Tuscarawas County's historic barns highlighted during conservation group’s annual meeting

DOVER ‒ Barn enthusiasts from around the state of Ohio gathered in Tuscarawas County this weekend to get an up-close look at the area's agricultural heritage.

These visitors were attending the annual conference of the Friends of Ohio Barns. The event featured tours of local museums and an all-day conference at Buckeye Career Center in New Philadelphia. But the highlight of the conference was a visit to five historic barns, including the barn at the Norma Johnson Center near Dover and three barns in the vicinity of Ragersville.

The 135 participants traveled in three buses to make the trip.

First stop on the tour

The tour began Friday morning at Steam Valley Farm on Steel Road in Dover Township. The farm is owned by John Steel and his wife, Paula. They operate the farm with their sons, Nathan and his wife, Brandi, and Clinton and his wife Kameron. They have eight granddaughters.

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The Steels own 150 adult cows that produce 11,000 pounds of milk a day. The milk is sold to Pearl Valley Cheese in Coshocton County.

Their large timber-frame barn built in 1913, is 40 feet by 90 feet in size, with a 40-foot by 50-foot straw shed attached at one side. The roof at its peak is 50 feet high. The original barn on the farm burned in 1912 and was replaced the following year with the present structure. Newspaper accounts of the time called the new barn the largest of its kind in Tuscarawas County.

John Steel's grandparents, James and Hazel Steel, purchased the farm in 1939.

"He was ousted from his farm in Sandyville because of the building of the Beach City Dam," John Steel told those on the tour. "They told him they could put 2 feet of water in the second story of his house if they had to close the dam. They were forcing him to leave.

"For two years he shopped around, looking for farms. God bless him, we feel like he made a good choice."

The original farm was 140 acres, but the Steel family has added another 175 acres. They also rent an additional 200 to 300 acres.

Dissecting the barn

Two members of the Friends of Ohio Barns, Rudy Christian, an engineer, and Dan Troth, a custom home builder, serve as barn detectives for the organization. They dissect a barn when they come into it for the first time.

Christian said he knew the barn was built after the Civil War because of the circular saw marks on the timbers. He also pointed out the hay track on the ceiling of the barn, which was a post-Civil War innovation. The hay track did two things.

"It took a lot of work out of farming, because now, instead of having to pitch all of your hay into the mows with a pitchfork, you could actually take a fork, drop it down into your wagon of hay, pick up the load of hay, and pull it up into the hay mows and release it and build a haystack with horses, not just pitchforks," Christian said.

The other thing the hay track did was allow farmers to build barns that were bigger and taller to store more hay.

"It's a really interesting barn," Christian said. "Twentieth-century barns are few. The concept of building timber-frame barns did not last long into the 20th century. World War I was about the end. So, this is one of the later timber-frame barns that we're going to find."

One of the participants on the tour was Mike Wengler, who lives in Hamilton in Butler County. He has been a member of the Friends of Ohio Barns for several years. He does reconstruction, repair and restoration of timber frame barns.

How did he get involved in the group?

"I've been having something to do with timber frame barns for now going on almost 18 years, so I think it was partly somebody contacting me about the Friends of Ohio Barns because I was doing the barns and the restoration and repair, so it just became a good reason to join a good group," Wengler said.

More about the organization

The organization has been in existence for 23 years, according to its president, Caleb Miller. The group holds its annual conference every year in a different Ohio county. Last year, it was in Morrow County, between Columbus and Mansfield. Next year, the group will be meeting in Stark County.

The group's main purpose is to provide information and knowledge about historic timber frame barns in Ohio.

"We're a free resource as far as information," Miller said. "What we have, we share. The big thing is helping people with stewardship, which is the general maintenance of the buildings and knowing what they have and the significance of what they have. We're just here for whoever needs it."

Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Friends of Ohio Barns has its annual meeting in Tuscarawas County