Historic Oak View County Park
Educational Tour Packet
HOVCP052011
HISTORIC OAK VIEW COUNTY PARK
4028 Carya Drive
Raleigh, North Carolina 27610
(919) 250-1013
Directions
From the I-440 Beltline, take Poole Road
(Exit 15) and head east toward Wendell
(away from Downtown Raleigh). Look for
white fence on left. At stoplight, turn left
onto Carya Drive (entrance to Wake
County Office Park) and follow Carya,
veering left at the fork. At the circle, take
the left-most road (marked “Historic Oak
View Lane”) and continue all the way to
the Farm History Center.
Farm History
Center
Entrance to
Oak View
What to expect when your class visits
Historic Oak View County Park
We will need your students into three (or less) groups for the program.
If you are bringing 3 or fewer classes, they can stay in their class groups.
If you have more than 3 classes, please divide them into 3 separate groups.
There is no need to separate your class into smaller groups, as they will be together for all
activities at Historic Oak View County Park.
Please prepare a nametag for each child- this allows staff to interact and communicate on a more
personal level with each child.
Please tell your students to be prepared with weather-appropriate clothing. Some buildings are not
climate-controlled, and you will be outside as you transition between programs.
When you arrive, the bus(es) will need to pull in front of the Farm History Center. The students will
unload there, and will line up in their groups. The bus(es) can then park behind the Farm History Center
if they are staying on-site.
Parent chaperones are not required; if you’d like to bring chaperones, please limit to 15 parents per trip
due to space restrictions.
If you plan to picnic on-site, lunches can be unloaded when you arrive and left in the Farm History
Center while you receive your programs. You will eat in the Bluebird Shelter.
Groups will rotate through the 3 programs you chose, with each group starting with a different program.
The program choices are below, please refer to your confirmation email to know which three you’ll
receive.
Change Over Time
Through an interactive presentation in the Farm History Center, students will learn about 400 years of
agricultural history in North Carolina and visit a real sharecropper’s cabin!
From Field to Fiber
In this interactive program, students will learn about the history of cotton in North Carolina. They
will even get to try their hand at picking cotton!
(crop and weather permitting)
All in a Day’s Work
This hands-on program - presented in the early 20th-century livestock barn - allows students to try out
farm chores. Students will be historical detectives as they investigate artifacts. They will also meet
the park’s resident goats: Boyd & Quint!
In the Farm’s Kitchen
This program will allow students to explore the daily work done in the farm’s kitchen through handson and sensory activities. Students will try their hands at butter making and cleaning laundry with a
scrub board and lye soap!
Exhibit Tour Program
Each spring, Historic Oak View County Park has an exhibit in the Main Farmhouse. The topics vary
year-to-year, but are all related to history, or agricultural history, and generally cover the years
between 1850 and 1950.
In 1829, Benton S. D. Williams bought a piece of land in eastern Wake County from a man named
Arthur Pool. Mr. Williams paid $135.00 for the property that included 85 acres and a few buildings. One of
those buildings was a plank kitchen built around 1825. This kitchen was probably the first home that Mr.
Williams and his wife lived in on the farm. Over the next thirty years, Mr. Williams added more and more to his
property that eventually totaled over 900 acres of land. In 1855, the two-story main house was completed and
Benton and his family began living there.
The property was eventually named Oak View because of the four large oak trees planted around the
main house. The Oak View farm was not considered a plantation because it was too small with too few slaves.
However, the family was successful at farming. By 1860, just before the start of the American Civil War, the
family owned ten slaves and produced about ten, 400-pound bales of cotton per year.
