A Different Time

I spent a fair bit of time a couple of weeks ago scanning about half of the deeds that relate to the farm (all that are available predating the 1970s.)   One of the oldest of them indicates that the initial piece of land was bought as early as 1825, although we don't have that particular deed.  As a result of going through those, I also found some other interesting documents.  What follows is a real estate description filled out by Lamont Basford when he (and/or his deceased older brother's wife) was trying to sell the farm.  Thankfully that never happened.  What's more interesting than the fact that they were thinking of and trying to sell the farm is the description of what comprised the farm and what was on it approximately 100 years ago.  Since James and Fernando died in 1915, I'm assuming this was filled out shortly after that.

 

 You'll notice at the bottom "Give reason for selling" "to settle estate" and the asking price was $6,000, $3,000 being the least he would take.  As I'm writing this and looking over this document and the ancestry tree that Aaron has done, it's interesting to note that James Basford, who owned and built much of what we know as the farm today, and his son, Fernando, died in the same year of 1915 (and James' wife having died 9 years previous).  So it's likely the impetus to sell and "settle the estate" is by Addie, Fernando's widow.  Strange that it's her husband's youngest brother who filled out this form.  If this document is from 1915 or 1916, that makes Stanley (Fernando's son) 19 or 20 years old at the time, though it's my understanding he'd never lived "here" growing up. 

  

Since this piece is about a document relating to family history, I wanted to let you know I updated a prior post that had several obits posted.  At the very bottom of that post you'll find the update.  You can get to that post by continuing to scroll down to the post entitled My Great Grandparents (plus one) or click the link.  And this is as good a place as any to update you about my (and now Kim's) ongoing search for the family cemetery out back, near where the original cabin was.  After being out there this past weekend with my mother and Uncle Wayne, I'm feeling pretty good about where both of those were.  As soon as Kim can come back with her metal detector, we'll hopefully find some confirmation of the spot of the cemetery.  I'll keep you updated.

THE LAND AND THE FARM

In answer to Zeb’s query about memories of the flat, my first memory would be of haying the fields. Will do a whole piece on haying and other work that we did on the farm another time. When the fields were no longer hayed, the blueberries came in. I know the younger kids remember picking them. This lasted for a few years until the brush and trees came in. We picked strawberries there some and also in the “Five Acre Piece”, which is now Wayne’s field. Of course we did a lot of walking in the woods and especially liked the pines on the knoll on the north side of the road.
I remember Grammie Basford having chickens in the field where my house is now during the summers. Before I can remember there were beans planted, the dry bean type. Later this field and a portion of the woods was pasture. I frequently come across remnants of the barbed wire fences. There were a number of hen houses next to the farm house, three I think. The building right next to the house was used to store grain and feeders, etc. for the chickens. As you may know, the largest hen house was once the school house for South Detroit and was moved around the corner from Rt. 220.

Picture taken in the early 1920s

The farm house, of course, looks pretty much as the old one did from the outside. Some of you remember the pantry, which had a spring or a well under it. Mom did have the refrigerator in it but otherwise was used more to store tools, etc than as a pantry. There was a small shed next to the kitchen with a set of stairs leading to the open chamber over the kitchen. Firewood was brought in through the shed and the woodbox set right next to the door. There was also an open shed next to the house where Dad would put sawdust for the cows and shavings for the chickens. Then there was kind of an open shed with the ‘lovely’ outhouse at the end. There had been a pig pen next to that but we didn’t have pigs in my memory. More details about the original farm house later.
One of the differences in the restored barn is the loss of the silo. As you went in through the front door, there were grain bins on the right and then kind of a walkway leading to the silo that was on the north side of the barn. We kept corn silage in that. Not sure when it fell over but think it was during a hurricane in the 1950’s. The left section of the barn was the tie-up where the cows were kept. The cows were tied up to the right as you entered that section. There were doors with hinges on them in front of the cows and hay would be put through to feed them. The small building to the left of the barn was the milk house. For some reason we usually referred to it as the milk room but it was always a separate building that held the milk cooler. The milk cooler was a tank filled with cold water to cool down the milk, which was dumped in milk cans after milking.

The Outhouse

Sorry for the visual but (no, not visual butt, though the unintended pun is rather funny) -- anyway, recently I was about to sit down on a cold toilet, though it wasn't as cold as expected and thought, "At least it's not an outhouse," which brought back a memory I probably haven't had in 40 years (strange how that happens, huh?)
Am I the only one from my generation who remembers the outhouse at the farm, say nothing about remembering using it?  I know the older generation will.  So as strange as it seems, I'm asking for people's memories of an outhouse. 
The other recollection that occurred to me, though I'm uncertain of it now, is that as kids we had to use the outhouse, whether that was only if the bathroom inside was "busy" or whether it was that that bathroom was off limits to us kids.  The latter wouldn't necessarily surprise me because my grandfather had ways like that; for example, nothing to drink with dinner until your dinner was finished.
So any memories you'd like to share would be greatly appreciated -- memories of freezing your ass off, was it a one-seater or two, etc.