Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Caption: Storing the Crops, Livestock and Machinery Marker — upper middle image
Additional Description: "June 18: Assisted father in putting the barn together all day. Went to bed tired out about 9 o'clock.
June 22: Men collected to raise father's barn. Assisted all day."
    Diary of Donn Piatt, 1840

Benjamin Piatt's son Donn was twenty years old when he described the construction of the family barn. The picture above shows the same structure approximately 100 years later. Farmers' use of barns changed in that century. Benjamin probably housed livestock in the lower level and adjacent sheds; tools, hay and other grains in the upper level. With a transition toward a more focused grain economy and away from diversified livestock, farmers needed less hay storage. As threshing machines and then combines became more common even less room was needed for small grain storage. Consequently many large barns like Benjamin's were left to languish and fall down.
Submitted: January 27, 2020, by Joel Seewald of Madison Heights, Michigan.
Database Locator Identification Number: p508839
File Size: 3.091 Megabytes

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