ALLENSVILLE — Matthew Dodd never imagined a family trip to Harpers Ferry National Historic Park would launch his career as a Pennsylvania troubadour, offering music-and-history programs featuring different American themes and historical periods.

Inside the White Hall Tavern building located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, Dodd mused that it would be a great place for someone to dress in period clothing and sing Civil War songs.

“My kids said, ‘That would be you, Dad,'” he recalled, and he has been presenting songs and stories about the red, white and blue ever since.

“I’ve always been a song-sponge” and is intrigued by “the little stories behind them,” said Dodd, of Mechanicsburg, who has been a schoolteacher for more than three decades and a traveling, performing musician for even longer.

He combines his love of American history and of American folk music in his presentation and has performed his shows in at least 10 states and Canada.

Dodd’s music is featured in an Emmy-nominated documentary film on Civil War music, produced by Nashville Public Television.

On Thursday, Sept. 11, he will bring his “Songs and Stories of the American Revolution” to the Mifflin County Historical Society Fall Banquet to be held at the Penn Valley Christian Retreat in Allensville.

Seating begins at 5:45 p.m. and a family-style roast turkey dinner will be served with all the trimmings. Dodd will provide the after-dinner entertainment, taking his audience back in time to the days of the American colonial settlement and the American Revolution.

“The Revolutionary War theme is a prelude to next year’s 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, which the nation will be acknowledging through 2026,” said Forest Fisher, volunteer with the Mifflin County Historical Society of this year’s guest. “It seemed fitting to kick off that celebration a bit early.”

Using rousing period songs and stories that put the songs into the context of the time, Dodd brings to life the exciting days of 1776. Dressed in colonial garb, he sings and plays guitar, banjo and mandolin.

Though he continued teaching, he spent a year and a half “immersing myself in the songs” and preparing a program.

Dodd, of Mechanicsburg, has now been performing for more than 30 years. And he has expanded his repertoire to about 20 different shows, combining storytelling with music. He has gradually added shows over the years.

While the “Songs and Stories of the Civil War” program is the oldest — and dear to him, he said — a visit to the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site in Cresson, led him to explore other themes.

“The rangers there said, ‘You should do a railroad show,'” he said, and “Songs and Stories of Old Railroad Days” was born.

“I do a lot of retirement centers,” he said, “and one time someone said, ‘You should do the Old West.’ And then I got a call from a canal group …”

In addition to the Civil War, the Old West, railroads and canals, Dodd has put together programs focusing on sailing, hobos, American road and most holidays.

Part raconteur, part entertainer, Dodd said his decades as a special-education teacher prepared him well for his musical career.

“You have to be an entertainer” to keep the students focused, said Dodd, who combines his love of American history and of American folk music in his presentation and has performed his shows throughout 10 states and Canada. He eventually retired from a school district in Cumberland County, Pa.

His Civil War music is featured in the Nashville Public Television video documentary, “Civil War 150 — Civil War Songs and Stories”

along with members of the Oak Ridge Boys, Crystal Gayle, Bo Bice and others.

The cost for tickets is $25 for members and $30 for non-members. Children ages 4 to 10 are half price. Reservations must be paid in advance.

The deadline to purchase tickets is Tuesday, Sept. 2 or when the event sells out.

For more information, call (717) 242-1022 or email office@mifflincounty history.org or find the Mifflin County Historical Society’s page on Facebook.