CULLMAN, Ala. – Each fall, Cullman’s Peinhardt Living History Farm opens its gates to the public for a hands-on farm experience from the 1930s and 1940s. After being canceled the last two years because of the pandemic, the popular festival is back – and expanded. Normally only one day, this year Peinhardt Farm Day(s) will take place over two days: Saturday, Oct. 15 and Sunday, Oct. 16, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Attractions and activities across the 40 acres will include woodworking, mules, horses, wagon rides, antique tractors, field crops, farm animal petting, syrup making, a grist mill, blacksmithing, sawmill and horseshoeing.
Immigrating to Cullman County with an influx of families from Germany, Karl Peinhardt arrived in the Bethsadia community in the late 1870s. A few decades later, his son, Otto, purchased land and began farming at the farm’s current site off U.S. Highway 278 near the Interstate 65 interchange.
Upon graduation from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University), Otto Peinhardt’s son Carl implemented row crops, dairy cows and hogs on the land and a new generation was born. Carl Peinhardt developed a reputation as a master in the dairy industry and soil conservation. He and his wife, Irene, developed registered Guernsey dairy cattle.
The Renaissance man was a skilled carpenter, rock mason and even musician whose commitment to hard work was evident until mere hours before his passing in 1992 when he was making repairs to a pasture fence at age 80.
From there, Carl Peinhardt’s offspring took the helm. Peinhardt Living History Farm provided an inside look at farm life in the 1930s and 1940s for the first time in 1993. Farm Day, held yearly in October, provides a small taste of what life was like for the children of Carl and Irene. Of their children, only Bill and Eddie remain after their beloved sister Pat was tragically lost earlier this year.
The Peinhardts, in their youth, grew up working hard planting and picking cotton, milking cows by hand and caring for chickens and tending hay crops. Eventually the family invested in a hay baler, with Eddie Peinhardt taking charge, and a milking machine was added in 1953. Men, women and children put their hearts and souls into the family farm.
Peinhardt Living History Farm is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and is located at 1711 Talley Ho St. Admission for Farm Days Oct. 15-16 is $10. Children 2 and younger get in free.
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