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Barn On The Old Gib Wheeler
Place
Written by Bud Fleming
In 2009, the little New England style barn on the old Gib
Wheeler place was deliberately destroyed and replaced by a
large, modern, efficient,
metal structure completely out of context with all of the now
ancient and useless buildings on the place. Fitting and proper
that this change ought to have been made, but none the less, I
have two regrets, 1) that that fine relic is no longer there to
see and remind us of when farming was a way of life rather than
a profit making business and 2) that I never thought to take a
picture of it! Ironically, in the very same year, the old
Pennsylvania style barn on the same side of the road as the
house on the John Fleming place was jacked up and its badly
deteriorated sandstone and slacked lime foundation was removed
and replaced by a far more practical and efficient concrete
footing and frost wall that happens to be uglier than sin and
totally without architectural or artistic merit. The rest of the
barn was stripped of what was left of its Pennsylvania identity
and the whole thing was covered in shinny steel, roof and all -
overpowering some new doors and windows - leaving the impression
of a nearly square, rectangular, metal,
meaningless, block.
I do hope they used the stock boards that
once covered it as wall paneling inside. I do hope they
recognized the art in the hand hewn (by James Fleming) hemlock
beams mortised, pinioned and pegged together such that it has
been able to sway with the wind and continue standing full or
empty since sometime in the 1870's (And where do you get hemlock
logs around Pepin? From runaway rafts of logs in flood stages of
the Chippewa river and local farmers kindly went to their
rescue! But, it didn't stop there, most of the original rafters
are still holding the roof in place with only a hint of a sag
after all these years and what, do you ask were these rafters
made of? Popular poles! And everyone knows how long lasting
Popular wood is - speaking to outstanding maintenance all these
years. And what of the haymow floor? Would you believe, full 2
inch white oak plank! What a magnificent example of the best of
what the 19th century had to offer, now hidden beneath that
awful metal shield.
I think it is being used as some sort of
art studio - a much improved usage since its agricultural
function vanished utterly over the years, but interestingly,
several neighboring more modern barns, including one immediately
across the county highway have blown down while that old edifice
continues to sway with the elements, defying them to destroy
valid construction. The photo above was taken in the summer of
2006 before the present owners
decided to "fix it". The cupola was already long gone and the
hexagon or octagon windows or vents in either end long boarded
up rather than repaired. But I have a picture of this barn. And
I remember when it was stacked full of baled hay - many times
greater in weight than the building was actually designed for,
but it sagged not a bit.
Of course, the tiny cow barn under
this end was ridiculous in a day when a dairy farmer expects to
have a hundred or more milking cows aligned on a concrete floor
well limed so they might be milked by sanitary machines instead
of wet hands
dripping manure and whatever else in the milk, which was
'strained' out through a think cotton pad designed to return the
milk to 'purity'. |