Out with the Old

Although neither I nor Jean was present at the closing of the purchase, I remember being in Iowa sometime later (whether it was a stopover on a business trip or on a vacation I don’t recall) and Vincent took me to the farm and we looked the place over. Although Harris and his mother rented the house for awhile, they didn’t happen to be at home while we were there, so we went into the house and looked around. The only item that sticks in my mind was the upstairs bedroom where Harris had several guns lying on the floor. I guess he hunted.

The farm buildings were in rather dilapidated condition, particularly the corn crib. The first year that Vincent farmed the land, uncle Carl actually came out during corn-picking and did some of his makeshift repairs on the crib to make it serviceable. Ironic in a way that after all the time I had worked under him, that in our last work contact he as doing something for me.

One interesting feature of the place was the well which had been dug, not drilled. It was 3 or 4 feet in diameter and the sides were lined with stone or brick and mortar. I would have hated to have been at the bottom while it was being dug. With the top off one could look down into the well and see the water. Probably the best building on the place was an airplane hangar — Harris had had an airplane.

I think it was during the first year we owned the farm that Vincent suggested that we sell off what we could from the farmstead and clear the land. This would reduce the taxes somewhat and increase the usable acreage by several acres; there had been a long lane from the road leading to the farm site and this plus the building site comprised several acres. So he arranged for a sale, I think it was in the spring after we bought the place. Altogether I think we realized something over $1000; the house actually sold for $275 and was moved off the place. The airplane hangar also went for a good price but the barn went only for scrap lumber.

After the corn in the crib was disposed of Vincent arranged to have the site bulldozed. He burned up the crib, the trees were cut down and the person clearing the site bulldozed a big hole, pushed all the debris into it and covered it up. The lane was plowed up and for 50-odd years the site has been indistinguishable from the land around it. For while the old hog pasture was weedy but that too has disappeared with time.