Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/893386
46 | SignatureMT A short story, "The Revolt of Mother," written by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman in 1891, tells of a wife who sees that her husband is building another pretentious barn when the house is a shack. She forces the husband to evaluate his actions when he comes home one day to find that the wife has moved the family into the new barn. Because our country was an agrarian society when this story was published, people related to the importance of a good solid barn, and the tension more than one barn might have created. Barns on early farms were the biggest and most expensive item on the property. They were the center of life. They housed grain and hay, provided a place to work out of the weather, and sheltered the livestock. Great care was taken in building a barn. Its appearance in this country, which evolved over time, became truly an American structure. Barns were built in various ways. Farmers occasionally hired crews. For example, Scandinavian boat builders, going from farm to farm and building barns, created look-alike structures across the countryside. With the expansion of rail lines, Sears, Roebuck—along with several other companies—put out a catalog of barn patterns that could be ordered as kits of pre-cut lumber. The most practical and the cheapest way to build a barn was for the owner to build it himself or to hire a local contractor who was known for building barns. The builders would do the framing on the ground and then neighbors arrived to lift the sections into place using ropes and pulleys. This community event was called a "barn raisin'." At first the exterior wood on barns was left to weather. When farmers started painting their barns, commercial paint was not available, so farmers made their own. A mixture of red oxide of iron, skim milk, lime, and linseed oil quickly dried, hardened, and lasted for a long time. Hence this dark red color, known as barn red, OLD BARNS We Love To Look at Them The largest barn in the area was built by Lewis Piper and later owned by Kenneth Herem. The barn was once the scene of a Republican political rally. It is located on Highway 78 approximately five miles south of Absarokee. by Suzanne Waring