My Family’s Homestead
I am helping one of my relatives (Margaret) do some research and setting up pages for a book she is putting together about our grandparents and their siblings.
My job was finding information and taking photos of the homestead and creating pages (with great help from my aunts Lois and Julia) for my grandpa’s part of the family. I also helped create pages for great-uncle Clayt’s family – he is on the back left.
There were ten siblings. Peggy is a granddaughter of one, and I am a granddaughter of Milton – the tall one in the back. I guess that makes us second cousins. (I didn’t even know her until we worked on this book.)
The Hershey Homestead was purchased by my great-great grandfather John R. Hershey in 1875. My youngest brother Steve and his wife, Brenda, are the current residents.
There have been many additions and changes, but the barn and house are still there. Actually this is the second barn, because when my great-great grandfather bought this, his sons were too young to farm, so he rented it to another family. Two of their boys were playing with matches one day and ran into the barn to hide when they saw their dad coming in from the field, causing a fire that destroyed the barn. This barn was built in 1876 or 1877.
This photo should be on the left of the previous photo. My dad and brothers added this larger dairy operation in 1993.
Approaching the homestead from the north.
I see this view everyday since we live about a quarter mile north of the farm.
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The House
There are three sections to the house – the original (sandstone on the left) built in 1819, the frame (center) built in 1910, and the newest frame section (right) built in 1997.
The old sandstone house could tell many stories…
…as could the old silver maple tree in the front yard. We understand the tree was planted when my great-grandpa Jacob G. Hershey was twenty-one (1889), making it 123 years old and measuring seventeen-and-a-half feet around.
It is in bad shape from several lightening strikes, so…
…my brother Steve started a daughter tree from one of its shoots.
The date 1819 was carved into the ceiling of the basement indicating when the house was built. During a remodeling project this piece of wood was removed and is now being preserved.
The shutters are original.
Many things have been changed in the house, but this pretty window remained when a door below it was obviously removed, as the sandstone is a bit different under the window.
An inside shot of the top of the same window.
A fireplace chimney in the basement.
A basement door to the outside.
A corner of the basement. This is in the room where I remember my parents butchering and where my mother had her wringer washing machine.
A second floor window
Original attic steps
Attic window
There is an old smokehouse in the attic. This is the smoke-stained interior of the door.
Door handles
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The Barn
This area on the second floor of the barn was swept clean once a year to hold the Hershey Reunion when I was a young girl.
The entire barn was built with the mortise and tenon style of construction.
Those of us who grew up on this farm remember the hay mows (especially building tunnels) and walking across the long beams. Thinking about anyone walking those beams frightens me today!
The wheels for grinding grain in the horse power shed are still here…
…but haven’t been used since 1900.
In one end of the barn, you cans see the riggings that were used to bring in loose hay (before there were bales).
On the south wall, you can see where the vents used to be when tobacco was raised on this farm.
My grandfather stopped raising tobacco when it didn’t match his Christian standards. It was just becoming known that smoking and chewing tobacco was not good for ones health. He said he wanted to raise something he could swallow after he chewed it, so he raised cantaloupes and tomatoes in place of tobacco.
He built the tile silo (right) in 1930 with money he saved from selling cantaloupes.
My great-grandfather built this garage in 1912 shortly after buying his first car.
It has been fun going through these memories by talking to my siblings, dad’s sisters Lois and Julia, and re-reading parts of my Grandpa Hershey’s book.
