EMMET COUNTY

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ESTHERVILLE - More than 100 years after it was built, the barn on the Vernon and Vera Origer farm, located near this southwest Emmet County community, stands as a monument to the test of time, and to the American farmer.

Measuring 60-by-106 feet, it features timbers made of notch-and-peg design, a 50-foot peak and a skeleton of 1x12 panels. Square nails hold it all together.

"This is all very hard lumber and after these 100-plus years, it's very hard to drive a nail into the poles or the one-inch lumber, and it's even harder to pull the nails out," said Vernon Origer. He added that the barn was constructed in the late 1800s or very early 1900s.

Origer explained that the lumber was shipped from northern Minnesota on the railroad, requiring two rail cars to haul the long boards. Some of them measured as long as 60 feet. The wood was cut by Origer's father, Herman, Herman's brother, Adolf, and their father, Nicholas Origer - who, with his wife, Katherine, purchased that land in Center Township in April of 1893.

"The poles were all cut from these logs, and the boards that were trimmed from the outside of the poles were used for sheeting on the roof and for doors (as well as for) sheeting inside the barn," he said.

"Each series of poles (eight in all) were laid out and fastened together on the ground. A team of horses, or a large group of men, used long ropes to pull the pole framing up in place. The sheeting and the bracing were then applied.

Each of the buildings poles was set on a large as a foundation, as Origer said there was no cement to use in construction at the time the barn was built.

All poles and beams on the ground are 6-by-7.5 inches. Braces are all 4- by-6-inch hardwood.

The footing for the barn was made from a row of rocks laid close together around the outside of the barn. The large 4-by-6-inch sills were laid on the rocks, then the poles were put in place.

"The rocks were cut with large chisels and some artistic use of dynamite to break the large rocks into approximately 8-by-12-12-inch chucks, each about a foot thick, before they were set into the ground for footings," Origer explained.

The approximate cost of the barn at the time of construction was $2,200 for materials and labor.

"It was built with stalls for the work horses along the east side," said Origer. "The north end was for loose animals and the west side was set up with stanchions and gutters for milk cows.

All of the livestock was tied with their heads to the center of the barn for easier feeding and bedding down."

Origer said feed rooms and overhead bins were built in the south end of the barn and hay was hauled into the large alleyway (east and west) through the barn, and deposited in the south side of the alleyway to feed the livestock.

A threshing machine was set on the east side of the barn, north side of the alleyway, and the straw from the oat crop was blown into the north center of the barn for livestock bedding. The barn also features an indoor silo, which was constructed in the barn during the 1940s by the Jesse Devoss family, who bought the farm in 1938 and operated a large dairy there.

Vernon and Vera Origer purchased the farm from the Devoss family in 1959.

"The whole barn was used for swine production after we moved here," he said. "There was a large hay area on the south side of the alleyway that we converted to farrowing facilities. We put up a series of poles and a floor on top. (We poured) a cement floor and eight pens measuring 8-by-8 feet."

Origer said an eight-foot alley was still available in the middle of the barn for a variety of uses.

"The many years the barn was used for swine production were a blessing for me," Origer began. "I could pull the tractor and manure spreader through the large sliding doors of the barn and into the alleyway to clean pens, or for whatever I wanted to do in the winter time without paying any attention to the weather."

Still, Origer said his first memory of this barn was when he was a child.

"there were manure piles below each of the windows around the barn. It has been pitched out of the sliding windows in the wintertime. When the manure piles thawed out in the spring, they were loaded with a pitchfork into the horse drawn manure spreader and hauled to the fields for fertilizer."

Origer said they kept hundreds of pigs in the barn continuously, and that they paid for the farm with them - all of which were raised in the barn.

"It isn't as much anymore, but the barn used to be a main building for farmers in the days when they had a lot of livestock," Origer said. "It's important to preserve them."

Though they are retired and have no livestock in the barn today, the Origers have worked hard to preserve the barn - physically and educationally. They installed a steel roof on it15 years ago to better preserve it, and have placed steel siding on the structure to insure its aesthetics and to help keep it around.

But preserving the physical structure of the barn isn't all they're interested in doing. The Origers want people to remember what farming used to be like years ago. The rooms - which once bustled with the odor and work of livestock-now are quiet, and some feature old farm tools and memorabilia - giving people an idea of how much work farming really used to be. It stands as somewhat of a museum to their family's accomplishments in farming, in 4-H and FFA, and to farming in general, including photos.

A cloth bag from the Pioneer Seed Company hangs on the wall there, with a tag that said the seed corn in that bag sold for $11.40.

"People need to remember this," Origer said as he let go of the tag and took an antique tool down from the wall. "Farming used to be a lot more physical work than it is now - maybe just a different kind of work."

The Origers host tours through their barn a handful of times each year, so that people have a chance to look around the no cleaned-up structure and remember what the farm is for.

Today the barn features a small mini golf teeing area (complete with carpet), a rope swing in the alleyway of the barn (which reaches to the peak of the barn); a basketball court in an upper loft, and more.

The couple's 16 great-grandchildren have spent time in there entertaining themselves over the years after the barn became free of livestock.

In addition, they have six children and 17 grandchildren. Vernon and Vera were married for 67 years on Oct. 28 of this year. The Origers have made both a living and a life on their farm, and the barn played a main role in their success.

Contact Karen Schwaller at kschwaller@evertek.net.