5 Year-old Twins in 1780, Fled for Their Lives
One of the most poignant exhibits at the Old Stone Fort Museum features two small painted boxes that belonged to 5-year-old twin sisters Margreda and Elisabet Kniskern. Beautiful examples of German Folk Art, the pieces are little larger than shoe boxes and were made by the girls’ father, Johannes Kniskern in 1778. The boxes are miniature versions of the style known as a “Schoharie chest” by some collectors.
During the turbulent times in the Schoharie Valley during the American Revolution, three forts were built along the Schoharie Creek. Inside each of the Schoharie Valley forts were lean-to sheds built against the walls where local families could take shelter and keep some of their belongings in the event of a hostile raid, which were common throughout the region at the time.
Since virtually every home from Vroman’s Nose to present-day Central Bridge was burned in the Johnson Raid of 1780, we can surmise that these boxes only survived because they were carried by the little girls into the Lower Fort, where their father was stationed as a marksman.
It is left to our imaginations, however, to guess what precious possessions might have been inside the boxes when the two young sisters fled their home unsure of when and if they would ever be able to return.
After the war, homes were rebuilt and the little girls grew up, married, moved away and had children and grandchildren of their own. In a truly remarkable series of events, both of the boxes were returned separately as donations to the Old Stone (Lower) Fort Museum, each at different times and from different branches of the family descents of Elisabet and Margreda.