Benton and his family were Unionists, which means that they supported the North instead of the South
during the war. Benton believed that North Carolina should remain a part of the United States and so he and his
sons chose not to volunteer to fight in the war. After the Civil War, many southern farmers increased the amount
of cotton they grew on their farms. Almost all of the farms in Wake County began to grow cotton. Benton
Williams was an important man in Wake County at this time. He served as one of four representatives from this
area at the 1868 North Carolina Constitutional Convention. This meeting allowed North Carolina to apply to
reenter the United States after the Civil War, and to change the State Constitution to make slavery illegal. Oak
View is the only house of any of the delegates to survive today.
Mr. Williams died in 1870. His property was divided between his wife Burchett, and his children.
Burchett died in 1886, and the property was sold to pay bills. Businessmen Job P. Wyatt and Phil Taylor bought
the house, outbuildings, and 178 acres of land. Soon enough, Wyatt bought Taylor’s half of the farm and the
Wyatt family operated the farm. They experimented with different types of crops and seeds on the Oak View
farm. In 1911, the Wyatts decided to diversify their farm, which means they wanted to grow more than just one
crop, like cotton, on the property. The Pecan Grove was planted for this purpose. While operating Oak View as a
farm, they continued to operate the Wyatt-Quarles Seed Company, which was founded in 1881 and still does
business in Raleigh today.
The Wyatt family never lived at Oak View. Instead, they hired a farm manager to live in the house and
oversee farm workers. These workers were paid wages and lived in tenant houses on the farm. These houses are
no longer at Oak View. The Wyatts built additional buildings including the Cotton Gin House, Livestock Barn,
and Carriage House, which are still on the property.
In 1940, Julian M. Gregory acquired the property, and then sold the farm to Gregory Poole, Sr. in 1941.
The Poole family lived there until 1943 during which time they made many changes and improvements to the
property. The house was made larger with the addition of an indoor kitchen, sunroom, and library, and more
modern with indoor plumbing and electricity. The barn and farm equipment were also updated.
By 1944, Oak View was owned by James and Mary Bryan. The Bryans didn’t farm Oak View, but did
raise cattle. They built the pond where Canada geese live today. In 1955, Chauncey and Ella Mae Jones bought
the farm and rented some of it out to farmers for several years. In 1984, Wake County bought 72 acres of Oak
View land and decided to build an office park. All of the buildings, the main house, and the pecan grove were
scheduled to be destroyed. A committee of interested people got together to ask the Wake County
Commissioners to save the property. The land was registered as an important historic site in 1991 and in 1995,
Wake County Parks and Recreation took over the site and opened it to the public. Historic Oak View was the
first historic site to become a Wake County park. The Farm History Center, opened in 1997, is our visitor’s
center and teaches children and adults about North Carolina agricultural history.
Though no people live at Oak View today, there are two resident goats, Boyd and Quint, who help the
staff to educate the visitors.
The Oak View Cotton Museum
Group Leader Information: The following handout will help you prepare your students for their
upcoming visit to Historic Oak View County Park. We encourage you to share this information with
them. From this portion of the field trip, students will understand the process of cotton production and
learn about North Carolina’s agricultural history.
Cotton begins as a plant in the ground. It has to be planted, tended, picked, and ginned. Americans have been
growing cotton for over 400 years. Cotton ginning is when the seed is separated from the lint. We use cotton
lint to make clothes and other products. The seeds can be used for next year’s crop or pressed to get cotton
seed oil. In early American history, cotton seeds had to be picked out of the lint by hand. This took a long
time because the seeds were sticky and the cotton plant could cut your hands. In 1793, Eli Whitney built a
machine called the cotton gin that separates the seeds from the lint. At Historic Oak View, you will get to see
how a cotton gin really works. Cotton gins can separate seeds from lint 50 times faster than by hand. It sped
up cotton production and made growing cotton cheaper. Farmers started to grow more cotton and make more
money because of this new invention.
