Participants dress up for a recent Rendezvous event in which they portray characters from history. The 28th annual Southeastern Primitive Rendezvous is set for Saturday through April 5 in Jasper.

By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



In just a few days, one Mt. Olive couple will step back in time to live life the way their ancestors did.

James and Mary Vaughn are heading up the 28th annual Southeastern Primitive Rendezvous Saturday through April 5 in Jasper.

The event, sponsored by the National Rendezvous and Living History Foundation, Inc. and the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association, combines many areas of history as people dress and live as people did from 1650 to 1840.

The participants live with no electricity or running water during the week. They wear period clothing and eat food cooked the way it was during that time period.

“Different people show up at Rendezvous with an interest in different times in history,” said James Vaughn. He said some people represent certain historic areas, while other people dress as specific people like Andrew Jackson or Davy Crockett.

He dresses as a merchant, or a middle-class person.

“Back then, there were a lot of poor people and not many rich people, and even fewer in between,” he said. “I would fit into any time period of the event.”

Vaughn said he is particularly interested in the 1800-1840 time period because that’s when the state of Alabama was being formed.

He is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge about the early formation of the state, including the Creek Civil War, the Fort Mims massacre of 1813 and other events.

“It’s not one of those areas of history that’s well-known,” he said.

Vaughn, who is in charge of the Rendezvous, is called the booshway, from the French “bourgeois.”

His wife Mary Vaughn is the event’s scribe. Their titles are taken from old fur-trading terms.

The couple has been participating in living history events for about eight years.

Mary Vaughn said her husband got her interested in participating by taking her to several events at Fort Toulouse-Fort Jackson State Historic Site in Wetumpka.

“I finally believed I could do it,” she said.

The first year the Vaughn’s participated, they had no tent, but sold their goods on a blanket on the ground.

“They were warmly received, so the next year we had a lean-to,” she said.

By the third year, they had made enough money to buy a tent.

Mary bakes pies, cinnamon rolls and other foods to sell. The couple also sells leather goods and woodworked items that James makes.

Other participants sell clothing, hand-woven baskets, copper utensils, hand-punched tin lanterns, food and more.

Also at Rendezvous will be blacksmiths and people portraying Native Americans, Scottish men and women, merchants, and other people from 1650-1840.

There will be shooting matches with guns like those used by Daniel Bone; tomahawk and knife throws, archery; cooking competitions and events for children.

The opening ceremonies for Rendezvous begins at 11 a.m. Saturday. There will be live music and an auction.

On Sunday, there will be a re-enactment of a sermon that was delivered to militia men on their way to a Revolutionary War battle.

Scottish Highland games will be played on April 2.

Vaughn said every day of Rendezvous is different.

The event is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday through April 5 at Backwater Park in Jasper.

Admission is $3 for those 16 and older. The cost for children is $2 or free with an adult. The maximum cost for a family is $10.

To learn more about Southeastern Primitive Rendezvous, visit www.cahabatraders.com or www.nrlhf.org.