Days Gone By!

Barnyard

Barnyard

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I was going through some old photo albums and found a few I forgot I had. Besides the 240 acres of farm land my grandparents owned, Dad also helped farm several thousand acres of land spread out across southwest Ohio and into southeast Indiana.

These are all shots of Dads hired help working on the Lawrence Lake farm in 1949.

Here is one of Dad's hired hands on one of Dad's Farmalls
dadsfarmall.jpg


Same guy, same tractor, actually the same picture, but showing the wagon he was pulling to load corn.
corn1-1.jpg


Another one of Da'd's wagons being unloaded.
corn2-1.jpg


Here are the guys who made up Dad's regular crew.
dadscrew-1.jpg

I probably will always remember Rueben (second from left). He worked for Dad for many years and always kept an eye on me when I was allowed to tag along to the fields, which was almost always. Mom always said he was one of the nicest guys she ever met and was one of the best workers Dad had. The guy second from the end is Mom's youngest brother who I was named after. He was everybody's favorite uncle. He helped Dad now and then while working Mom's family farm also. He finally bought that farm and spent full time working it. Dad would always go to the high school and hire some of the guys to help out. Probably the best known of the high school guys was Russ Nixon who was a catcher for the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins in the 50's and 60's.

Dad, on the left, and Mr. Lake.
dad-lawrencelake-1.jpg

You can see I get my great smile from Dad. Mr. Lake had a huge farm several miles from us and Dad was the only one he would let work it. Mom said he tried to get Dad to move us off the family farm into one of his houses and work full time for him. Dad never would want to let his family down and had to politely refuse the offer. Most of that big old farm is county park land now and will probably never see crops again. The remainder will probably be a subdivision if the older family members ever sell it.

Here is one of Dad's truck getting a load of lime in 1940. He was just about the only one around who spread lime for the other farmers.
loadinglime-1.jpg


A closer shot of his truck
dadstruck.jpg

He had a couple of these as well as some smaller grain trucks, his pick up, and the big ol' '51(?) Buick. I remember seeing a photo of one of the bigger trucks with a couple tractors on it getting ready to head home from a job. That photo as well as many others have been lost and no family members seem to know where they went.
 
Lovin' all the old farm pictures. I could look at old farm pictures, old tractors, old equipment, and old trucks etc. forever. Especially when they are someone's old photos, not a book.
 
Bill, does the "loading lime" picture say Piqua, Ohio, at the bottom? You went right by there when you were here. Just 6 miles away.

Was you mom's youngest brother really called Barnyard? :shock: :lol:
 
bobperry":27ydadez said:
Lovin' all the old farm pictures. I could look at old farm pictures, old tractors, old equipment, and old trucks etc. forever. Especially when they are someone's old photos, not a book.
Click to expand...
yep
 
Nice story and pictures, Bill. Very interesting reading.

Like Bob, I really enjoy this kind of stuff.
 
Thanks for the comments fellas. I always like looking at old pictures when someone psot them so I figured somebody might like these.

Denny Clayton":1zlatbjt said:
Bill, does the "loading lime" picture say Piqua, Ohio, at the bottom? You went right by there when you were here. Just 6 miles away.

Was you mom's youngest brother really called Barnyard? :shock: :lol:
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Denny, yes it was Piqua. I don't know why some of the edges didn't scan. That photo is from 1940, but I probably road there with him in the 50's.

As for Mom's brother, we all called him Uncle Barnyard...Okay, just kidding there.
 
Very nice pictures and story. I always enjoy old pictures showing people at work.

That is a long way from riding in a climate controlled cab. Backing up and changing implements without even leaving the seat. (not too far from Fast Hitch) Then - pick out a tree or post on the horizon to make your straight pass. Now - push a button and let the GPS navigation do it for you.

Doug
 
Hey Barnyard...THANKS A BUNCH for sharing your family's old farming photos. Our dairy farms in Northwest NJ (where I grew up) were not as large, but the equipment was the same vintage :D ...'Country'
 
Hey Barnyard is that truck behind your DAD and Mr.Lake an old Reo? The fellow that picked up our cans of milk had one something like that.
Thanks for the ole memories.
 
Ida Red":jz47zlox said:
Hey Barnyard is that truck behind your DAD and Mr.Lake an old Reo? The fellow that picked up our cans of milk had one something like that.
Thanks for the ole memories.
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Yes, Dad had 4 or 5 Reo's. I was talking to my dad;s brother the other day and he said he remembers driving one of them to pick up the lime. Traveling today it is an hour and 45 minutes to Piqua straight up I-75. I should have asked him how long it took back then in a truck like that when there was no interstate.
 
Thanks for the pics and history Bill...as you know, I'm a sucker for anything like that. Your fortunate to have great old pics like that!
 
Bill:

I enjoyed that. I was watching American Pickers the other day and learned something I didn't know. I have always liked REO's - one of the original school buses I went to school on was an old rear engined rounded nose REO. Loved that thing but never really knew who built em. R. E. Olds (yeah.. Oldsmobile) built em. Not sure when GM took over Olds or if this mark was built by GM... but the visit the boys made to the R.E. Olds museum was kinda neat. That is one place I really would like to visit.
 
Rudi,

Stop by and I will take you past the birthplace of R. E. Olds. We can even stop if you like, there is a NAPA store on the site now.

Bill
 
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