Union County farmer William Harris and his four sons built this small barn on their farm in 1896. The wood came from cottonwood trees on the farm and were cut at a nearby sawmill on the Grand River. After used for dairying and other livestock the barn was given by the Harris family in 1992 to the Union County Historical Village and Museum in Creston. In 2016-17 shake shingles were installed and it was repaired and repainted in 2021. Inside are farm tools and equipment used in early days of farming. This view is of the east side of the barn; the west side is the main entrance. (2025 photo)
Today, August 17, is the final day of the 2025 Iowa State Fair, which was a big part of the life of Marcia Shaver and her father, Noran, for many years. August 22 is also Marcia’s birthday, when she will be 88 years old. In honor of these two events I am repeating Blog #46, sent April 3, 2022, featuring Marcia and her milking shorthorn story, since many of you were not receiving my blog at that time. It’s a great story of her life. She is now living in a care facility in Iowa Falls.
What were YOU doing at age five? Marcia Shaver was showing her first calf at the Iowa State Fair at age five. That was almost 80 years ago. She is pictured here at age four on the cover of Milking Shorthorn Journal, March 1941. Thus began her legacy of showing and judging cattle at the Iowa State Fair, the National Dairy Cattle Congress, the Chicago International, the National Show in Madison, Wisconsin, the World Dairy Expo, 13 state fairs, and many other shows.
It was at the World Expo in 2005 where Marcia showed the grand champion female, Mysha Lady Di, a pivotal point of her career (See photo below). The culmination of her career was being a judge at the Dairy Expo in Australia in 2000.
At the Mysha Farm near St. Anthony she still keeps in contact with many friends all over the world that she has made through the years, and also the cattle she owns based on farms in a few other states.
The Milking Shorthorn cattle story began when her father, Noran Shaver, worked at the Clampitt farm south of New Providence milking 40 cows by hand in the era before milking machines. Below is a photo of the Clampitt barn built in 1916, which was destroyed by a tornado in 1989. See page 247 of Iowa Barns Yesterday and Today for another photo of the barn and more of the Clampitt story.
What was a project that many farmers did years ago in the summer? Her father owned a boxcar and he and his sons would take 12 head from Lawn Hill (near New Providence) in specially constructed stalls in the boxcar, first going north into Minnesota and then south to Texas. This was a project to make money for the farm and sell a few bulls, stopping at fairs and other shows along the way. Imagine the work and logistics this project would involve.
Her father continued his love of raising and showing cattle for decades after buying a farm west of St. Anthony that he named Mysha Farm, now owned by Marcia. He attended his last Iowa State Fair shortly before his death at age 93.
Being a dairy farmer has been a lifelong adventure for the Shaver family, where dedication and breeding prize cattle is legendary. Marcia Shaver-Floyd has broken barriers for women and forged the path for young girls to pursue their dreams of raising and showing prize cattle.
After 133 years of use, the Deardorff barn still exists as a home for Angus cattle. Dave Deardorff, a great-grandson, and his wife Sheila, the owners, treasure this farm and its history.
In 1889 the farm was purchased by Mahlon and Sarah Deardorff, and in 1892, 70 men helped Dave’s great grand-father, Mahlon, build this barn, originally intended for horses but also providing space for dairy cows, grain bins and hay. In the Yale newspaper at the time it was completed indicated that a fitting celebration was held: “a sumptuous dinner was followed by cigars and lemonade.”
On July 28,1990, one hundred years of farm ownership was celebrated with a summer picnic held at the farm for over 350 friends and relatives, featuring sweet corn from their garden. Everyone was given a red hat and a cup that said “Century Farm.”
The above photo was taken 45 years ago when the barn was 88 years old. The photo below, taken in 2015, when it was 133 years old, shows changes in the logo and the addition of steel siding.
The barn is featured in an article in the June 2025 Panora Times, along with several other barns in Guthrie County. A story can also be found in Iowa Barns yesterday and today on page 23.
Here’s a scene you won’t see today, but back in the 1940s it was a common sight. This is an advertisement for an Allis-Chalmers Model “C” tractor, marketed from 1940 to 1949 and promoted because the spacing in an earlier tractor, a Model “B”, was too narrow to “cultivate” two rows at once. Today corn is not cultivated. Rows are close together, individual plants are close together, herbicides are used, and there are numerous hybrids available.
Many factors influence corn growth: planting time, spring temperatures, amount of rain received, area of the state, and the particular hybrid used. Years ago, it was said that corn should be “knee-high” by the 4th of July. Today, corn could be six feet high or even higher by the 4th of July.
On two Iowa Barn Foundation tours my husband took photos of me standing in front of a field of corn. On June 18, 2018 the corn was over six feet tall, which was impressive. On June 25, 2022 in the same area, it was about a foot tall. Check your local corn fields and make comparisons from year to year.