By the 1800s, cotton farming was all over North Carolina and other parts of the United States. Many farmers
who grew cotton were able to do it only because they relied on the unpaid labor of slaves. Even though the
cotton gin made processing cotton easier, workers who could hand pick cotton from the fields were very
important. Slaves, like those at Oak View, provided this forced labor. In the 1860s, America fought a Civil
War between the northern and southern parts of the country. This war ended slavery and changed cotton
production. Freed slaves and poor whites began to work on cotton farms as sharecroppers. Each family would
get a house, tools, seeds, and some land to work. Then they would sell their crop and give some of their
money to the farmer who owned the land. Cotton continued to be grown like this in North Carolina until the
early 1900s, but many families were unable to pay their bills when the crop was poor. They went into debt and
could never leave the farmer’s land.
In the 1930s, cotton farming in North Carolina was in trouble. An insect called the boll weevil moved into the
state from Mexico. Boll weevil mothers lay their eggs inside the cotton plant. When the baby boll weevils
hatch, they eat all of the cotton lint. Farmers who try to pick cotton to sell find that there is no cotton left after
the boll weevil. The development of other types of fabric, like polyester, for clothes also hurt cotton farmers.
In North Carolina, many farmers faced this problem by trying to grow other types of crops besides cotton like
tobacco and sweet potatoes.
At the Oak View farm, cotton was grown from the 1850s to the 1920s. Slaves worked the farm until the end
of the Civil War in 1865. By the 1890s, black and white workers farmed here for wages. As you walk through
the Cotton Museum, remember that 100 years ago almost all Wake County farms grew cotton. Farmers sold
most of the cotton and used some of it to make their own clothing. When you walk into clothing stores,
remember that cotton clothes still begin as plants in the ground.
Suggested Pre-Visit Classroom Activities
From Historic Oak View County Park
General Pre-visit Activities for a Visit to Historic Oak View County Park
Set up arts and crafts stations around the classroom with the help of parent volunteers. Allow students
to circulate to each station to learn about and make authentic agricultural crafts. Some suggested
activities include making yarn dolls, cornhusk dolls, acorn tea sets, potato paint stationary, Victorian
sand jars, etc. Access the Internet, American Kids in History book series, or the library for crafts
suggestions and instructions.
Go over the Oak View vocabulary list attached to your packet with your class.
Pre– Visit Activities for the “From Field to Fiber” Program
Photocopy the blank outline map of the state of North Carolina provided in this packet. Take the class
to the school’s library to access books and computers. Ask students to find 3-5 agricultural products for
each of the state’s regions (Coastal, Piedmont, and Mountains). Students should draw a picture and
label the product in the correct region.
Have students guess how many of the different items from the “Did You Know?” page in this packet,
can be made with one bale of cotton.
Have students check their clothing tags to see if they are wearing cotton, if so is it made in America?
Have students find three things at home made from cotton.
Pre-Visit Activities for the “Change Over Time” Program
Photocopy the handout entitled “History of Historic Oak View County Park” for students. Using art
paper, markers, and crayons, have students create an illustrated timeline of the park’s history. You may
also want to provide copies of information from site brochures. At the end of the project, have students
present their timeline to the class and display illustrations in the classroom.
As a class project, have students work together to create an 1855 Raleigh newspaper. Include political
cartoons, feature stories, sports, entertainment, advertisements, etc. All work should be original to the
students, but based on historical research. Publish your newspaper and distribute it in the school
cafeteria at lunch. Send complimentary copies to your school’s administration.
Pre-Visit Activities for the “All in a Day’s Work” Program
Have students to bring in old newspapers and magazines from home and consult your school librarian
for any discarded copies. Have the class cut out pictures and words related to farming in North
Carolina. Students will then paste their materials on construction paper to make collages.
Have students brainstorm what purposes different animals on the farm might serve (ex: chickens: eggs
and meat, horses: pulling plows or carts, goats: eating brambles to clear land and milk and meat, cows:
milk (and cheese and butter) and meat, etc.
Pre-Visit Activities for the “In the Farm’s Kitchen” Program
Ask students to write a journal entry reflecting on how they would get their food if there were
no grocery stores. What would they have to grow? What animals would they have to keep?
