Ever since the movie Fields of Dreams came out, it is hard not to look at a corn field waiting for baseball players to come out from the field. And while the movie had the line “If you build it, he will come.”, in this case it is, “If you plant it, it will come.” And the ‘it’ was the combine on the far end that came in a few minutes making these rows vanish, like the baseball players vanishing in the field.
Vanishing Corn Field
The harvesting of crops continues and as you drive around the farm land, you might see huge new big combines and others that already have seen many harvest seasons. But to the future generations, the current fancy equipment may appear just as ancient as photographs of my grandparents harvesting with teams of horses.
Today’s Harvest, Tomorrow’s Past
A round barn is a historic barn design that could be octagonal, polygonal, or circular in plan. Though round barns were not as popular as some other barn designs, their unique shape makes them noticeable. The years from 1880–1920 represented the height of round barn construction, especially in the Midwest.
George Washington designed and built a sixteen-sided threshing barn at his Dogue Run Farm in Fairfax County, Virginia in 1793. It is considered the first American round barn.
Round barns were cheaper to construct than similar-sized square or rectangular barns because they required less materials. Agricultural colleges began to push the design in the 1880s as they taught progressive farming methods, based on the principles of industrial efficiency.
The spread of machinery, especially with the Rural Electrification program, eliminated the advantages of labor-saving designs that were more complicated to build, and the popularity of round barns faded.
The list of current round barns in Wisconsin show only this one in Washburn county and I was able to visit it this week with help of a relative driving me to it, so a special thanks to Roger for the fall driving tour pass the round barn which was built in 1918.
Washburn County Round Barn
More than a decade before Laura Ingalls played on the banks of Plum Creek, a girl named Caroline “Caddie” Woodhouse roamed the Wisconsin wilderness. She came of age during the Civil War and loved the outdoors, gathering hazelnuts in the woods, dodging rattlesnakes on the bluff and poling a log raft on the lake. She rather hunt than sew or plow than bake.
She was friends with the local Indians and she often forded the river on tiptoe to watch them make birchbark canoes. When she overheard settlers making plans to attack, the 11-year-old girl got on a horse and rode over at dusk to warn them.
While she had no TV series, her stories relayed by her granddaughter in the 1935 Newbery-winning children’s classic “Caddie Woodlawn,” still fires the imaginations of young readers. Carol Ryrie Brink lived with Caddie from the age of 8 and the real life of her grandmother inspired her to write the book Caddie Woodlawn in 1938 and the sequel book, Magical Melons in 1939.
Caddie Woodhouse’s 1856 home still stands in Caddie Woodlawn Historical Park on Wisconsin 25 which I visited yesterday and looked out the bay windows at the turning leaves. For that time period, the house seemed to be a mansion and not a log house or a dugout. I’m sure the old house holds many stories of Caddie and her six siblings.
Caddie’s Rural Wisconsin House
The sun has been peeking and out of the clouds today, with a few sprinkles thrown in. I wonder how many rain showers and storms this old barn has weathered over the years.
Weathered Barn
Since it is Sunday, a picture of a rural church just might be the appropriate picture for today. The sunset the other night wasn’t very speculator but instead the clouds to east collected the pink glow from the setting sun. I always love the hue the setting sun puts on the landscape and fields.
Rural Church on Pink Evening
Since I started the “old” week on Monday with a windmill, it probably is fitting to end the 7th day of the “old” week with a windmill. And this windmill definitely has seen better days and it is too worn out for me to identify the brand, although the brace wires are a different configuration than the Aermotor that I posted on Monday so it probably one from the hundreds different manufacturers.
A Field Guide To American Windmills by T. Lindsay Baker has identified some 1500 manufacturers of windmills so it probably will be hard for me to identify which manufacturer when there are over 50 manufacturers in my state without seeing a name. And the models of the windmills had interesting names too; some just had manufacturer name but other incorporated their function in the name such as Althouse, Chief, Milo Giant, Steel Chief, Steel Giant, Waupan Vaneless, Monitor Steel Power, Horicon, King, Ozark, Reliance, Eclipse, Double Power, Sheboygan, Duplex Geared, Kilbourn Steel, The Dandy, Everlasting, Favorite, Boss Vaneless, Champion Power, Sandwich-Perkins, Fouk’s Accelerating Air Motor, Parson’s Colorado Wind Engine, The Iron Screw, and Aquarius the Water Bearer.
But whatever the brand or name, the windmill served its purpose in the past, providing needed water for farming. They say that barbed wire and windmills were the two inventions that made it possible to develop the American West.
I hope everyone enjoyed the “old” week theme and will have to see when the “old” stuff returns again.
Worn Out Windmill
This week I was on the hunt for old barns and I found a few. So for the Saturday post of the “old” week, I’m going to post a very precious old barn. This barn was my grandfather’s and the farm is still in the family.
Old Family Barn
For the Friday picture of the “old” week, I decided on a close up shot of a barn door and the “Big 4” door hanger. By zooming in on the metal washer, I was able to read the company and name of the hanger. The old white barn that was on my home farm had these door hangers before the tornado took the barn down.
I found an advertisement in the November 1922 issue of the Building Age and Builders’ Journal for the Big 4. Below is that ad.
“You Need the NATIONAL “Big 4” Flexible Door Hanger and “Braced Rail”
That barn – or similar job – that you are handling, calls for a heavy-duty Hanger and Rail; for an easily sliding door gives the stamp of the right construction to the whole building.
The Big-4 Flexible Door Hanger has as its keynotes Simplicity and Strength. Note its sturdy appearance in the illustration. Thousands of pairs in use for years in all sections of this country and Canada prove its Serviceability under varying conditions. Made entirely of steel and supplies with anti-friction-steel roller bearings, giving a perfectly free motion to the door.
Brace Rail: Millions of feet of this rail are in use and giving uniform satisfaction for these reasons: brackets only 12 inches apart and double riveted – giving extreme rigidity. The brace below the screws trebles the holding power of the screws. Brackets are same width and thickness as the rail itself, and holes are staggered so the screws will not go into the same grain of wood. A fitting companion for the Big-4 Hanger.
National Manufacturing Co., Sterling, Illinois”
So I wonder what year this “Big 4” was installed and how many times it rolled on the rail track.
The “Big 4” Door Hanger
Continuing with my old theme week, this old wooden corral has seen better days and doesn’t look like it would hold any fighting bulls but I wouldn’t mind seeing a cowboy sitting on the fence rail.
Old Corral
