Grandpa's House

My father grew up on a farm in the thumb of Michigan.  If you don't understand that reference then look at a map of Michigan.  The lower peninsula is shaped like someone's left hand inside a mitten--with the thumb on the right.  My dad grew up in the town of Caro, which is near to the middle of the thumb region.  My siblings all have many memories of spending summers on the farm and playing in the barn.  My paternal grandmother died before I was born, so I obviously have no memories of her.  I only remember my grandfather vaguely.  He was born in 1900 (which is easy to remember) and died in 1990, but before his 90th birthday.

Grandpa Graubner with centennial marker

When we were in Michigan on our last trip in September I wanted to go by his house to take pictures--especially for my siblings that hadn't seen the place in years.  When we got there we discovered that the property was for sale.  My sister Laurie found the listing on-line, though the status is a bit vague.  When Amy and I got to the house we found some people working.  I asked for permission to look around and they directed me to the real estate agent who was also there.  I explained that my dad had grown up in this house and I'd like to walk around the property and take pictures.  Very graciously he agreed to this request.  I realized later I should have asked to go inside, but I didn't think of it, especially since I have few memories from the house.  The listing does have two pictures from the inside which I'll reproduce here (in case the listing disappears at some point).

The outside of the house looked much as I remember it from pictures I've seen over the years.  This is the front porch with the house number next to the door.

For example this picture of my Kellogg cousins and me was taken on the side kitchen porch (just visible on the right side of the picture above).  The railings on the porches are all later additions.

Here is an older view of that side of the house with the old version of the porch--before the concrete version.  Sorry for the poor quality--this picture was taken of a framed picture under glass using my iPhone.

There used the be an outhouse not too far from the house, but it has since been torn down.  The porch in view on the driveway side is the back porch.

This is an old family portrait.  From left to right are my Grandpa Graubner with my dad in front of him.  Next is my grandpa's father-in-law, J FW Cutts, then my Grandma Graubner (whom I never met) with my Aunt Miriam in front of her.  Next is my Aunt Ruth, Uncle Bob, and their grandmother, Christine.

According to my dad this is an older milkhouse that was used when my dad was a small child.  They would bring large metal milk cans into this building and the well was nearby with a windmill that would pump cold water into the building.

This was the chicken house (the first picture is a vintage photo).

There were two sections inside--about 2/3 was in front of the door.  To the right the last third was a walled off-section which had the younger chicks inside it to separate them from the older chickens in the larger area.  The small white area on the right is a former door to the outside that the chickens could use.

This appeared to have been added after the house was sold (I think my grandpa sold it before he died, but had a life lease--I remember stories of my dad and siblings cleaning things out after the funeral).

This outbuilding contained a granary and the section on the left is where my grandfather parked his car (behind the sliding doors).  A corncrib also sat to the left of this structure.  Behind this to the west were scales to be used by vehicles for determining weight.  They would drive a full wagon onto the scales, empty it, then drive the empty wagon on and subtract the weights.

This was the second milk house, formerly attached to the barn.  Showers for the kids usually happened in here.  Despite the broken window the building itself looks fairly solid.  This was built when my dad was older after the other milk house mentioned above.  There were two different milk cooling systems used in the building at different times.  The first one consisted of a rack of water for the milk cans that sat in a pool of water.  There were coils filled with ice that cooled the water.  Later they switched to a system that looked more like a refrigeration unit.  It had a door and coils inside cooled the cans with cooled water that sprayed over the cans.

This building off in the distance was a tool shed.  The big tractor, combine, grain drill and other equipment were kept in here.  To the south end of this property there used to be a small shed for geese when my dad was really young.  Another section was added on when my dad was older.  My great grandfather John F.W. Cutts (my grandmother's dad), known as Grandpa Cutts, tried to start a tractor one morning.  He put kerosene in the petcock (a small valve on the engine designed to aid in starting the tractor) and lit it with a match to warm up before trying to start the tractor.  Instead the tractor caught on fire and had to be pulled out of the building to stop the structure from burning down.  Apparently the rafters are still charred black from this incident.  There also used to be a shop, another corn crib, and a pig pen in the area when my dad was a kid.

This is what the barn used to look like (in an old picture my parents have).

This is some of the rubble from the barn.  Despite being exposed to all of the elements for several years the wood doesn't look to be in too bad of condition.  I think the barn was definitely over a hundred years old before it fell down.  Sadly the barn had fallen into disrepair over the years, but the new owners of the property allowed it to completely collapse.

As you can see here there is still quite a bit of barn rubble that has never been cleared away.  I imagine that it is much easier to see the extent of the pile in the winter.

 As you can somewhat see in this shot there are actually some walls still standing amidst the rubble.

 I wish we'd had room to take some wood home.  But at least I do have a box that my Uncle Bob made out of wood from the barn.

 Here is more rubble from the barn.

I know my siblings find the pictures of the barn rubble especially sad since they have so memories of playing in the structure.

Cross stitch my dad made of the barn

All of the above pictures (and a few more) are in this album:


~Matt