Make plans to attend the Midwinter Musicale at 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

MarySue Hormel Harris and her great-nephew, Sam Stacy, will once again share their musical talents with us in a free concert in the Historic Living Room. Refreshments will be served.

As you may know, MarySue is the granddaughter of Ben F. Hormel, George Hormel’s youngest brother. She is a great friend to the Hormel Historic Home and encourages us to promote musical events throughout the year. For this event, she will play piano, and she will share the stage with her gifted relative, Sam, on the guitar.

The Hormel family members were a tightknit group who spent much of their lives in close relation and proximity, many of them living in Austin and helping to grow the Geo A. Hormel and Company business. Ben was only two when George left home to begin his working life, but the two brothers became close when Ben came to Austin to begin his 50-year career with the company which included sales, the supervision of livestock, and public relations.

Following is a description of Ben written by his brother, Rev. William Henry Hormel, in “One Generation Under the American Flag.”

“Ben was the twelfth child of the family, and was the last baby to come into our home. As a baby, he had the special love of us all, and mother seemed loath to let him grow out of her affectionate love as a baby. He enjoyed the richest background of us all in our happy home life. Beginning with his fond parents, he was loved, favored, instructed, and reproved more or less by us all. Ben, perhaps, found the extra barrage from all in the family of love and idealism too much between him and all that he longed to enjoy in life. He was a rugged child, very observing, and full of sound sense with which he drew his own conclusions. He loved the freedom of the great out of doors. His social instincts were unusually developed, and he loved to be with his chums and companions. Everybody in the neighborhood knew Ben, and always greeted him with a, ‘Hello, Ben.’ His highest delight was to be with animal life…”

The description is abruptly ended there in the manuscript, but it is obvious that Ben was the beloved baby who was allowed to develop his individual strengths under the wing of his oldest brother.

You are invited to meet his descendants on Tuesday.

Midwinter Musical

4 p.m., Tuesday

Free concert featuring MarySue Hormel Harris and her Great-Nephew Sam Stacy.

 Hearth & Home Series

10 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 2, free

Truths and Myths of a Gluten Free Diet

Presented by Hy-Vee Dietician, Courtney Kremer