-Farm News photo by Doug Clough
Harnesses for working draft horses adorn the wood milking stanchions in the Castle barn.

SMITHLAND — “It’s just an old barn,” said Dan Castle, owner of this outbuilding in the rolling hills of northwest Iowa. “We hope to fix it up sometime. I bought it four years ago, but my father rented the barn and the pasture since the late 1970s; eventually, we rented it together and now I own it. There used to be a chicken house and a hog house. It was just a typical farmstead.”

Castle fondly remembers the couple who owned the farm before.

Ralph and Delphine Payne left remnants of their big garden and flowers even though the farmhouse had been gone for more than 15 years. An asparagus patch is prolific as is a row of lilacs, some blooming unusually late in October. The Paynes had a cellar on the farm for storing canned goods and potatoes.

In the 1970s and early ’80s, the Smithland Methodist Church farmed the ground for 50/50 profit with the owners. Ralph and Delphine passed away and the farm went to their son Herb and his wife Teri. Herb farmed the ground during the late 1980s. Castle continued to rent out the family’s 120 acres 50/50 beginning in 1990, purchasing the land in 2020.

“It was a typical stock farm,” said Castle. “Years ago, I remember the Paynes putting hay up in the barn for their cows. I raised a lot of hogs, so we used the barn for straw and storage. You can see where the horses were with a manger with hay. Wood is worn away by their big bodies and collars. The cow portion of the barn was added on later.”

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough
Dan Castle shows the features of the barn that were built just for horses, including the manger and feed bunks.

Rough-sawed timber in the barn shows evidence of a circular saw blade. Whittled pegs are fixed on the wall for hanging various items. The original barn still has a dirt floor; the only concrete poured is in the milk house addition.

“The lower part of the original external siding is in good shape,” said Castle. “The lower part, where the livestock could rub up against it, is showing wear.”

The exact date of the 32-foot-by-24-foot barn’s raising is unknown. Use of nails suggests that it’s not quite 100 years old, but the obvious use of horses for power suggests it exceeds the century mark. Ceramic “knob and tube” electrical wiring exists in the barn, which was prevalent from 1880 to the 1930s, providing a small clue as to the barn’s age.

A horse-drawn dump rake sets next to the barn. There are no dates written anywhere on the structure or paperwork available to provide an answer to its longevity.

One thing for certain is that the barn is still solid and good for use. “The barn hasn’t changed much except for the stuff put in it over the last 50 years,” said Castle.

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough
ABOVE: Dan Castle owns this 34-by-24-foot barn west of Smithland.

“It was the main hub of the farm for years for shelter and feed for the animals. Milking was done in the addition with good ol’ wood stanchions. There’s a haymow and corn cob storage from back in the day when corn was picked by hand. Other than a tin roof added in the 1970s — you can see the original cedar shakes peeking out — the barn stands just as it was built. And it still serves us well.”