WOLFEBORO — Fashionably modern 17-year-olds Kelsey Fleet and Kait Virgue patiently dipped linen wicks into a 150-degree vat of wax and made candles much the way women did in the 1700s.

Candle-making was only one of the many demonstrations they dipped into during the Wolfeboro Historical Society’s first Colonial Family Day held Saturday in conjunction with a French and Indian War-era encampment on the Clark Museum campus.

The young women, both self-described history buffs and students at Kingswood Regional High School, were having a great time.

“We’ve been talking about coming to this event for so long,” said Fleet. “I love this stuff.”

It would take at least 30 dips of the wick into the wax to make one candle — just one example of the time and work that went into 17th and 18th century survival.

“I think we’re spoiled,” said Kait.

Dozens of families with children of all ages turned out for this inaugural event, where they enjoyed guided tours by educated docents and historical society members. Featured were cooking, spinning, doll-making, pottery-making and blacksmithing demonstrations. There were also live lessons in the antique schoolhouse and tours of the old fire station, which houses many pieces of antique firefighting apparatus.

Guiding a tour of the Clark House, Sheryl Ross, portraying Comfort Clark, the wife of Enoch Clark, whose family lived in the home in the 1800s, described just how much work went into an average day.

“Everything you see in this house was made on the farm,” she said. Keeping the home lit took up to 40 candles per week, all made by hand, and some made using multi-stick molds. Each morning she milked 15 cows and made cream, butter and cheese. She spun yarns and made lighter fabrics using flax fibers, which took weeks to ferment in animal urine to break down the exterior hard shell of the stalk.

House fires were a major danger back in the days when a woman’s flowing garments would catch on fire since she was forever tending the stove and working in the kitchen, said Ross. The Clark Museum’s collections include the couple’s gold-trimmed wedding china and antique furnishings from the 17th century, much of which were donated to the museum. The home also includes the town’s first piano (circa 1835) and photographs and documents from New Hampshire Gov. Sir John Wentworth, the British colonial governor during the time of the American Revolution.

Outside, enactors and living history enthusiasts, such as Larry Aielo of Eliot, Maine, representing a member of the Third Massachusetts Provincial Regiment, dressed in colorful red waistcoats and the uniforms of the era. Aielo said he enjoys interacting with people at events such as this to “help understand how our ancestors lived.”

“These events attract those interested in history,” he said.

The encampment on the Clark Museum campus continues through Sunday at noon.

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Larissa Mulkern may be reached at LMulkern@newstote.com.