Lushton farm 2

Thanks to Dad (Carl) for sending me the aerial picture below, probably taken sometime between 1958 and 1960. The photo looks to the northwest; the corn rows above the north shelterbelt are oriented north–south. For additional background on the Lushton farm, see here.

Grandpa owned the south half of the quarter (80 acres), half of which he bought for himself (1927?) and half of which he received as a gift from his father (Peter P). The north half of the quarter was owned by Grandpa’s older brother Peter, who bought 40 acres from their sister Anna to go with his own 40-acre holdings. The dividing line between the two parcels of land was the north shelterbelt.

The green space between the two shelterbelts was a pasture; the curve of the terraces is still visible in the photograph. Both the terraces and the north shelterbelt were intended to slow down erosion as much as possible. The mid-1930s were the Dust Bowl years, and soil conservation was a significant concern. The north shelterbelt contained five half-mile-long rows of trees, stretching from the east boundary of the quarter to the west boundary. The shelterbelt was planted as part of the Great Plains Shelterbelt (under the Works Projects Administration). The federal government funded the planting of the trees; the property owner was responsible for their care after that. I have it on good authority that Grandpa paid the younger kids 25¢ (or possibly 35¢) a row to hoe weeds from among the trees. Not everyone spent his earnings wisely.

The house (1) was built in 1897, thus before Grandpa and Grandma bought the farm. Square nails were used in its construction.

Directly east of the house was a brooder house for young chicks not yet ready for life in the regular chicken coops (5). A second brooder house (3) was located directly north of the white one.

Between the north brooder house and the chicken coops was a feed bin (4). As its name implies, it held feed for all the livestock. It had to be filled three or four times a year.

If I understand correctly, the chicken coops (5) were two buildings joined by a central walkway; to the west stood a small white granary (6) and a corn crib (7).

A machine shed (8) was south of the chicken coops, with an elevator (9) that Grandpa had built to the south of it. Several small buildings (10) were located west of the machine shed and elevator, and the barn (11) was on the south end of the farmstead.

Please email me with any corrections to the above or further details that you would like to share with everyone else.

Lushton farm

As those of you roughly my age or older no doubt recall, Grandpa and Grandma owned and worked a farm south of Lushton. This is not the same “farm home near Lushton” mentioned with regard to Margaretha Epp on the Peter P page of the Buller Family Record. Rather, this farm is the southwest quarter of section 36, Henderson Township, York County.

My understanding is that Grandpa purchased 40 acres of the farm about the time Grandma and he were married and that Grandpa’s father (Peter P) bought another 40 acres as a gift to the couple. I believe the land was purchased from John Runnalls (listed as the owner in the 1911 map above), but I know little beyond that.

If any of you would like to fill in details on Grandpa and Grandma’s farm, feel free to email me the information or to add your voice in the comments to this post. Questions that I have include:

• In what year was the original purchase made?
• Were all 160 acres purchased then (I assume they owned the entire quarter at some point), or was an initial purchase of 80 acres followed by a second purchase of 80 acres?
• What buildings were on the farm when they bought it? What buildings did they add?
• What was the original purchase price (per acre)?
• Who did Grandpa and Grandma sell the farm to and when?
• What do those of you who grew up on the farm remember about it (I remember hearing something about rats)?

Today all the buildings are gone (see below), but not the memories. I suspect that some of you also have photographs of the house, the outbuildings, and the farm itself. I would be happy to scan any and all photos that you have, so contact me via email (see the Buller Family Record post), and we can work out the details.