[as told by Lester to me the summer of 1973. Lester was 78.]
 |
| This is the "new" barn. Photo dated 1920. |
Lester (9 years old) and Mabel were the only ones home at the time. Lester was herding the cows into the cow yard next to the barn and saw sparks. He ran across the road to the house to tell Mabel. Alex and George were out in the back 40 cutting oats. Mabel threw off her apron and ran out to tell them. Before she got there, Alex had already seen the smoke and was running to save his buggy horse. He needed the horse (John's horse) for his date with Flora (fiancé) that night. The hayloft was filled to the roof with golden hay. By evening, all the neighbors were helping to quench the fire. It burned for 3 days. Somehow Willy found out (he lived 3½ miles away). John (18) watched his buggy horse burn from the house where he was sick. He died later that fall. He, Anna, and Katherine (Bake's mother) had enlarged hearts. The house was too close to the barn and had to be soaked with water to keep it from burning too. George built the new barn further from the house on a hill. Further to walk each morning to milk the cows, but much safer. It wasn't until a few years later that they discovered Willy's boys (Alex, 6, and Royce, 4) were playing in the loft that morning with matches. No doubt that was the cause of the fire.
[Not sure what year the barn burned. The ages given here don't match with any time. If John were 18, the year would have been 1902 (he died in 1903), Lester would have been 7, Alex 4 and Royce only 1. So the ages don't seem to jive.]
