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How I Formed a Civil War Kids Club

Interview of John Allin (age 12) by Carol Bohl
Cass County Historical Society

Carol: Where did you get the idea to start a Civil War Kids Club?

John: When I visited the Cass County Civil War Roundtable picnic in June, I thought if I started a Kids Club, I could teach other kids about the Civil War. I also attended the dedication of the Burnt District Monument in April and heard the stories about Order #11.

Carol: So what was your first step?

John: I got together some people who like history from my class at school. I attend Cass Midway R-1 and was in sixth grade last year. We all got together one Saturday and made a video about a family in Order # 11 in Cass County getting pushed out of their house. There were three girls and three boys, all from my class with the exception of one fourth grader from Pleasant Hill.

Carol: Tell me about the video. Who wrote the script and how?

John: All my friends wrote it. We sat down and talked it over. We used the 1835 Sharp-Hopper 1835 Cabin in Harrisonville as the setting. We came up with the idea that a family was told they had a day to gather their belongings and leave before the Kansas Jayhawkers burned their cabin. The clothes came from the Cass County Historical Society and collections some of the boys and girls had at home. Two of the boys are reenactors with 7th and 30th Missouri Irish Brigade and had uniforms. We spent three hours rehearsing and filming the video.

Carol: Did that lead to the idea for the Civil War Days for kids?

John: Yes, we scheduled the cabin for two days. I called all my reenactor friends and produced a flier and schedule. We put out fliers at the library and on the historical society web page. I cleaned up the cabin and gathered games and supplies from the historical society. Several from the Cass County Civil War Roundtable volunteered to cook food and help out.

children in costume

Carol: How did the weekend work out?

John: Pretty good. We got a good number of people. Friday we had lots of kids  who we dressed up with bonnets, aprons, hats, etc. They also played games, drilled, sang songs, and reenacted a play. For the play, the boys played guerrillas sitting at checker table, and a fight grew up as one cheated. One guerrilla shot the other and the girls ran away.

We played music on Friday night for reenactors. Daniel Sullivan played the guitar, and I played the banjo and bones. We had nine reenactors camp out in tents on the lawn that night, and four of us slept in the cabin.

It rained some on Saturday, but we did the  same thing and added three scenarios. The first scenario was  H.W. Younger’s business being robbed on square in July 1861; the second was Order #11 evicting citizens from the county; and the third was the burning of the Younger home during Order #11. All us kids played Civil War until  late at night.  

Carol: Tell me about the Civil War Kids Club.

John: We made a brochure and flier about the club and have scheduled a meeting on the second Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. before the Civil War Roundtable. We plan on eating, talking about Civil War events we can take part in, and planning projects. One thing we want to do is make a diorama of the Battle of Lotspeich Farm that took place here in Cass County in 1862 with about 200 of Quantrill’s men. We are schedule to put on a play at the Cass County Historical Society meeting Aug. 22. For the Cass County Folklife Festival Oct. 2 and 3 we want to put on a play, play music, set up a booth, and run games like sack races, and tug-of-war,

Carol: Tell me about the diorama you just made with Cory Mays, another member of the club.

John: There is a new diorama about the Battle of Morristown in the Burnt District Museum, so I wanted to make one about the Burning of Dayton. We looked for supplies like cardboard boxes, paint, and miniature people. Jackie and Jay Roberts provided the soldiers, wagons, horses, animals, cannons. Carol Bohl loaned us supplies from a previous project. We worked from a map and diagram of the town from Jackie’s book to make it authentic to 1862. The hardest part was painting the people and making the buildings – church, blacksmith shop, doctor’s office, homes, hardware store, hotel, store/post office, cooper and cabinet maker. I liked painting and putting the people in. It will be on display in the Burnt District Museum.

Carol: How did you get interested in the Civil War?

John: I got interested by attending the Living History Festival reenactments in Harrisonville  and the Burning of Dayton on 2008. My Dad and I then got involved with the Irish Brigade.

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