairgrounds, seeking answers to a historical questionnaire. "It must have been a hard life."
The Campbell County Heritage Association sponsors its annual heritage days celebration at the Alexandria Fairgrounds largely because of youth like Nicole.
Through re-enactments of pioneer battles and skirmishes, demonstrations of daily life skills such as soap making and blacksmithing, and musical entertainment by people dressed in clothing of the past, the heritage association tries to bring history to life for those who are generations removed from it.
Bellevue resident Barbara Poe and 35 Tristate families formed the non-profit association last year and host and attend several pioneer events a year.
On Friday, about 1,000 children from Tristate schools fanned out across the fairgrounds in search of information that could win them a blue ribbon, or an "A" in a history class.
"It's a lot of fun talking to the kids and telling them how their great-great-grandfather lived," said Bo "Buffalo" Williams, who farms in Grant County when he's not running a pioneer trading post.
"They want to know what flint was used for, what animal skins were used for, and why we don't have pockets." Pockets, Mr. Williams explained, weren't added until the late 19th century, because frontiers men "had so much stuff to carry" that they needed several pouches.
On Friday, children delighted in watching staged skirmishes fought with 18th- and 19th-century weapons and chatting with dulcimer-playing musicians.
As Mallory Minter, 9, of Grants Lick Elementary tapped her feet to the Hills of Kentucky Dulcimers, a nearby youth shouted, "Hey, look. There's a war starting over there!"
