village buildings

2006

The Museum of Western Reserve Farms and Equipment, located in Richfield, Ohio, has been undergoing rapid expansion this past summer in an effort to save a number of historic buildings from destruction by developers. We have just finished re-erecting the Karacek building which is now housing the Vaughn Loom and Weaving Mill.

This is a building that never should have been moved.

The Stouffer Farm on Wheatly Rd. in Richfield Township, was originally owned and farmed by the Wheatly Family. When the Stouffer’s bought the farm, they lived in a very nice victorian house that fronted on Brecksville Rd. Another house and a barn, where farm help lived, stood nearby on Wheatly Rd.

Stop by to visit the latest shop at the museum. It’s modeled with the Wright Cycle Co. in mind.

The Wright Bros. began selling bicycles in 1892 while continuing to run their print shop. By 1896 they started designing and manufacturing their own bike models and used the bicycle profits to finance their first aviation experiments. (The museum’s bike shop is in the same building as the future museum print shop.)

When I was quite young, first grade or so, my younger sister and I used to walk a long way down the gravel road to visit Mrs. Garman (back then there was almost no traffic and nobody worried about “stranger danger”. Before the freeways, Richfield was a very sleepy little farm community.). She was in her nineties or so, and lived alone.

December of 2009 we were selling Christmas trees, just as we have since 1963. A gentleman came into the Gen’l Store and asked about the museum. He wondered about all the buildings and what I was doing. (As it turned out, the tree I sold him was the best tree I ever sold.)

After we talked a bit he said he was a city councilman in the City of Independence, Cuyahoga Co.

At the turn of the century there were 100 cigar factories in Ohio. By the end of WW2 there were just 40 left. The last operating cigar factory in the State of Ohio was, … the Blaine-Stewart in Hicksville, Ohio. When they finally closed in the early 1970’s, they had been in operation for many years using equipment that was over a hundred years old.

2015

In 2009, the owner of Halter Feed & Grain retired. After 50 yrs. of operation by the family, the Mill, located in Robertsville, Stark Co., was sold at action. The museum was able to save two feed baggers, conveyer belts and pulleys, the Halter Feed sign and a very nice printed Halter feed sack. We have now set up the Halter Mill display at the museum.

I had a lucky accident happen last spring (March 2010). Someone stopped by to look at the museum. While we talked he mentioned he had bought the Randolph Feed Mill, 33 miles east of here. It’s been closed for a number of years, but there was a time when I weighed pumpkins there.

I remember years ago visiting the Knopp Farm, on Columbia Rd. Richfield Twp., Summit Co. Of the two homes on the farm, there was “Uncle” Frank’s house. Every winter he closed up the rest of the house and lived in the kitchen. It was the only room he could keep warm with his wood stove. He had a narrow bed in the corner, a single chair by the kitchen table, and a cook stove. I don’t recall that he did much during the winter.

I received a call from one of the local golf courses. It was time to move the outhouse that had been standing for years near one of the greens. It’s a nice little building, but it hadn’t been usable for years. Fortunately, the paint was kept up, and the roof was good. I guess it was just a little too “old timey” for these more modern days.