Conference Speakers & Personalities: Biographies  

Keynote Speaker: Robert J. Miller

Robert J. Miller is a Catholic priest, the pastor of St. Dorothy Church in Chicago. He is the founder  and chair of Genesis Housing (a not-for-profit affordable housing corporation) and the author of five other books, the most recent of which is Surprised by Love.

Joseph Reed

Joseph was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and like many other reenactors had an interest in history from an early age.

As a child artist at the age of five he had an innate sense period form and would draw elevations and cross sections of old fashioned houses, complete with furnishings, decor and figures in period dress.

Joseph began collecting antiques at around the age of eight when he began visiting his neighborhood antique store. As his knowledge about antiques grew so did his collection. Today he owns an extensive ensemble of furnishings dating from the late 18th century to the time of the civil war with a particular interest in early lighting.

He received his first scholarship from the Sophia Thurman fund for his essay on historic preservation. He has also been published in several national newspapers for his articles on historic preservation.

Joseph along with his mother Brenda have been civilian civil war reenactors for 13 years and have been volunteers at Hale Farm & Village 19th century museum as first person interpreters in Bath, Ohio.

Currently Joseph lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL and is a writer and appraiser for an auction house.

Suzy Beggin, Shepherdess

In college I majored in history while working during the school year at the campus museum, and at the same time I started Civil War reenacting, and went to my first event in 1989.

After college, with my history degree in hand and big dreams in my heart, I started working -- drum roll, please -- as a secretary!  So much for the value of a history degree!  But I continued with my Civil War reenacting in the summer, and in the winter months I volunteered as a costumed interrupter at Kline Creek Farm, an 1890s living history museum.   

I had started out as a farb (don’t we all?), but as I learned more I strove to make both my 1860s and my 1890s impressions more authentic.  I started with my clothes and appearance, and then branched out to what activities a Victorian woman would be doing to occupy her time.  That’s when I discovered knitting. 

I became a knitting fiend, specializing in Civil War sock knitting using a pattern I created from studying, with a magnifying glass, a pair of surviving socks pictured in Echoes of Glory.  Then I decided it would be even more authentic to spin my own yarn, so I bought a spinning wheel.  When I moved out of town and into the country, I bought sheep so that I could spin my own wool.  And as I learned more about sheep and shepherding, I added historic breeds of sheep to my flock.  

I started volunteering and later was invited to join the Board of Directors at the local history museum, the Stephenson County Historical Society.  After two years of volunteering, I landed the Dream Job and became the Executive Director for the next six years. 

Imagine being paid to do what I was doing all the time anyway - engrossing myself in history!  In my new position I spent my time maintaining artifacts, creating programs, supervising exhibits, researching, and giving tours of an 1857 Victorian mansion, a Log Cabin built in 1843, a One Room School House, and a Farm & Industrial Museum that specialized in Midwest farming in the horse-power era (1850-1920).  I wrote the Newsletter, brought programs to schools and nursing homes, researched and labeled exhibits, and basically oozed history from every pore.   

But with the Historical Society growing and prospering and my little shepherdry expanding, I had to make a choice.  So even though I loved the job, I resigned from the Historical Society in the spring of 2004 to take on a regular job of only 40 hours a week.  With my new-found freedom I'm spending more time tending my sheep, knitting, researching vintage patterns, promoting my wool at historical sites and events, and reenacting. 

Today I live in Jo Daviess County, a beautiful part of Northwest Illinois.  My little farm provides plenty of room for my sheep to graze and play in their pasture, with access to a hand-made wood barn for shelter and protection.  I live in an old farm house with fabulous woodwork throughout and lovely pocket doors between the double parlors.  The house was built early in the 20th century (without plumbing - the toilet was added later), and is a classic two-story farm house style typical in this area from the 1870s to the 1920s.

Sandy Melcher 

Sandy Melcher has been involved with 19^th century living history since 1993, and 18^th century living history since she was a child.  Her father instilled the importance of understanding how our fore-mothers and -fathers affect our lives today.  Sandy has been a speaker and teacher on many different topics of the 1860’s.  Her main focus has been on ladies headwear, mourning practices, and medicine in the home.  She spoke at the Ladies of the 1860’s Conference in Harrisburg, PA, has taught a needlework workshop at Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville, TN and has spoken at numerous venues throughout the  living history community. 

Kay Gnagey

Kay was born in Germany. She lives in a late Victorian house in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Historical clothing has been a source of fascination from early childhood. Growing up in a household full of books on art history, she was more interested in the people and the clothes they wore in those paintings than the great master's brush strokes! She received her first book on history of clothing when she was 10 - James Laver's Fashion, it was quickly followed by Max von Boehn's History of Manners and Modes and many others. Her Barbies had Elizabethan ruffles and hoop skirts, her school notes were dotted with doodles of fancy period clothing.

This interest brought her first to the theater and she was wardrobe mistress for an award winning production of "My Fair Lady" by the Munster Garrison Players, Germany. However, her parents insisted that she study something "proper", so now she has a MA in Education with major in Math, and a MS in Math from Purdue. Perhaps this means that she does bring at once an artistic and an analytic mind to this endeavor (at least it probably helps with pattern drafting!).

She has always enjoyed sewing, and as her children are now finally old enough to drive themselves, she felt it was time to finally follow her dream and make a lifelong interest her business.

Kay is the proprietress of Originals by Kay. She was also involved in the movie project "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and designed and executed the clothing worn by the family and her work has appeared in a number of other film projects.

Victoria Rumble

Soup’s On is the sixth book to Victoria Rumble’s credit.  Her books and magazine articles address issues of various aspects of 19^th century material culture including historic foodways, etiquette, domestic economy, mourning customs, letter-writing etiquette, gardening, herbals, crafts, clothing, etc.   

Mrs. Rumble has been a contributing editor for Citizen’s Companion, is a regular contributor for the Civil War Courier, and prior to founding Thistle Dew Books she was a free-lance writer for over 20 years.   

She has worked as a consultant at several historic sites and national parks developing and implementing historical interpretive programs to meet each site’s individual needs.  She conducts workshops on 19^th century life, and teaches open hearth cooking classes by appointment. 

For a list of Mrs. Rumble’s other books in print please see http://www.geocities.com/thistledewbooks, and for a sampling of her many magazine articles please see http://www.geocities.com/homespunlhg. 

Marta Vincent

I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, am married and have been retired from my “real world” job for 9 years.  This will be my tenth season as a re-enactor; I am  a member of the McHenry County Civil War Roundtable, and hold an office on the secular level in my church..

I am the sole proprietor of Mrs. Vincent's Parasol Emporium.  I collect, study, repair and recover period parasols. I research parasols and umbrellas, and I have had an article on parasols published in the Civil War Historian Magazine.  In my spare time, I am a seamstress as part of Originals by Kay, and a partner in P. Palmer Dry Goods, a traveling Civil War Mercantile.  My husband and I are also developing a line of period correct traveling furniture; and I host workshops in my home.