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Article: A Barn Moved
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A Barn Moved - Jon Radojkovic
It seems odd and almost impossible to think of now how a whole barn could be moved without mechanized help but in the early 20th century, moving these huge structures with simple tools and horses was not an uncommon occurrence.
And so it was in the early 1900's in former Brant Township, that Henry Monk decided to double his present barn by pulling another one about 110 meters away by horse to join with his present one.
Monk had bought the adjoining 50-acre farm to double his acreage, because more farm land was needed to make a living from, especially with children who were growing up and looking for a farm future. As well, chores were more difficult to do, having to walk to the other barn that distance at least twice a day. The population was also shifting between making a living from the farm and getting a job in one of the many local manufacturing jobs in Chesley and Hanover.
It took a week to move the lumbering 35 foot by 55 foot barn across a field, using only one horse to pull it and many tools of the day such as jackscrews, pulleys, a winch and rollers. A neighbour, Wilbert Musehl, who just passed away last month at age 95, remembered the excitement of seeing the barn and all the men around it.
"There it was, a barn in the middle of the field with one horse in front moving it," he said. The horse was a big Clydesdale and a local man from Elmwood, with a last name of Eby, was hired to do the job.
The barn was first lifted from it's stone foundation with 80 ton jackscrews and then maple logs were put under it so it could be rolled down to the ground. "It was huge," Musehl exclaimed, "You'd think of it as impossible," he added. A winch was used that was geared down so low that when the horse pulled at one end of the cable one could hardly see the barn was moving.
As the barn slowly traveled across the field, hardwood rollers were inserted under the barn. As the horse pulled the barn through the winch the rollers would pop out the back while another horse pulled the rollers to the front again to reinsert it under the sills of the barn.
It's amazing to think that only one horse was needed to move such a great load," Musehl explained.
Meanwhile at the other end, where the new barn would be placed, a foundation had to be prepared and the other barn's boards taken off so that the two could create one big space. First a small addition used to store straw was taken down and elm posts were placed into the ground every 10 feet, to support the new barn, as the old foundation wasn't big enough.
Finally after a week of work, and the whole neighbourhood watching, the new barn was jacked up and rolled very slowly onto its new foundation. As it was, the new barn matched the old one quite well and was probably originally built by the same timber framer in the 1880's. The new barn was only two feet shorter widthwise and about five shorter lengthwise. Both timber frames had the distinctive queen posts, long braces that went off at an angle from the top of the bent to the purlins. Amazingly too, the heights of the top of the bents were the same and many of the joinery features, such as built-in ladder placements, the position of the granaries, were very similar as well as the brace sizes.
Because of the way the timber frames were positioned, the owner Monk, had decided to put the barns side by side, instead of forming a 'T' or 'L'. This made a huge valley where the two roofs met, a hard task to keep from leaking, which it has a bit over the years, even though an extra roof was built to make a new peak, which joined the two together.
Eventually, a new cement foundation was built under the new barn, when the post foundation began to settle by the present owner Robert Engel. With large home made clamps he also tied the long posts together where the two barns met, to prevent separation. Engel began a dairy operation in 1963 until ill-health forced him to sell his quota in 1998.
Today, the two distinctive barns still serve a beef operation, and hay is still stored in the much larger haymow.
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