American Revolutionary War springs to life at Heyburn, Idaho, school

TWIN FALLS — White wigs, shoe buckles, waist coats and knee breeches — along with a lot of obscure facts about American Revolutionary War figures — were on display Thursday during Heyburn Elementary School’s Living Wax Museum.

Heyburn Librarian Melissa Clark, who has a passion for Revolutionary War history, took on the project of guiding the students.

“This is the first time we’ve done it, but it will be yearly,” Clark said. “It gives us the opportunity to teach the entire school about the famous figures in the war and some of the not-so-famous ones.”

Some of the more well-known figures included General George Washington, King George III, Betsy Ross and Benjamin Franklin.

Others like Peggy Shippen, who was married to Benedict Arnold and is touted as the highest paid British spy, also played pivotal roles.

Student Landree Heiner portrayed Elizabeth Burgin, who was an American patriot and helped free 200 prisoners from British prison ships.

“I really enjoyed putting this all together and putting the costume together,” Heiner said.

Student Rebecca Stimpson played Anna Strong, a patriot spy in Washington’s Culper Ring, who sent messages by hanging out a black petticoat and a certain number of white handkerchiefs on her backyard clothesline.

The other students at the school took turns by grades touring the displays set up by fifth graders and listened to them recite facts about the people they portrayed.

Sophie Mitchell, fifth grader, said she’d worked on researching information on Mary Katherine Goddarn since January.

Goddarn was an early American newspaper publisher who editorialized against British brutality.

Mitchell said it was unusual at the time for a woman “to be a full time printer.”

Goddarn’s name, which is the only female name on The Declaration of Independence, can be found at the bottom where she wrote “Baltimore in Maryland: Printed by Mary Katherine Goddard.”

“I’m very impressed with this. The students have worked hard and really put in the effort” fifth grade teacher Amanda Christenson said. “I think it will give them a real appreciation for the history.”

Dressed as Benjamin Franklin, student Hagen Dayhoff, said Franklin was most famous for signing the Declaration of Independence and discovering electricity.

The hardest part of his project, he said, was figuring out how to replicate Franklin’s buckled shoes.

“What the students have learned goes so much deeper than any textbook,” Clark said. “Not many fifth graders know this much about these figures. They are coming to life for them and it’s so exciting.”

TNS