DICKINSON COUNTY

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MILFORD - "I have made many a trip to that barn," said Waneta Clague. In that barn Waneta milked her first Jersey cow when she was eight years old. She milked cows first with her parents, sister and brother, then with her husband, Delbert, all in the same barn.

After milking cows for 66 years, she shed tears when they left the farm in 1989.

The Century farm was purchased by her great-grandfather Aaron Dodge in 1886. The 160 acres was purchased from the Minneapolis-St. Louis railroad for $2.40 per acre. The 54' by 40' barn was built using wooden pegs in the support timbers and square-head nails elsewhere.

Once completed the family lived in the hayloft until a home was constructed. Little is known how the Dodge family made do with life in the barn, but stair steps leading to a trap door made access to it safe.

Designed for efficiency the barn had four horse stalls on one side with four cow stalls on the other. A team of horses pulling a manure spreader could enter the wide alley, be filled and drive out the other door. Each stall would hold two cows.

The hayloft stored loose hay for the livestock. Waneta remembers putting up loose hay in the loft with wooden slings. The loose hay was pitched off the wagon onto the sling, then a big trip rope pulled by a team of horses would take the hay into the loft.

This family farm has been tended by the same family for four generations. Waneta was born in the same house as her mother Elsie Dodge Winslow. As a child, she would ride a pony to a pasture to bring the milk cows home for milking. After the noon meal she would ride out again to pump fresh water for the cows. She milked cows before and after school.

Mother Elsie would bottle the milk at home. Driving a Model A Ford she would take it to Spencer where she had a regular delivery route. The Jersey milk was popular with their customers as was fresh dressed chickens in the summer.

Through the years, first the Winslows and then Clagues would separate the milk, feeding the skim milk to the hogs and selling the cream. Business was done with the Fostoria Co-op Creamery and Hartley Creamery. Cheese and butter were made at the creameries. Eggs were also sold to the Hartley Creamery.

Delbert says payment would come in the form of cash in an envelope for the previous week's cream and eggs. On that day the trucker would be carrying quite a bit of cash for the many farm families.

Winter could be a problem when snow fell. With no plows or other equipment to move snow, the truck would often break its own track in the snow to pick up milk.

Chickens were also a part of their lives. They raised White Leghorn chickens. The Peerless Hatchery in Spencer would purchase the fertile eggs. Some years, the egg man would come twice a week to pick up egg cases that held 30 dozen, Waneta Clague recalled.

The egg money was mostly used for groceries.

To this day, the barn stands straight and true, a reminder of the important role it served on Waneta Clague's family farm for four generations.

Contact Renae Vander Schaaf at renaefarmnews@gmail.com.