VANDALIA — Cassopolis students from Sam Adams Elementary School brought history back to life as they presented the Cass County Underground Railroad Wax Museum on Tuesday.

The event took place at The Victorian Bonine House at Penn Road and M-60 in Vandalia, home of Underground Railroad stationmasters James E. and Sarah Bogue Bonine.

For the event, fifth grade students from Hannah Deubner’s class researched and adopted characters from the Underground Railroad to act out for visitors. Students were stationed around the Bonine House and visitors were able to go room to room and press a “button” on each of the characters to hear his or her story.

“We’ve been working on it since the beginning of March. They’ve really owned this project and became the characters and its really cool to see them shine,” Deubner said.

Cathy LaPointe and Cindy Yawkey from the Underground Railroad Society of Cass County helped organize this event for the class. Students chose characters from the Kentucky Raid, which happened in 1847 when slave catchers from Kentucky raided farms to capture freedom seekers.

Students portrayed freedom Seekers — which once were referred to as fugitive slaves, pioneer black families who arrived in Cass County in the mid 1840s, Civil War 102nd United States Colored Infantry Regiment, and Connecting Lines family, which was the next stop on the Underground Railroad after Vandalia in Schoolcraft.

Two students even dressed as the original homeowners of the Bonine House.

“They get to tell the local history that a lot of people really didn’t know about. When they come here they’re actually bringing the community back in and telling a story that has pretty much been forgotten for years,” Yawkey said.

Student Klaire Cory was dressed as Angeline Osborn, who was a part of the Kentucky Raid in 1847, where slave catchers captured Freedom seekers.

“My favorite part of doing this is actually being able to tell what she did when she was a little girl and all of the important things that she did,” Cory said.

Visitors were able to explore many rooms of the Bonine House where the students were in character.

“The students bring the history and the house alive because their families come to see them,” LaPointe said. “They learn the story and their grandparents learn the story. The kids take it very seriously. They’re proud of this history and it makes us very happy.”