9/22/2005
Marilyn Dodgen A windstorm on June 20, 2005, took the roof off of a 90-year-old, cement block barn on the Warren Whipple farm on Kentucky Avenue, located between Humboldt and Rutland. High winds carried the old roof off onto the ground beside the structure. Because of the severity of the storm, Channel 13's news helicopter had pictures of what was left of the barn and other damage in the county, on the evening news. The day Alan Brandhoij came to carry away the debris, they found a block with writing on it and the date, Sept. 3, 1915. Warren's dad, Myron Whipple, was still living at home on that farm when the barn was built by Chris Christensen, grandfather of Robert H. (Water Bob) Christensen of Humboldt, who was a Dane, and two Swedes, the Andersen brothers, Charlie and George. Thanks to research by local historian Martha Schmidt, who came up with information in a 1920 census, Charles, 43, was listed as a mason and bricklayer. He and his wife, Ida, and four children lived in Springvale Township. Brother George was 31 and single and lived in the same residence as Charles and his family. A Chris Christensen, 43, also lived there and is listed as a carpenter and house builder. Since Christensen was a common name in immigrants from Sweden, this was probably another Chris Christensen and not the Dane who worked with the Andersen men. Robert Christensen said that his grandfather, Chris Christensen, was born in Denmark in 1867 and would have been 53 years old in the 1920 census, with a wife and three children: Peter, Christian (Robert's father) and Josephine. He was well known as a stone mason and helped build the A.B. White, Doan, Old Stoney and other less famous buildings in Humboldt. He would have been 48-years-old when he helped build the Whipple barn. He owned the property and lived in a large house on the block where the Backseat Diner is located, and had purchased it for $300. He also owned and lived in a house on the property where the former UBC Lumber building sits. His last home was on the corner where Dr. Crowley now has his chiropractic office. Older residents remember the house as the Anna Butler residence. Christensen died in 1935, at age 68, after a successful life as a stonemason. Robert's grandfather was definitely the Dane who helped build the Whipple barn. These three men spent most of their summer months building silos up north in the Armstrong-Ringsted area. Peter Beck, formerly of Humboldt and at that time living up north near Armstrong, was a mentor to Chris and was related to Christensen's wife, the former Mary Rasmussen. Beck would encourage farmers in his area to hire the Dane and two Swedes when they needed a silo built, according to Robert Christensen. They had finished with their silo work and took on the job of building the Whipple barn the fall of 1915. The Whipple farmland originally belonged to a Civil War veteran named William Thompson, who was a surveyor by trade and also farmed. He sold a parcel of his property to the City of Rutland for what is now the Rutland Township Cemetery east of town. Then the railroad came through and purchased more of his land and laid track (now the Three Rivers Walking Trail) on the south side of the road that turns back east at the west corner of the cemetery. He then sold land about a quarter of a mile east of the cemetery to W.H. Whipple, who established a farm there. He was the grandfather of Warren Whipple of Humboldt. Old maps show that the Whipple farm sits where the U.S. Army's trail crossed through the countryside in earlier years, coming from the fort in Fort Dodge and going on north. Soldiers from Fort Dodge followed that trail up to Spirit Lake at the time of the Spirit Lake Massacre, back in the early 1800s. W.H. Whipple (William Henry but he went by the name Henry) and his wife, Ella, raised eight children on that farm. Warren's dad, Myron, was still living at home when the barn was built. He married two years later, in 1917, and took his new bride, Martha, to live on the first farm east of the home place, which the Whipple family owned by that time. He and his brother, Howard, farmed there together. Their father, Henry, died in the fall of 1934 and Ella had died in the winter of 1928. Warren and his wife, Marjorie, were married in 1963. They lived on the farm to the east, until moving into Humboldt in 1988. Warren's parents lived on the home place until they both moved to the care center in 1980. Myron died in 1983 and Martha died in 1991. The farmhouse (the third house to stand in that location after the second house burned in the 1950s) stood unoccupied during those earlier years, and after Myron's death, the furnishings were sold and the house and surrounding acreage was rented to Mark and Jody Giddings in 1984. They have since purchased the acreage. The surrounding farmland was farmed by Harold and Anita Hinners, until the land was sold to Jim and Nanette Thoden in the early 1990s. The land is now rented to and farmed by Dennis and Scott Goodell. In 1989, the Henry Whipple farm was recognized, along with two other Humboldt County farms, as Century Farms at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. State Representative Dale Cochran and the State President of the Farm Bureau, Merlin Plagge, presented the certificate and metal sign designating the Century Farm recognition to family members present at the ceremony, including Duane and Esther (Whipple) Hill, Warren and Marjory Whipple, all of Humboldt, and Eleanor Whipple Hickle of Cedar Rapids. The other two Humboldt County farms recognized that day belonged to Don and Olive Hooker and Marvin and Dolores Wergeland of the Renwick area. An interesting coincidence discovered the day of the barn rubble clean-up operation was the fact that it was taking place on Sept. 3, 90 years to the day that the date and her name that had been carved in the cement block by Louella Corzett, daughter of Henry and Ella, who was raised on that farm. This was done during the beginning days of the construction of the barn. Alan Brandhoij did the removal job with a large excavator, and when he spotted the stone with carving on it, he climbed down from the cab to take a closer look. The Giddings were nearby and came over to see what he had found. At this point, they realized that, being Sept. 3, 2005, it was just 90 years ago that day since the barn construction had been started by the two Swedes and a Dane. They also found a very old whiskey bottle inside another cement block. It was a half/pint bottle with a cork in the neck and left the impression that it might have served as a "time capsule" type of memento placed there by the builders. The Giddings were also able to salvage a lot of the old harnesses, a yoke and even some horse fly nets that had been left in the barn from the days when horses were used to pull the farm plow. The barn had been in use from the time the Giddings moved there, housing their eight horses, several colts and 4-H animals over the years. The haymow was on the north side and the south side was cement block, clear up to the peak. It was a well-built barn. At one time, they had applied for a restoration grant from the Iowa State Historical Association, so they could restore the barn, but this effort was unsuccessful. They made minor repairs to cracks that appeared over the years and the barn was still in pretty good shape. This was before the Bradgate tornado skipped over their farm and twisted one corner of the barn, leaving it structurally damaged. Their three remaining horses that were kept in the barn had been moved across the road to a pasture the morning of the storm, so the barn was unoccupied at the time of its demise. They were able to salvage some of the hay from the barn. The Giddings are planning to build a lean-to on the side of the large corncrib near where the barn stood, and will convert it into a barn, covering it with steel siding and finishing the upper part of the crib to serve as a loft for the hay. The old barn may be gone, but the memories will always remain of the years when it served the Whipple families and then the Giddings family over those 90 years. |
||
|
The Humboldt
Independent • Official paper of Humboldt County
Telephone: (515)
332-2514 |
