Barn near Wayne is older than the railroad
By Cynthia Scheer – Telescope News
www.thebellevilletelescope.com
Stanley Krohn spent many boyhood hours playing in the hay mow of an old stone barn located south of Wayne. The now-74-year-old Wayne-area man said he didn’t think much about the barn’s uniqueness at the time, though he has grown to appreciate the history he has now inherited.
The Krohn family has owned the 133-year-old stone barn for nearly 90 years. The barn is a year older than the railroad, which ran about 200 yards from the barn, said Krohn, who grew up on the stone barn property.
The stone horse barn was built in 1883 by Olof Englund. A horse is carved between “18” and “83” in the stone above the barn’s wooden door. Two of the original horse stalls remain in the barn as well as the original dug well located just inside the barn’s door. Krohn said the well has been dry as long as he can remember.
According to the land abstract, Englund purchased the land on Feb. 22, 1864, from Republic County for $533. The stone barn was built on the land about 20 years later. A stone lean-to was later added onto the barn’s east side, Krohn said, but he doesn’t know when.
“The craftsman that built the barn didn’t build the lean-to,” he said. “They just went and got rock and laid it in there. It’s not the same craftsmanship.”
Englund sold the property to Otto Krohn, Krohn’s grandfather, for $14,000 on July 31, 1929. Krohn’s father, George, inherited the property in 1952 and removed several of the horse stalls to make room for milk cows.
Krohn inherited the stone barn farm in 1977.
Krohn’s son, Jeff, and his family live on the farm now.
Tuckpointing was done on the barn in 1978 to help preserve it, Krohn said, although there is a large crack in the barn’s south wall that has been there for years.
“It does need some repair,” Krohn said. “We’re going to have to do some foundation work.”
