While the guys were clearing out brush, fallen trees & vines beside our house, they came across this historic hay rake! Rakes like these were used to cultivate hay back in the early 1900's.
Here it is sitting upright, with the rakes resting lightly against the ground.
Leaning forward, rakes in the air:
Up-close shot of the rakes:
It appears the brand Champion is printed in the seat.
This property was a historic farm back in the 1700's, 1800's and early 1900's. I can picture this being pulled by horses out in the fields.
6 comments:
I love the history of your place and think it is just so cool! If you got yourself an oxen or horse do you think that you could still use it? Lee was seriously wanting a team of oxen for a while to do farming with. :)
Hi Robin~ I also love the history here. It's so special to think this property was being farmed when George Washington was President. Our current house was lived in when President Lincoln was shot...
This property originally dates back to John Smith, the explorer (the guy who was friends with Pocahantas). He claimed this area, then divided it up and gave our property (in the 1600's) to his nephew who was still in Scotland as encouragement for him to come to the new world. The nephew moved here & built the original house, which stayed in the family for many years. The British marched thru this area during the War of 1812, and about that time the original "mansion" was destroyed & the current house was built in the mid 1800's. I find the history of the property very interesting.
I don't know if we could still use the hay fork - it's pretty rusty. It's been getting rained on for the past 100 years underneath vines & bushes! It would have to be extensively cleaned up to be usable.
This is so cool! Have you thought of calling the historic society? I wonder what else you will find. Maybe you will end up making your own museum!! You could use one of those abandoned houses you have. Have you checked them out much? -Barb
Hey Barb,
We haven't had a chance to do much work out around those old houses, although we plan on one day restoring at least one of them into a guest house. We've been very busy working around the main house - it all seems to take such time...
Do you know where the site of the original house was?
Lee~
No, not exactly. We know where the well was, and the tenant houses, barn, chicken house, smoke house, but not the original house. We believe it was in the same general area as the current house. -Lynn
Post a Comment