Our story of Farm begins in the 1930’s, when a couple we will call Lou, and her husband, Har, purchased the farm, apparently, after the bank foreclosed on the previous owner. Lou taught school at the one room schoolhouse just two miles north. Har was a career military officer. The couple had no children but a reliable income that few had during the Great Depression.
Back then, the 30 x 40 foot salt box house, built in the late 1800’s, sat on a Michigan basement, had no electricity, no plumbing (think outhouse) a hand operated well and relied on wood stoves for heating and cooking. We don’t know how Lou managed alone while Har was deployed, maybe she had help from family and friends. Reports from folks who knew her said she was hearty and capable outdoors. After World War II, Har retired to the farm full time.
Impetuous to remodel the house came after a wood stove fire around 1946 which damaged the north part of the house. A few charred studs from that fire can still be found in the second floor attic. Instead of just making repairs, Lou and Har used the opportunity to make major upgrades to the house and farm.
The engineering knowledge Har gained in the military was about to serve him well. He hired a crane to lift the house off its foundation and install a modern concrete block basement. The entire house was upgraded with; drywall plaster, electrical, plumbing and forced air furnace systems. The outbuildings were also built at that time. The large bank barn was equipped with stanchions for dairy cows below and loose hay above. A well house was built with a root cellar, concrete tanks to cool 5 gallon milk cans, and an electric well serving house and barns. There is no evidence these structures housed livestock but the subsequently reinforced barn floor has held over 5,000 small square bales of hay.
Lou and Har had many years together in their remodeled home until Har passed in 1958 and Lou was once again alone. This would not last as her sister also became a widow around 1962. The “Mother in Law Suite” addition on the west end of the house was built and Lou’s sister moved in. The ladies subsequently took in a neighborhood man they had known since childhood. It makes me think of the “Three’s Company” TV show but with folks in their mid 70’s.
Lou outlived them all and in 1983, at 83 years old, moved to an apartment in Elkhart. Lou came to visit the farm annually and was thrilled the place finally had children. Lou’s was always the first Christmas card we would receive each season. Lou died in 1999, one day shy, we were told by a great nephew, of her 100th birthday.
Postscript
The Farm was originally surveyed as 160 acres in the NW ¼ of Section 34, N. Porter Township, Cass County, MI. This included 6 acres of the open water of Robbins Lake. Early land
descriptions list the land as 154 acres. The two lake front homes immediately west of the outlet stream used to be part of this farm. Lou sold these lots to family members about the time of Har’s passing. The land was again divided in the 1980’s and is now owned by three different landowners. All this land once owned by Har and Lou is protected from further development by Conservation Easements through SW Michigan Land Conservancy.
