Heman Gibbs Farmstead
|
Heman Gibbs Farmstead
|
|
The Heman Gibbs farmhouse
|
|
 
|
|
| Location | 2097 Larpenteur Avenue Falcon Heights, Minnesota |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 44°59′32″N 93°11′18″W / 44.99222°N 93.18833°WCoordinates: 44°59′32″N 93°11′18″W / 44.99222°N 93.18833°W |
| Built | 1854 |
| Architect | Unknown |
| Architectural style | Greek Revival |
| Website | http://www.rchs.com/gibbs-farm/ |
| NRHP Reference # | 75001009 |
| Added to NRHP | April 23, 1975 |
The Gibbs Farm is a museum in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, United States. The site was once the farmstead of Heman Gibbs and Jane DeBow, first built in 1854; the existing farmhouse includes the small, original cabin. The museum seeks to educate visitors on the lives of 19th-century Minnesota pioneers and the Dakota people who lived in southern Minnesota before the arrival of Europeans.
In 1974 the farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The listing consists of the farmhouse and barn, as the other museum structures are not original to the site.
An open-air museum, the Gibbs Farm features an original farmhouse, barn, and school house, as well as a replica sod house, bark lodge, and tipi with replica Dakotah furniture, clothing and tools.
The objects in the farmhouse date from the mid-19th century on and are part of the Ramsey County Historical Society collection; those belonging to the Gibbs family are featured in the house tour. Objects of particular interest include a family hair wreath, original wallpaper, a concealed murphy bed and various other original artifacts.
The museum grounds offer visitors a natural Minnesota prairie as it would have looked like in the 19th Century as well as a Dakotah medicine teaching garden (the turtle garden), Dakotah vegetable garden, pioneer vegetable garden, a heritage apple orchard and farm animals.
The museum focuses on the story of Jane Gibbs (née DeBow), who was taken at age six or seven from the neighbor's home where she was living due to her mother's severe illness near Batavia, NY in 1833 by the Stevens, a missionary family. as a replacement for the daughter, their oldest, whom they had lost to illness. The Stevens family also included two younger boys. They eventually brought Jane west with them where they were assigned by the American Board of Missionaries to bring Christianity to the Dakotah people living near Lake Calhoun, Bde Maka Ska in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota and Lake Harriet. They arrived at Fort Snelling in May 1835 when Jane was nine or nearly nine years old. Once the mission was built on the shores of Lake Harriet about a mile from the village of Cloud Man, Jane attended the missionary school with the part Dakotah children of the soldiers stationed at Fort Snelling and traders and learned to speak their language. She developed a close relationship with the Dakotah and was given the name "Zitkadan Usawin" (Little Crow that was Caught).
...
Wikipedia