ST. LEO STUDENTS coming to Huntertown Community Interpretive Park on Monday afternoon, May 11, stopped to sing some spirituals while also learning about the history of Huntertown. “Some of the best music, American music, we have is rooted in African American culture,” music teacher Rosie Fedorchuk told students. (Photo by Bob Vlach)

LOCAL HISTORIAN Sioux Finney led students from St. Leo School on a walk at Huntertown Community Interpretive Park on Monday afternoon, May 11. One of the signs that students saw on their history walk had some photos from the 1930s and 1940s depicting life in Huntertown. (Photo by Bob Vlach)

Students from St. Leo School learned about the role African Americans played in local history while visiting Huntertown Community Interpretive Park on Monday afternoon. Joined by their music teacher, Rosie Fedorchuk on guitar, they sang spirituals to tell the stories of African Americans.

“They’ve given so much to American culture,” Fedorchuk says, pointing out “when enslaved people were brought to this country, they brought rhythms, they brought a way of singing” that evolved into many different forms of music – from Jazz to the Blues and Rock and Roll.

Later, before singing “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” Fedorchuk tells the students, “Some of the best music, American music, we have is rooted in African American culture.”

Local historian Sioux Finney enriched the experience of St. Leo students at Huntertown Community Interpretive Park by telling the stories of formerly enslaved people like Jerry Gatewood, who lived here after serving in the U.S. Colored Troops.

“We now know in Woodford County at least 711 men made the freedom journey to Camp Nelson,” Finney tells students. “But once they joined the Union Army, they were free and their families eventually were free as well.”

Walking with the visiting St. Leo students, Finney tells them about homes occupied by families in the years after the Civil War. “Back in the … heyday of Huntertown,” she continues, “there were almost 200 people who lived here.”

All that remains of the houses occupying its 50 acres, which were torn down because of environmental concerns, are the remnants of a front porch. A wood plank fence has been built around the porch, and a sign will be added later to tell the story of the family who once lived here, Finney says.

Later, she tells students that Huntertown’s oldest living former resident, Josephine Carr, comes nearly every day to visit her former homeplace.

Brenda Jackson, another former resident, tells the Sun about growing up in Huntertown while walking behind students. “It’s very important for them to know what it was like,” she says.

While it’ll soon be 70 years ago since she lived in Huntertown, she says, “Those stories are important because you wouldn’t have any idea people lived here. All the houses are gone. All the buildings are no longer here, but it’s important for young people to know” why this park exists.

One of the signs that students pass on their history walk has some photos from the 1930s and 1940s depicting life in Huntertown. A school in this hamlet had as many as 100 students, Finney tells them.

Another sign highlights the history of the Riney-B Railroad, which Finney tells students came through the Huntertown community twice a day. Scrap metal from the Riney-B was taken away in support of World War II.

A few railroad spikes were left behind, which illustrates what Finney says about Huntertown. “We’re always finding pieces of people’s lives here.”