Oxford Historical Society, a 501 (c) 3 charitable organization
Twitchell Rowland Homestead Museum
P.O. Box 582, 60 Towner Lane, Oxford, CT 06478
With sheep signs around town leading the way, Oxford Historical Society’s annual Fiber Fest offered a peek into Oxford’s agricultural past on Saturday, April 12 and Sunday, April 13. We warned the event is held rain or shine, but the cold and wet weather this year was a real test of our New England hardiness. While the poor weather meant no shearing of goats or sheep and only two brave vendors outside on Saturday, this unique free program attracted about 100 people each day to the grounds of the Twitchell-Rowland Homestead at 60 Towner Lane off Route 67 across from St. Thomas Roman Catholic Church.
The Homestead Museum was open for free tours, and for the first time, guests walked through the newly opened Munn School. Inside the cozy schoolhouse homemade baked goods were available and table looms offered opportunities to try a hand at weaving. A colorful quilt made to benefit the Fiber Fest by member Betsy Korn was eye catching with its bright colors and strip quilted squares.
Outside, hand-built stairs allowed access to the basement level of the one room schoolhouse where lights illuminated the initials, names and dates carved in the ceiling beams by the boys who attended the school in the 1850s.
On Sunday crafters and vendors included: Robin Ziegler’s handmade brooms, embellished gourd containers and splint baskets. New this year was local weaver Carol McElroy. June Bissonette brought alpaca yarn. Heather Martin offered stone jewelry and repeat vendor Kitti Deak shared her herbs and elderberry products. Other regulars had clothing, knit hats and mittens, embroidered fabrics and crocheted items. The OHS website has photos from some of these vendors: oxford-historical-society.org.
Local crafters demonstrated using varied fibers for knitting, crocheting, weaving, spinning, and more. The New England Lace Makers Guild members showed their centuries old skills as cobweb-like threads were knotted and twisted into astonishing products with the help of colorful bobbins.
Litchfield Hills Mobile Cafe food truck offered fried dough and hot drinks. All sales and donations from this event benefited the Oxford Historical Society. Thank you for our staunch supporters, you are ALL-WEATHER friends!
Little River Nature Preserve Open House
Little River Nature Preserve Open House will celebrate CT Trails Day for 2025 on Saturday June 7 and Sunday June 8. Oxford Main Street Project’s work in progress will be on display for the community to share the fun.
Saturday night mark the festivities by following a his torical walking tour along the new bikeway/walkway parallel to Route 67. Learn about local history and Oxford’s historic buildings along the walkway.
Sunday morning starting at 10 am, visit the open house at Little River Nature Preserve. Begin the day with a guided hiking tour of about a mile. Later see a live animal demonstration, followed by a free lunch as hot dogs and hamburgers grill. Stay for a while, enjoy the food and drink, and learn about the LRNP. There will also be a silent auction with items to bid on; live music and food trucks too.
Little River Nature Preserve is a small 16-acre prop erty across from Oxford Town Hall. Signage is planned throughout to identify various flora found through the preserve. The first phase of the preserve is completed. The second phase of the preserve will add a pedestrian bridge over Little River as well as finish the nature trail within. Once completed, a short hiking trail will be added on the west side of Little River.
Visit their Facebook page for more detail
Open Houses Scheduled
On the first and third Sunday each month the Twitchell-Rowland Homestead is open to the public from 2 pm to 4 pm. Docents chat about the history of the house and the items found inside as well as other topics of interest to the community. There is no charge for these open days: May 4 and 18; June 1 and 15. Check out the newly opened one room Munn School.
Books produced by the Society are available for purchase as well as unique notecard sets created using local art and photographs. Proceeds benefit the society’s events and activities plus maintenance of the buildings and grounds.
On Display: Textiles old & new are on show for the Fiber Fest. Society members and friends share weaving selections, embroidery and decorative stitching and other special effects on fabrics collected from all over the world.
Annual Spring Fund-Raising Underway
May 7 & 8 – Valley Community Foundation’s GreatGive.
This online giving event for area non-profits offers OHS an opportunity for more donations. Last year our supporters helped us reach 1500. If you missed the recent 36hour GiveLocal, please consider the GreatGive.. You can make a difference. Help us grow! Please donate at https://www.thegreatgive.org/organizations/oxford-historical-society using credit card or Paypal.
Bonuses can be earned as well. Please consider us again, and thank you to those of you who are such constant ‘friends’ to the Oxford Historical Society
CCF Give Local 2025
This online fundraising campaign April 29 through April 30 helped OHS earn 11000 in pledges from 17 donors. Additional bonuses and prizes are possible and there may be checks in the mail.
Ion Bank’s Community Awards Program
Thank You! We are grateful to Ion bank customers who voted to support community non-profits with funds from the Ion Bank Foundation, sponsor of this event for the past 16 years. Your vote helped earn Oxford Historical Society a total of 1325 with each vote worth 125 in our ‘pot’. Every bit helps!
OHS membership
OHS membership forms can be downloaded at the OHS website. Mail forms and checks to OHS, PO Box 582, Oxford, CT 06478. Individual memberships are 110, Seniors and Junior Associates (under 18) 110, Families 125 and Business Supporters (1200).
Member dollars help with society expenses and ac tivities, and the numbers of members are used by grant givers as an indication of involvement with the community. Also listed are opportunities for volunteering. Be sure to check those that appeal to you. Being a member really counts for us!
Join the Effort to Preserve Oxford’s Historic Rural Heritage
- Follow us on Facebook: @oxfordhistoricalsociety.
- Like our Facebook page to let foundations know the Society has your support.
- Join the Historical Society. Download a membership form here
- Visit the Twitchell-Rowland Homestead and learn more about our activities.
- Sign up for special tours & programs.
