Babbie Rural & Farm Museum opens with new exhibits, vibrant murals

PERU | Family farmers, museum founders, friends and volunteers of the Babbie Rural & Farm Learning Museum opened their doors for the 2026 season's start in May. The day was highlighted with the formal unveiling of two new murals and an official ribbon-cutting at the new one-room schoolhouse. Even as the opening hour approached, Babbie farmers and curators put finishing touches on items out for display. Babbies maintain a vast collection of implements, early trades' tools, kitchen and home equipment, tractors, trucks, telephones and even children's toys that tell stories of how rural communities settled and grew in the North Country. All items in their collections are original, authentic pieces from times past, many with labels worn from years of use. Lee Babbie Ledesma, the museum's executive director, placed items into the Washing Day exhibit and set photographs above the Hoosier in the Farm Kitchen. A row of well-worn aprons arrayed by the stove once belonged to family and friends, women whose long hours in the kitchen formed a core of rural home and farm life. "Yes, my grandmother's," she said of an apron. "Most of the things we have here were collected over time by my father, Leeward. Some were donated to us, others came from auctions. I think it was one of those activities, too, that brought my dad and my brothers together, because they would go to auctions. My older brother restores tractors, his sons do the painting and he does the mechanical work." The legacy carries on. Farm and Rural Learning museum founder, Leeward Babbie, passed away in August last year at age 87. His legacy continues, timeless, in every room and shed and shelf on the farm, a heritage very much a part of 2026 opening day. The first mural unveiled creates a backdrop to a collection dedicated to Leeward Babbie. "It's been tough to move along without him," David Babbie, Leeward's son, said. "But I know that the work that we've done, he'd be smiling ear-to-ear. It's all good stuff." David and Lee thanked all of the volunteers who help keep the museum organized and interpret displays at the museum. "Without them, we wouldn't be able to do it. This little corner is for my father," David said. The Babbies slipped the cover off the mural to reveal Leeward seated on a bright red Farmall tractor, making hay. Karen Babbie, David's wife, is the president of Babbie Farm board of directors. "We are continually blessed to have the community that surrounds us," she said. "We wouldn't be able to do this without them all, our businesses, our museum members, our neighbors, our donors. Everybody is behind us, 100 percent, and we are so grateful." HOMAGE TO A FORGE A second new mural graces the weather-worn side of the Blacksmith Shop, which was designed and built to authentic detail by local artist, sculptor and blacksmith Bill Umbreit. It portrays Umbreit leaning over an anvil, as his forge hammer shapes a red-hot end of iron. Both of the Babbie Farm mural installations were painted by local artist Greg Badger, who was on hand with his family for the unveiling. "We feel very fortunate to have him as a part of our museum and of our history," Lee said. Umbreit was on hand for opening day with forge apprentice Thaddeus Booth Trudo, a military historian and museum collections technician with the Clinton County Historical Association. OPENING THE SCHOOLHOUSE Just down the farm lane, the bright red One Room School House was duly celebrated with Babbie family children holding tight to a length of blue ribbon. "We started to design it," David said of the school. "My father really wanted to find an existing one and take it apart and bring it here, but I said we could make one like they were." Design and construction began two years ago, David said, and came together with many hands, volunteer carpenters and donations. "We're so proud of it," he said. "And my father would be, too." Local historian Bob McGee provided context with a look at a few one-room school buildings that once dotted nearby hamlets. He recalled attending the school building in Merrill, near Lyon Mountain. "In 1944, I turned six years old and I started at this schoolhouse," McGee said, holding up an historic photograph. "This one was at Lapham's Mills," he said, sharing an image of a small schoolhouse built of stone. "My great-grandfather, Beauregard McGee, had 12 children and they all went to this school. And my dad's siblings went to this school." He held up a framed chalk slate that was once used by students to practice the three primary subjects: reading, writing and arithmetic. McGee pointed to the pot-bellied stove inside the school, and appointed David Babbie to be "the oldest boy at school," who was assigned the task of getting the fire going every morning and water pails filled. "There was a big bell on top and at 9 o'clock every day, they'd pull the rope and ring the bell, and the sound would go for miles," McGee said. "That was the start of school. The school day lasted from 9 to 5." Inside the new school room exhibit, desks with holes for inkpots are arranged facing the front of the room, and the "current" lesson featured in maps and illustrations on the wall looks to the Battle of Valcour. In 1880, students started using a lead pencil, McGee said. "It was a lot more practical and not as messy as pen and ink or a chalkboard. It was easy," he said, "if you made a mistake, you could erase it." The new murals and locally interpreted one-room schoolhouse are part of a museum complex that stretches along the hillside off River Road in Peru. With 18 buildings to explore and pens with farm animals to meet and greet, the Babbie collection tells a rich story of self-reliance, resilience, hard work and progress made over the past century and a half. Out-buildings include the fully operational blacksmith shop, a shingle mill, sawmill, a fully-restored 200-year-old Goshen General Store and displays with artifacts used for early maple sugar making, ice harvesting, clothes washing, butter making, harvesting and more. The museum opens monthly for weekend events and provide rides along on old fire trucks, wagons and the stagecoach. There are hands-on displays and play areas throughout the farm. FIND OUT MORE Babbie Rural & Farm Museum is open for five special event weekends, through summer. The weekend dates and themes are: June 13 and 14: Dairy Days July 18 and 19: Homesteading and Woodworking Aug. 22 and 23: Kids Fair and Festival Sept. 12 and 13: History Matters Silent Auction Oct. 10 and 11: Harvest Weekend, Closing Classes are presented each month throughout summer with Needle Felting scheduled for May 31. To learn more about Babbie Rural and Farm Museum, visit their website: babbiemuseum.org Or follow their announcements and history notes on Facebook: facebook.com/babbiemuseum

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Babbie Rural & Farm Museum opens with new exhibits, vibrant murals

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