What would they have to do without?
Have students brainstorm and draw as many different methods for cooking as they can think of.
Discuss which of these cooking methods could have been used without electricity.
Suggested Post-Visit Classroom Activities
From Historic Oak View County Park
General Post-visit Activities for a Visit to Historic Oak View County Park
Do the Oak View word scramble. Make copies of the word scramble worksheet attached to
your packet.
Do the vocabulary matching activity. Make copies of the matching activity worksheet attached to your packet.
Do the word search activity. Make copies of the word search activity worksheet attached to
your packet.
Post-Visit Activities for the “From Field to Fiber” Program
Ask local vendors to donate cotton seeds, potting soil, fertilizer, and garden tools to your
classroom. Research on the Internet information about the planting and care of cotton
plants. Have your students plant individual seeds in classroom pots and track their growth.
Create a graph charting water use and height of plants. Feel free to consult the staff at Oak
View for tips!
Have students draw out the life cycle of a cotton plant on a paper plate or a circle cut out of
paper or cardboard showing the progression of the cotton plant from seed, to seedling, to
true leaves, to bud, to blossom, to closed immature boll, to open boll. There is a sample
cotton life cycle attached to the packet.
For older students, print out copies of the cotton belt map. Have students research which of
these states seceded from the Union during the Civil War and color them gray. Brainstorm
why so many cotton producing states may have been motivated to secede from the Union.
(Cotton belt states tended to be heavily dependent on slave labor.)
Post-Visit Activities for the “Change Over Time” Program
Have students volunteer some of the things they have in their homes ,or in your classroom,
(such as televisions, game systems, computers, refrigerators, beds, etc.) to be listed on the
board. Ask students if each item would have existed yet in 1855. If not, brainstorm what
might have been used instead.
Do a further elaboration of the sharecropper illustration from the Farm History Center
program. The Sharecropper game can be played in teams of four or five students. Use the
directions provided in the packet and make copies of the game cards that follow.
Have students match the early technology with the later technology that would later replace
it on the worksheet entitled “Change in Technology” attached in this packet.
Post-Visit Activities for the “All in a Day’s Work” Program
After your trip to Historic Oak View County Park, ask students to write a story from the
perspective of children growing up on a farm.
Have students write (and possibly illustrate) a to-do list of chores they might have done if
they lived on a farm. Ask them how long they think these chores would take to do, how
early they might have to get up in the morning to do them, what fun things they might not
have time for, and who would do the chores if they wanted to go on a vacation.
Post-Visit Activities for the “In the Farm’s Kitchen” Program
Go to the school library and check out books relating to farm life in 1800s North Carolina.
Share these with your students. Have students create a diary of the life of Benton or
Burchett Williams, the first owners of Oak View. Depending on the age and ability level of
the students, you may choose to have them write just one entry or compile a diary of
multiple pages.
Have students think of their favorite food. Write a recipe with instructions for making their
favorite food if they could not go to the store to buy the ingredients. (Ex: To make a
hamburger I would have to raise cows, slaughter a cow for the meat, grind the meat, grow
or trade for wheat, mill the wheat to make flour, bake the flour into bread for the bun, plant
lettuce, onions, tomatoes, etc.) Discuss if it be possible for them to make their favorite
foods? How long would they take to make? How difficult would they be to make? How
could it be made easier to get all these different items? Why might specialization within a
community be helpful? How might trade have allowed people to access new and different
foods?
Changes in Technology
Draw a line to match the early technology to the modern technology that would later replace it.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Changes in Technology
Answer Key
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The Cotton Life- Cycle
Oak View Vocabulary
Boll Weevil- An insect from Mexico and the southern United States whose babies hatch in
cotton plants and eat the cotton lint. The boll weevil forced many North Carolina farmers to
stop growing cotton. Look for the boll weevil case and song on the first floor of the cotton gin
house.
