Print by:
Bill Coulter |
The Story Behind (No Pun Intended) the Barn: This old barn in Clark County, Johnson Township Illinois was built by my dad, James (Jim - 1906) H. Slusser and his brother Charles V. (Uncle Pete -1908) about 1926. They were both tough young men and went to the woods, cut the trees, hauled them to the saw mill and then took the lumber home to the farm place where they grew up. The barn is located on 40 acres located about 7 miles south of the little town of Casey, Illinois and has been in the Slusser name since it was homesteaded mid 1840s by my Great-Great Grandfather John S. Slusser. My Grandma Laura (Higgins) Slusser had wanted the previous old barn torn down for years because it was "too close to the house and the flys....!", so Dad and Uncle Pete built a new one, with Grampa's (Harley) help . They did use some of the old pegged beams from the original barn and it was a beauty. It's about 30' X 50' with a haymow, animal pens and stalls, cow mangers and a place for harness tack. It served purposefully for many years but 35 or so years ago, there were no more livestock on the farm and there was no money to keep it repaired, so it has deteriorated severely and won't stand for many more years. What fun I had in that old barn when I was growing up. I played in the haymow and made tunnels from stacked bales of hay and straw. I can remember when I was very little when they put the hay up loose, bringing it in in a hay wagon, dropping the big hooks in and lifting the hay up from the wagon, then through the big door in the front using ropes and a horse pulling from around on the back side of the barn. Someone would watch the hay load as the trolley was slid along the rail, high in the rafters, and would pull the trip rope. The loose hay would fall where wanted. Labor intensive to say the least. We had horses, cows to milk, calves and pigs too. Yeah, we even had sheep for a while. They all stayed in the barn when it was cold. There was another rarity with this barn. Grampa' use to raise "broom-corn" and in the process of harvesting it, the tassels are cured in a broom-corn shed. There is the remnants of the shed on the left side of the barn, but it's not shown in the print. However, you can see it in the picture below.
It's sad, to say the least, the the old barn is falling down. If I hit the lottery, I'm going to restore it, otherwise, it will probably be burned where it stands. I can't even get anyone to come and take the old wood for free. You can see the back of the barn rotting away in the picture above. Bill Coulter, an artist from Robinson, Illinois, found a picture of the old barn on my website and contacted me to ask permission to use it to make an artistic print. I think that the picture he used was taken by my grand daughter Sarah (12) last summer (2003). She has her own gallery, you know. Anyway, after he completed his print, he sent me a copy. Shirley found an old frame at the Salvation Army store and it's proudly hanging in the family room. So, make Bill's day and order a print from him. Click <HERE> or drop him a line at 207 N. Reed, Robinson, IL 62454.
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