ETTY “MIN” BARKER SCHREIBER (1915 – 2008)
Etty Barker met David Schreiber on a blind date planned by a mutual friend. “Dave Schreiber thinks he’s something,” the other woman advised Etty. “Take him down a notch.” Etty did. She married him.
Etty and her widowed mother emigrated to the United States from Wales when she was 12, moving in with relatives on Hawthorne Avenue in Derby. A touch of her Welsh accent accompanied her through high school and a year of business school to an office job.
After she and Dave eloped in 1940 to Elkton, Maryland, they first lived in the house at 648 Quaker Farms Road where her son, Paul, and his wife, Lyle, now reside. From there, they moved to the home south of the Schreiber Farm where the family of 5 children (John, Dave, Fay, Martin, and Paul), 2 parents, and Etty’s mother squeezed under the roof of the small house. In 1955, they relocated to the family homestead at 571 Quaker Farms Road.
Dave was a full-time farmer, beginning with 35 cows and increasing his herd until he was milking 140 Holsteins. Along with being a wife and mother, Etty cared for 5,000 chickens and peddled eggs. The entire family pitched in to help with the garden. Like other Oxford housewives, Etty canned and froze the extra produce to feed her family in the winters.
Bright and organized, she put her business training to work, managing the registration paperwork for the Holstein Friesian Association for each of the Schreibers’ purebred cows and keeping track of their bloodlines. This was particularly challenging because it included an outline of each animal to be filled in with a drawing of each bovine’s distinctive black markings on its white hide.
While helping Dave run the farm, Etty managed to feed her large family. The Schreiber family has pre served her well-used copy of The Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer from 1921. Layered within its splashed pages are recipes Etty clipped from newspapers or was given by friends.
When Dave became the New Haven County Agricultural Extension Agent, he attended a lot of meetings. Oxford town politics and the Inland Wetlands Commis sion took him away from home even more. When Quaker Farms was threatened by a proposed huge reservoir that would have flooded the historic area, it was Dave who organized his neighbors and successfully fought the project.
Throughout all this, Etty was a private person. Somebody had to stay home with the family, and she preferred to be the one. She often offered to babysit for the local children so that their parents could attend meet ings. She also contributed desserts for the refreshments that followed.
Etty’s life was not all work. In later years, she and Dave traveled to Australia and Europe on trips organized by the Litchfield County Extension Service. Today, she is remembered very fondly by her family. “A real good lady,” said Paul of his mother. His wife Lyle, described her mother-in-law as “classy” and offered one of Etty’s favorite cooking quotes for this article: “Butter ruins nothing but a good black silk dress.”
The Oxford Historical Society thanks Paul and Lyle Schreiber for their contributions to this article.
OXFORD HERITAGE RECIPE:
This recipe for Autumn Surprise Cake that Etty typed must have been one that she often sent to events with her husband. At the bottom, she wrote, “This cake is best prepared a day or more before use. I make it a lot for meetings. It seems to be a great favorite of men.”
AUTUMN SURPRISE CAKE
- 4 cups cored, unpeeled apples (4-5 med. size apples). Slice in small pieces or chop.
- Add 2 cups sugar, mix and let stand until juice forms. Stir.
- Sift together 3 cups flour, 2 tsp. soda, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. cinnamon, ½ tsp. nutmeg, and ½ tsp. cloves. Add to apple mixture and mix well.
- Beat 2 eggs and 1 cup salad oil and add to the above mixture, mixing well.
- Add 2 cups raisins (I use part golden raisins) and 1 cup chopped nuts.
- Place in a well-greased tube pan and bake at 350 degrees for 60 to 75 minutes or bake in two 8-inch square pans for 35 – 40 minutes. Cool before removing from pan.
New Programs at the Munn Schoolhouse!
Join our all ages arts explorations drop in activities for pre-K through adults and seniors. Look for a selection of materials at each session and be sure to dress for mess: paint, paper, chalk, fiber (yarn and fabric, thread and buttons). Using basic skills, participants can try weaving on portable looms, sewing or knitting. Your imagination is the key. We are open to suggestions.
Stop in at the Twitchell Rowland Museum for a tour of the Homestead and then investigate the newly opened Munn Schoolhouse to take part in the Fun at the Munn on first Sundays of each month. These free events run on June 1, July 6, August 3 and September 7, from 2-4 pm. While presented by Historical Society members, volunteers are welcome to help. All children must be accompanied by an adult.
Love history? Fascinated by old houses?
What a great opportunity to share your passion by becoming a docent at The Homestead. We will give you training and you can share the fun with other volunteers. You do not need to be a member to qualify. For more information contact: Nancy Farnum 203-888-0230.
Coming Events!
Society Dates for 2025
Mark your calendars and then look for more as we add events:
NEW! Summer 2025: Fun@theMunn. First Sundays from 2-4 pm, drop-in – June 1, July 6, August 3. Craft & art exploration activities for all ages. – Munn Schoolhouse, 60 Towner Lane – free.
August 16 (4-7 pm) – Peach Festival – GHUMC, Seymour – Admission charged.
September 7. Fun@theMunn First Sundays from 2-4 pm, drop-in. Craft & art exploration activities for all ages. – Munn Schoolhouse, 60 Towner Lane – free.
October 5 (noon – 4 pm) – Vintage Tractor Meet – The Homestead, 60 Towner Lane – free.
November 15 (2-4 pm) – Oxford Historical Society Annual Meeting with program re-enactor Kevin Johnson as ‘Professor Jim’ of Trinity College – GHUMC, Seymour – Admission charged.
December 7 (2-4 pm) & 21 (2-4 pm) – Holiday Open House – The Homestead 60 Towner Lane – free
January 4, 2026 (2-4 pm) – Twelfth Night at the Homestead, refreshments – 60 Towner Lane – free.