Cotton- A plant grown in warm places for the lint around the seed. Cotton lint is used to make
clothing, paper, and other products. You’ll get a piece of raw cotton to take home with you
when you visit Oak View and you may get to pick it yourself from our field!
Cotton gin- A machine built by Eli Whitney in 1793 that takes the seeds out of the cotton lint.
Make sure to crank the cotton gin in the cotton gin house when you visit us.
Plantation- A large farm of at least 1,000 acres and twenty or more slaves. Only ten slaves
worked at Oak view, which was less than 1,000 acres so it was considered a farm and not a
plantation.
Artifact- An object that is old, made by people, and used by people. Learn more about artifacts in the discovery barn at Oak view.
Sliver- A long strand of clean cotton, which becomes strong when twisted. You will get a
piece of sliver to take home when you visit Oak View.
Seed Fork- A pitchfork used to scoop up cotton seeds. Look for the seed fork on the second
floor of the cotton gin house.
Livestock- Animals raised for use on the farm or sold for money. Meet our goats, Boyd and
Quint, in the livestock barn at Oak View.
DID YOU KNOW?
From one 500-pound bale of cotton,
manufacturers could choose to produce:
313,600 $100 bills
21,960 women’s handkerchiefs
4,321 socks
3,085 cloth diapers
1,256 pillowcases
1,217 t-shirts
765 men’s button-down dress shirts
690 terry cloth towels
249 bed sheets
215 pairs of jeans
Information from www.cotton.org
Historic Oak View County Park
Word Scramble
Directions: Use the word list below to unscramble the vocabulary terms.
Some words may not be used.
1.
CSEPNA
_____________________________
2.
SICOLTEKV
_____________________________
3.
RMFA
_____________________________
4.
KAO EWIV
_____________________________
5.
ONTOCT EDES
_____________________________
6.
RANB
_____________________________
7.
KWAE UTNCYO
_____________________________
8.
TOCNOT
_____________________________
9.
NAKLP THCENIK
_____________________________
10.
OTYRSHI
_____________________________
WORD LIST
FARM
LIVESTOCK
COTTON
HARNESS
PLANK KITCHEN
PECANS
MULES
BARN
BUTTER
COTTON SEED
TOBACCO
HISTORY
OAK VIEW
WAKE COUNTY
MILK
KEY
Historic Oak View County Park
Word Scramble Directions: Use the word list below to unscramble the vocabulary terms.
Some words may not be used.
1.
CSEPNA
_______PECANS______________
2.
SICOLTEKV
_______LIVESTOCK__________
3.
RMFA
_______FARM________________
4.
KAO EWIV
_______OAK VIEW___________
5.
ONTOCT EDES
_______COTTON SEED_______
6.
RANB
_______BARN________________
7.
KWAE UTNCYO
_______WAKE COUNTY_______
8.
TOCNOT
_______TOBACCO____________
9.
NAKLP THCENIK
_______PLANK KITCHEN_____
10.
OTYRSHI
_______HISTORY_____________
WORD LIST
FARM
LIVESTOCK
COTTON
HARNESS
PLANK KITCHEN
PECANS
MULES
BARN
BUTTER
COTTON SEED
TOBACCO
HISTORY
OAK VIEW
WAKE COUNTY
MILK
Vocabulary Matching Activity
Directions: After your visit to Historic Oak View, test your knowledge. Match each item
on the left with the definition on the right. Write the letter of the correct definition in the
blank beside the word.
________
1.
boll weevil
A.
an old object made and used by people
________
2.
sharecropper
B.
a pitchfork used to scoop up cotton seeds
________
3.
artifact
C.
global positioning system
________
4.
sliver
D.
nickname for North Carolinians
________
5.
gin
E.
change over time
________
6.
seed fork
F.
food to help plants grow
________
7.
livestock
G.
separates the cotton seed from the lint
________
8.
history
H.
worker given seeds, a house, tools,
and land to farm who gives part of crop money
back landowner
________
9.
bale
I.
a long strand of clean cotton that when
twisted becomes strong
________
10.
research
J.
finding information about something
________
11.
tar heel
K.
insect that eats cotton lint
________
12.