When pioneers arrived in Iowa in the 1830s they had few roads to guide them. Robert Lucas, the First Iowa Territorial Governor, wanted to connect Iowans with the outside world and with each other.
Lyman Dillon, a Cascade farmer, used a breaking plow with a yoke of five oxen to plow a furrow between Dubuque and Iowa City, the Territorial Capitol, and soon the 100-mile furrow became a major road for westbound pioneers passing through the towns of Martelle, Cascade, Anamosa, and Monticello. The date ”1989” commemorates 150 years after the furrow was plowed.
Today this road is US Highway 151 from Dubuque to Anamosa, and Highway 1 from Anamosa to Iowa City.When pioneers arrived in Iowa in the 1830s they had few roads to guide them. Robert Lucas, the First Iowa Territorial Governor, wanted to connect Iowans with the outside world and with each other.
Lyman Dillon, a Cascade farmer, used a breaking plow with a yoke of five oxen to plow a furrow between Dubuque and Iowa City, the Territorial Capitol, and soon the 100-mile furrow became a major road for westbound pioneers passing through the towns of Martelle, Cascade, Anamosa, and Monticello. The date ”1989” commemorates 150 years after the furrow was plowed.
Today this road is US Highway 151 from Dubuque to Anamosa, and Highway 1 from Anamosa to Iowa City.
A blog about barns will arrive next weekend, but in the meantime, what might rabbits have been doing on farms this Easter holiday?
Anthropomorphism has ancient roots in art and here is one example expressed in the form of a postcard mailed March 1902. I don’t know the translation of this message but the fanciful kitchen scene of mamma rabbit rolling out dough for a dish for an Easter celebration, and her young doe wondering what to do next, is an amusing caricature.
Cribs come in varying sizes, shapes, and features. This unique crib, built in 1947, was developed by the Iowa State University Agricultural Engineering Department for corn and oats. Originally, there was storage of 5,000 bushels of ear corn on the two sides of the drive-through. However, in the 1950s, when harvesting ear corn ended, it was adapted to store 10,500 bushels of shelled corn. Oat bins were on the upper half and there was a walkway above the center to access the oat bins on both sides.
Today corn is stored in steel bins or the excess outside in cone-shaped piles covered with tarp. Maybe (?) there were a number of cribs in earlier days used for both corn and oats. This crib is the only one I have researched extensively because very few of this type still exist, and most that do exist are in very poor condition. This one is in good condition, although not in use.
What happens to oats grown today? In 2024 210,000 acres of oats were planted in Iowa, a small fraction of the total of corn and other crops. When horses were used in farming, draft horses ate oats, with some fed to other animals, but horses and the oats produced dwindled over the years. Interestingly enough, in 2023, Iowa was #2 oats producer in the nation (some years it has been #5), with various companies today buying oats for cereal, granola bars, cookies, and more, as well as providing oats for sows and other livestock. The Quaker Oats plant in Cedar Rapids, the largest cereal production plant in the world, does not buy oats from Iowa farmers, but from Canadian farmers because the test weight of Canadian oats is much higher.
The farm where this crib exists was purchased by Ole Johnson who emigrated from Denmark to Wisconsin, then to this farm via covered wagon to Grundy County in 1857. It is a Heritage Farm (150 years in the same family) now owned by Tricia Johnson, a great-great-granddaughter of Ole. The location is southwest of Cedar Falls and east of Dike at 13725 X Ave., Cedar Falls. A future blog will describe some of the unusual features both inside and outside, as well as the technique used to transfer grain to the upper area for storage.
This limestone barn south of Decorah at 2091 Middle Ossian Road in Winneshiek County is home for Yorkshire hogs on the basement level and storage for straw and hay on the upper level. These hogs can’t appreciate the great barn that is their home but they know it’s a shelter and a place where they can get food any time of day.
Built in the mid-1860s, it was originally a dairy barn but has been used for hogs since Wayne and Roxanne Huinker bought the farm in 1980. There are about 150 sows and around 1000 pigs in this complex. Adjacent buildings, not shown here, are also used for housing.
They have breeding stock, feeder pigs, and more, and sell to buyers in many states. When about 90 pigs weigh 50 pounds each he personally transports them to California each January to a high school Ag chapter where students raise them to show at their county fair in May. The new owners hope for prize-winners.
Many limestone barns still exist in Iowa, many in the northeast quarter. The walls in this barn are three feet thick at the base, narrowing to eighteen inches at the top. Several arched windows and doors are also visible. It’s Iowa’s hog heaven.
Forty-five years ago in January 1980 I took the photo of this barn and trees coated with rime ice located along Highway 34 west of Kent near the Union County-Adams County border. Abandoned for many years, it was torn down several months after this photo was taken. Another view of this scene can be found on page 245 of Iowa Barns Yesterday and Today.
