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We purchased an old farmstead in Indiana and the Vintage Aerial staff was very helpful in locating our farm from some 1960's photo reels. We looked all over the place for an old photo and had no idea it could be this easy.

My grandfather became owner of this farm in 1891. I believe it belonged to his father prior to that. My father was born on the farm and lived there until his retirement from farming in 1973, at which time he moved to town and the farm was sold to a neighbor. My father owned this 80-acre farm in addition to another 40 acres a quarter mile east of here. My parents raised 4 daughters on this farm and we attended the same rural one-room school a quarter mile down the road which my father had also attended. We got electricity in 1950 and indoor plumbing a couple of years after that. My parents had pigs, sheep, work horses, chickens and milk cows. My mother always had a big garden and canned our vegetables. My father believed in paying cash for what he needed and got his first loan in 1964 for a new car. The barn was built in 1912 and the house was enlarged in 1916. A portion of the old house was kept on as a summer kitchen. My father replaced and built the hog house, chicken house and grainery in the 1950's. The father belonged to an oats threshing ring with the neighbors however he had his own corn shredder which my son now owns. We daughters had lots of fun in the barn and had a tire swing hanging from the beams as the barn was open in the center to store hay. We three oldest daughters helped with chores and milking cows which we initially did by hand until Dad got a milking machine. It was a very good life and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

Kind of a long story, but I do love the picture. The reason I had ordered it was for my dads birthday on September 15th. I was very excited and could not wait to show him and talk to him about it, so I gave it to him about 3 weeks ago. He really loved it and I even saw a couple tears in his eyes. He hung it up right away near his front door for everyone to see it. Now for the long part, two weeks ago my dad was in a bad accident and spent 9 days in the hospital before passing away. I know he was really happy about the photo and makes me happy I did not wait for his birthday. I really want to thank you for helping me make my pops happy. The photo will hang there for years to come and a great memory for me. Thank you, Tony

Ed and Cheryl Smith now own the 20 acres the original house in the photo was located. Cheryl’s parents [Orval and Lois (Gottsch) Keyes] rented these 160 acres from Orval’s mom (Mary Keyes), which later became his when Mary passed away. There were nine kids in my family - 7 girls, 2 boys. My brother Dennis was killed in a tractor accident in June 1958 on this farm. My parents bought 80 acres in the 1960's a few miles north of this house and we moved there, but this was the house I always called home. I have heard this farm referred to as the "old Deercup farm". Not sure of that spelling though. They owned it before my Grandma Keyes did. My dad (Orval Keyes) was a farmer and worked as a Licensed Engineer at Allied Chemical by LaPlatte, Nebraska among other places. He then went on to be State Senator for 12 years. My parents left each of us kids 20 acres and six of my siblings, including my husband and I, have built a new house on their 20 acres. My husband and I (Ed Smith) "drew" the 20 acres where the original home was. My three kids (one son, 2 daughters) were born while we lived here. They all have married locally and continue to live in the Springfield area. Ed and I bought a home in Springfield and moved in 1976. This picture was taken in 1982, but I am always looking for a picture dated in the 1960's or 1970's that would show the old barn. It was torn down prior to this picture along with more grain bins.

The farm of my grandparents was one of my favorite places to visit. The farm had originally belonged to my grandfather's Uncle Carl. My grandfather inherited it in 1930. My grandfather raised corn, oats, hogs and cattle there. My grandmother raised chickens and collected eggs. There was always something to do and if the work was done you could always take the dog for a walk around the farm. The farm had a lot of hills and so there was always a good view of the farmland from the top of the hills. The trees surrounding the farmhouse provided a windbreak plus a nice refuge for birds and wildlife. The farm now belongs to a cousin.

This farm is the Pierceson farm on Prophetstown Road. Unfortunately the buildings and home no longer exist. The house was heated with a coal furnace and was built in the late 1800's. We raised Herfeord cattle, and if you look closely you will see hog feeders as well. Overall the Pierceson family farmed 300 acres and have farmed this piece since the 1930's. It was a wonderfull place to ride horses, go exploring, and live the day to day life of the seasonal life of a farmer. We miss it all (except for the coal furnace).

I almost did not recognize this farm, it is now only a couple of buildings that is located at the corner of our road. What a unique piece of history!

Back in the 1940's when my Grandmother Helenea Brisbane was getting out of the Army at Ft. Dix, she decided to invest in a business, "site unseen". It happened to be in a town called Hiwasse in Benton County, Arkansas. It was a Chicken Farm, fully automated....pretty fancy for the times. No indoor plumbing in the house, but the chickens had it made. With my mother in tow, they arrived in this small "don't blink, you will miss it" town in style....grandmother called her Chauffeur from her days before the Army and had him drive them to their new destination..."the farm" Needless to say, the new rich people made a big hit that would be talked about and remembered to this day. Grandmother promptly had plumbing put into the house....but left the outhouse for looks. My mother was in heaven, being the new city girl in town. The house had a rock facing and came to be known as the "Rock house". There were fruit trees in the back, with a very large grape arbor that was cool to walk beneath. It had a large garden area that you could feed half a city from as far as grandmother was concerned. Woods off to the side that mother went horseback riding in. They seemed to settle in just fine, until a boycott was called on chickens. Here is where my memory gets cloudy...don't remember what the boycott was about, but it meant that the fryers, with a delay in selling, turned into stewers and grandma was about to go broke. I didn't mention during this time, Grandmother had met and married a local fellow by the name of Ralph Todd and mom had married a local fellow and my dad, Joe Jenkins....(they moved to California by this time and mom was going to have me).....Grandmother, being very adventurous, and never letting anything get her down, said the heck with it, sold the farm because of the boycott and sent my mother a telegram which we have to this day...it read: Sold the farm, Stop. Put out the cat, Stop. Left the Todds to moan and cry, Stop. Took Editorship at Indianapolis Daily, Stop. Go ahead and have your baby, Stop. Mother......and that was grandmother's adventure in Hiwasse Arkansas, on Highway 72, and her chicken farm.....everyone is gone now and the chicken houses are gone the last time I was there, but folks still remember Bris and her adventure and the Rock house, which was partially still there when I went through back in 2008. You don't need to put all this in there. It is just some of the story I remember from my mom and folks from Hiwasse.

We purchased this farm in February 2011 and the house and barn have seen much better days. We have been researching the farm's history and have had a wonderful opportunity to meet the past owners and people who grew up in the home. After they sold it, it fell into disrepair with its two most recent owners. While we are unsure what the future holds, we want to make sure we are connected with its glory days. I would like to bring it back to its former condition, but that remains to be seen. I am just happy we have a clear view now thanks to Vintage Aerial of how proud she once stood.

This picture was taken in 1975 when I was 22 years old. My dad in previous years raised cattle and milked cows so our barn was big. It was later downsized for reasons I'm not sure but i just know that we no longer had cattle but we started raising more hogs. We also had chickens . Dad would buy a bunch of baby chicks and some were kept for laying eggs and some unfortunately for them were butchered and i remember dad chopping the roosters head off with an axe and throwing them over a fence and watch them helplessly jump around headless.As a kid I did not like seeing that. Of course those were different days with good memories and in a few years after this picture was taken the farm was about to take on a different look. The old machine shed would about ready to give way to a much bigger morton machine shed that I would build,and a small farrowing house would soon be build east of the barn. Things were changing but the memories of the place in which i grew up and still live today will always be there! This picture indeed rekindles those memories! Thank you for finding it for me!!