G. P. S. Unit
L.
animals raised for use at home or for money
________
13.
fertilizer
M.
a block of cotton
KEY
Vocabulary Matching Activity
Directions: After your visit to Historic Oak View, test your knowledge. Match each item
on the left with the definition on the right. Write the letter of the correct definition in the
blank beside the word.
___K_____ 1.
boll weevil
A.
an old object made and used by people
___H_____ 2.
sharecropper
B.
a pitchfork used to scoop up cotton seeds
___A_____ 3.
artifact
C.
global positioning system
___I_____
sliver
D.
nickname for North Carolinians
___G_____ 5.
gin
E.
change over time
___B_____ 6.
seed fork
F.
food to help plants grow
___L_____ 7.
livestock
G.
separates the cotton seed from the lint
___E_____ 8.
history
H.
worker given seeds, a house, tools,
and land to farm who gives part of crop money
back landowner
___M_____ 9.
bale
I.
a long strand of clean cotton that when
twisted becomes strong
___J_____
research
J.
finding information about something
4.
10.
___D_____ 11.
tar heel
K.
insect that eats cotton lint
___C_____ 12.
G. P. S. Unit
L.
animals raised for use at home or for money
___F_____ 13.
fertilizer
M.
a block of cotton
Historic Oak View County Park
Word Search
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Can you find these words?
ARTIFACT
CARRIAGEHOUSE
CROPDUSTING
LIVESTOCK
PLANTATION
SEEDFORK
TOBACCO
BALEHOOK
COTTONGIN
ELIWHITNEY
OAKVIEW
PLANTER
SHARECROPPER
WATERTOWER
BOLLWEEVIL
COTTONSEED
HISTORY
PECANGROVE
RESEARCH
SLIVER
KEY
Historic Oak View County Park
Word Search
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Can you find these words?
ARTIFACT
CARRIAGEHOUSE
CROPDUSTING
LIVESTOCK
PLANTATION
SEEDFORK
TOBACCO
BALEHOOK
COTTONGIN
ELIWHITNEY
OAKVIEW
PLANTER
SHARECROPPER
WATERTOWER
BOLLWEEVIL
COTTONSEED
HISTORY
PECANGROVE
RESEARCH
SLIVER
Sharecropper Game
Materials Needed:
Game cards (make enough copies so that there is one house card, tool card, seed card and food
card, as well as at least five cotton cards, per student. Enough dice for each group of four or
five to have one. (A template for folding dice out of paper is provided in the packet if
necessary.)
Object of the Game:
To be the first sharecropper to collect all the supplies needed to start their own farm.
Directions:
-Separate the students into teams of about four or five students each.
-Make separate piles for the cotton, tool, seed, food, and house cards.
-Each student rolls the die, the student who rolls the highest number in the group will be the
landowner who will act as dealer, the others will all be sharecroppers.
-Each student will roll the dice to see how many cotton cards (or how good a "crop”)they will
get for that round (or “harvest.”) Every round the land owner will collect two cotton cards per
player. If you don’t have two cards to give them you are out till your next turn when you can
try again.
-On the second turn, after paying the landowner their share, each player can use any leftover
cotton cards to exchange for a house card, food card, tools card, or seed card supplied to them
by the dealer or “landowner.” When it’s their turn, the player must choose what necessity to
trade cotton for on that turn. They can “trade” with the landowner for one item per turn, until
everyone is out of cotton. When you are out of cotton to trade with your turn is skipped. You
keep the items you have traded for and keep playing additional rounds until someone has
purchased everything they need to start their own farm (tools, a house, seeds, and food.)