CATTLE BARN (FIRST)

As important as the Farm House to initiating operations of the college farm was the need for shelter for animals and feed. Plans for the barn were provided at the same time as those for the house by Milens Burt. It can be assumed that work was carried on simultaneously in the construction of the house and the barn, but the barn was completed earlier. It was described in the Annual Report of 1862¹ as follows:

There is an excellent frame barn completed 42 x 60 feet, upon a gentle slope of ground, with underground stables, built with heavy stone walls on three sides, eight feet high, 16 foot posts, with floor lengthwise, so that any length can be added at the south end.

By 1865 the developing operations on the farm made some changes necessary. The Farm Committee reported to the Trustees that

Your committee would recommend that some improvement be made on the barn to accomidate [sic] the stock we would suggest that lean be put to the barn on three sides, and that there should be a root cellar under the barn. A light board fence has been built around the back barnyard and it is contemplated to put a good substantial fence around the front door of the barn.²

Superintendent Robinson submitted to the Board that he “had the Barn raised two feet and built the cellar wall up to the sills… fitted stalls for horses and cattle which is nearly completed …at a cost already of $217.11. Estimated to finish it $20.00.”³

Still further changes were made in 1868, described in the Superintendent & Secretary’s Report in the January 1869 minutes of the Board of Trustees:

Under the old arrangement of the basement of the barn a considerable amount of room was of little avail I have had the north half rearranged by changing the alley and making one across the barn east and west a tier of five stalls eight feet wide for our largest cattle on one side and a tier of seven stalls six feet wide for yearlings and small cattle on the other the alley for clearing is wide and laid with two inch plank the floors of the stalls are also of two inch plank, instead of the inconvenient (to the cattle) stanchion by which they were previously secured the cattle are now pastured by a strap round their necks which is attached by a swivil and two links to a ¾ round iron rod secured to the division post between the stalls - the rod is of sufficient length to permit the cattle to lay down or rise free from the restraint imposed by the Stanchion mode of securing it was not thought advisable to change the south half the present season as the acomadation reqisite for the Horses would not be suitable for cattle next year when the new Horse stable was build had a shoot and reservoir constructed for moving prepared feed from barn proper to the basement in lieu of carrying. Cost of the whole less team and farm hand is $146.57.⁴

The first addition to the barn was made in 1871 when

A corn crib and henhouse, 14 x 42 feet, 16 feet high, with basement 12 x 15 foot, has been added to the old barn and the entire barn painted. A portion of the basement of the barn has been fitted up for a root cellar, and the remainder prepared for cattle stalls - all of which cost $565.61.⁵

In that same report it was pointed out that the increasing number of stock has “outgrown the barn” and “we want a new barn, of adequate dimensions.”

Funds were made available and the new barn was erected in 1873. It is described in the Board minutes of November 1873:

The Executive and Building Committee report that they authorized the building of the new Barn at their April meeting and appointed Prof. I.P. Roberts and G.W. Jones to superintend the construction of the same. The Barn is completed and is of size and capacity as follows: Seventy by fifty four feet and is in elevation twenty four feet to top of plates, with a rise of twenty one feet to the ridge, and a stone basement under all of nine feet. The basement is arranged for stableing forty eight head of cattle with necessary breeding and calf pens with a root cellar, estimated to hold four thousand bushels. Upon the principle floor a drive way sixteen feet wide runs the length of the barn, and upon either side thereof there is five rooms each fourteen by nineteen feet. One is set apart as a herdsmans room, one for farm implements four for granaries, and four for breeding boxes. These several rooms are eight feet in height. Over these rooms and part of the driveway is space for one hundred and fifty tons of hay. Shoots have been erected for carrying the hay to the basement. The Barn is built of well seasoned pine lumber and covered, on the sides with good stock boards and battened. It is roofed with the best of pine shingles, and mounted with a cupola with slatted sides for ventilation. The wing designed for a wagon shed is sixty two by twenty four with twelve feet posts built and covered like the Barn under which is a nine foot stone basement containing a covered passage between the two barns with four Bull boxes. The whole is built and finished in a good and workman-like manner at a cost without evetroughs or painting of $4916.44.

Rather extensive modifications were made in 1897. These seem to have included increasing the width and height of the link connecting the old and new barns.

During the first quarter of the twentieth century the barns continued to need maintenance, and, under changing conditions of agricultural instruction, had lost much of their early utility.

The recommendation of President Hughes, approved by the Board on October 9, 1928, that the barns be razed, was carried out either that fall or early in 1929.