Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1919-05-01
1T WAS A LONG,
LONG TIME AGO

1t has been long, long time since
grandfather built his barn and faith
er fixed the house over a long,
ling time ago and things have chang
ed says the Marshalltown Republi-
can. If your grandfather and mine
were to have the present price sprung
on them when they concluded to
build their new barn they'd have
dropped in their tracks of heart fail
ure, strong men as they were. They
couldn't have survived the shock.
Grandfather bought good cedar di-
mension stuff for the barn at $12 per
thousand. Grandfather built a real
barn framed of big timbers and
pinned together wherever a tenon
went into the mortices, even to the
braces, big 12x12 and SKIS timbers.
He covered it with stock boards of
practically clear lumber such as a
carpenter of this day would be glad
to get for finish But then grand
father had a fve-board fence around
the farm of six-foot boards nailed to
real red cedar posts, the kind they
make box of nowadays and charge
$50 for. That fencing cost him
$11.50 and the posts ten cents each
1t was all good lumber. The old
barn is there in good shape after
nearly so years and it would not
be surprising at all if some of those
red cedar posts were still going duty
somewhere about the place.
The pig pens and the sheds were
built of "culls.'' 1t was 80 miles
to the big lumber mill on the river
where the great raft of logs which
the winter before had stood upright
in forests along the Wisconsin and
the Eau Claire and Chippewa ended
their journey from the assembly
place at Beef Slough and were turn
ed into beams and boards and shing-
les by reading, ripping and slashing
rotaries and gang saws. "Culls"
those days sold for from SIS to 81
thousand feet. So grandfather haul
ed that lumber 80 miles. He had
more time than money and when he
selected his load from the "culls" he
had better boards than the average
today.
Grandfather, when he "built the
house over" bought mighty good
flooring for SIC thousand but faith
err had to pay $40 a thousand for
inch and quarter white pine finish
ing free from knots and sap.
Great days those considered mere
ly by comparison of prices but rec
election is that even at such prices it
was harder to get good barn, build
a good house or make extensive re-
pairs to the old house than it is to-
day.
Grandfather sold hogs at $3.50 per
cwt., and he thought $3.50 mighty
good price. Oh, yes, in Civil War
times he sold some hogs for $13 and
he never got over talking about it.
Speaking of heart failure the proba-
bilities are that he'd have sent for
the doctor If buyer had come along,
looked at his hogs and said: "Give
YOU $1S,75." Grandfather might
have thought he was bidding on the
herd trying to lump them off.
Another jolt for grandfather
would have been to have farm hand
mention Sos to SIS month. He
hired them for SIC a month, board,
washing and mending included. He
paid a "day hand" a dollar a day.
Skilled carpenters received 50 a day
or by reason of extreme repute and
skill $3.50. And day out at grand
fathers meant breakfast at 600 a.
m. to supper at approximately 700
p. m. OF course that included board
and lodging BY Smell Smith.
-O