GREENE COUNTY

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COOPER - While the large barns at the Franklin Township farm where Mary Richards lives were full of activity year round when she was growing up, nothing could compare to the excitement of Christmas.

"We milked morning and evening, and it was special to give the cows extra hay and love on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day," said Richards, who lives southeast of Cooper and is the Greene County representative for the Iowa Barn Foundation. "Then the adults would hide a small gift in the barn, perhaps a scarf or gloves, and it was so much fun to come down to the barn and hunt for the present. Even now, it's not Christmas until we come down to the barn."

To keep the fun going, the adults would hold back one gift, which would be tucked away in the dairy barn to be discovered on New Year's Day.

"To carry on this family tradition from my mother's side of the family, I like to hide Easter eggs and treats in the barn when the grandchildren come to visit in the spring," Richards said.

The farm has been an important part of Richards' family for generations. Richards' great-grandfather, John Thornburgh, settled the farm, which became one of the first in the neighborhood to boast an electricity-generating Delco plant.

As the operation expanded, many of the outbuildings, including the cattle barn, horse barn, chicken coop and machine shed, were built in the 1930s. For years, the barns played a central role in the Thornburgh family's progressive operation, which included a threshing business, a corn shelling business and a trucking business.

Richards' father, Oren Anderson, kept a 21-cow dairy herd of Jerseys, Holsteins and Milking Shorthorns with names like Ruthie and Mayzie.

Anderson was one of the first farmers in the area to use artificial insemination to improve his dairy herd. "When the vet came with his charts, I had to leave the barn, so I wouldn't find out what was going on," said Richards, who graduated from Franklin Township Consolidated School in 1958.

"I was even taught that ladies didn't say the word 'bull.' I was just supposed to call them 'animals.'"

Richards is a doctorate researcher doing consulting work as a child psychologist, and her husband, Larry, is a psychiatric physician consultant specializing in child and adolescent psychiatry. Although they lived in the Des Moines and Ankeny areas for much of their adult lives, their children enjoyed visiting Mary's parents on the farm.

"I remember playing hide-and-seek in the haymow with my cousin," said Dr. Jennifer Richards, 37, who now practices in Springfield, Ill. "I have totally positive memories of the farm."

After the Richards moved back to Greene County more than 10 years ago, they began restoring the farm's historic buildings. The barns include their original lightning rods and still have the original shake shingles under the tin roofs. The Richards enjoy welcoming visitors to their farm for barn tours sponsored by the Iowa Barn Foundation. "These events bring grandparents and grandchildren together and generate a lot of conversation," said Richards, who has also hosted a barn party, complete with a 17-piece band, at the farm. "The barn tour brings up a lot of family history stories that the younger generations haven't heard before."

While the Richards' barns offer plenty of storage space, they will eventually house livestock again, said Richards, who plans to raise chickens, ducks and either sheep or feeder calves.

"In my heart I felt like I never left the farm. I'm proud to be rooted in agriculture and am glad we can preserve the barns and our rural heritage."

Contact Darcy Dougherty Maulsby at yettergirl@yahoo.com.