Mountain Craft Days celebrates Betty Haupt's legacy

The late Elizabeth "Betty" Haupt, who can be credited as founder of Mountain Craft Days, demonstrated flax spinning at the first festival in 1970.

Now, Mountain Craft Days will once again celebrate her legacy on its 52nd year from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

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Haupt, however, wasn't alone in her craft days endeavors because she always had a way of inspiring others. At the first festival in 1970, there were six original demonstrators — Haupt on the spinning wheel, her husband Earl Haupt splitting wooden shingles, Dave Weimer as the blacksmith, Jean Kimmel as the weaver, Jim Johnson doing maple sugaring and Jim Younkin coopering. All are now deceased.

Mark Ware, executive director of the Somerset Historical Center, vividly remembers the first festival that set the stage for his life. Ware was a 12-year-old junior historian who helped with the food booth and Native American display. His parents, the late Clyde and Hazel Ware, and brother, Clyde Ware, also became very involved as the years passed. The Wares did apple butter and had a general store and brother Clyde handled night security and took apples to the cider mill.

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"Mrs. Haupt was the first to take this festival into the woods. The late Paul Beal laid out the paths and some thought 'no one will go into the woods.' She said 'if they want to see me spin, then they will come to the woods,'" laughed Ware. "I can still remember that first festival when she took her spinning wheel and went up a wooden path and that has become a tradition for every festival. Now being in the woods that is one of the things that makes this festival unique. She was like a second mother to me and a very wise person in our community. Her legacy lives on through this festival."

Betty Haupt was a story in herself. She was a hospital administrator and nurse who married a doctor. She believed in history and genealogy and was a founder of the historical society and also encouraged other communities to start societies. After their deaths in 1985 for Earl and 1990 for Betty, the Haupts willed and donated their home and property, which provided 135 acres for the historical society. And, she would no doubt feel pleased that Ware is at the helm of all this legacy.

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"The founding concept of Mountain Craft Days is to preserve and interpret the historic crafts heritage of Somerset County and surrounding region," said Ware. "Artisans who participate in craft days are selected for their exceptional craftsmanship, skills and the ability to interpret their craft effectively, some of whom have been doing so for 40 years or more."

Since 1991, an annual event at craft days has been an auction benefiting the Haupt Memorial Fund for the Advancement of Traditional Crafts. Monies raised are used for education of artisans and development of new craft demonstrations. The fund also awards mini-grants to artisans and aspiring artisans to develop a trade, receive training with classes or purchase tools and materials that will enhance their demonstrations.

This year, the country auction at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday offers works from artisans who donated crafts to be auctioned off to the highest bidder. James Everett, a gunsmith at craft days, has donated his third flintlock gun to be auctioned at 1 p.m. Saturday. He has been demonstrating gunsmithing at the festival for more than 25 years. The gun is a mid-18th century American-style flintlock pistol crafted by Everett.

This past year, Jennifer Fleszar, of Uniontown, (a pysanky egg decorating artist); Jim Cordek, of Davidsville, (a master wood craftsman); Brett R. Walker, of Ligonier, (a shoemaker) along with his apprentice John Boburchuk Jr., of Windber; and Roy Phillips, of Listie, (called "Tin Man Roy" the tinmaker) each received craft days grants to further their education and bring that learning back to this festival.

They are among 80 juried artisans, food vendors, entertainers and demonstrators who ply their trades, sell their wares, entertain visitors and serve up tasty foods based on local recipes of the region. Some of the foods are prepared by local non-profit organizations.

Ware says it's all about an "unbroken chain of crafts" at the festival, where, for example, Gary Burkett is still spinning flax just like Betty Haupt did and also the Landis family have always been involved in stone cutting and the "succession of crafts has never been lost."

He also related that the artisans who return every year have become their own family. They get together on Friday evening for a potluck dinner and play music, tell stories and watch the magician perform.

"Vendors usually go to a craft show and no one knows each other but for the artisans at Mountain Craft Days it is like old friends coming together for a homecoming," he said.

And, the vendors are plentiful. There will be woodworking, metal, fiber, stone, clay and leather artisans among many others. Entertainers perform in small amphitheaters without the usual sound-amplifying devices in order to offer visitors an old-time musical experience. Visitors will hear the ring of the blacksmith's anvil, listen to the hum and rhythm of spinning wheels, hear the clap of the weaver's loom beater and smell of fresh-cut shavings from various woodworkers.

Foods include apple dumplings, ham potpie, kielbasa, haluski, chicken barbecue, fried mush, kettle-cooked corn-on-the-cob, ham and green beans, funnel cakes, ice cream and more. Also, tractor-drawn wagon rides wind around the wooded road behind the festival.

"Many people come to Mountain Craft Days in the day and go to the New Centerville Jubilee in the evening," said Ware. "Craft Days takes people back to a time that our ancestors lived, before modern machines, before computers or cell phones or modern living, back to the hand-crafted ways of generations ago."

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Mountain Craft Days celebrates founder's legacy after 52 years