Ken Steinhoff, Cape Girardeau Central High School Class of 1965, spent half a century in the ink-slinging business for papers in Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida.
He retired in 2008 and has been spending time scanning hundreds of thousands of images because “photos once taken as news have grown enough whiskers that they’ve become history.”
Please comment on the articles when you see he may have left out a bit of history, forgotten a name or when your memory of a circumstance conflicts with his.
(His mother said her stories improved after all the folks who could contradict died off.)
Your information helps to make this a wonderful archive and may end up in book form.
© Ken Steinhoff – All Rights Reserved
In March, I wondered how much longer this old barn on Hwy 74 would last. Click on the link to see more photos of the barn.
When I made my normal Sunday night call back to Cape a few weeks ago, I got my answer from Mother: it was gone.
I often look at these buildings as when they were first erected and imagine how proud the owner must have been with his new building. Those folks are largely no longer with us or not the owners. Their need for the building and it’s upkeep left with those original proud owners. The way hay is stored and the way cattle are fed have made this design unnecessary today. Yesterday’s double hipped roof and loft are an unneeded expense now and the barns are more likely to house tractors, combines or trucks which can be so large that they wouldn’t fit in the older buildings. Like covered bridges, their design no longer fits their function. The old barns have given some great memories for those of us who have worked and played in them.
I enjoyed Dick McClard’s comments and of course that brought back the memories of playing as a child and working as a teenager in several barns. Mr Groves owned a quonset type barn in the middle of an orchard west of North Cape Rock Dr. I used to play in that barn, probably unbeknown to Mr Groves. Later on I worked for Mr Groves.
Over 50 years ago my parents hired Goldie Crosnoe to build a home at 2509 Allendale Dr, on that very site where that barn had been. I was off to college that year but have fond memories of both the barn and home on that site.
Such an enjoyable post by Dick McClard. Around here 100 year old barns are being recognized with large quilt-design boards posted on them.
The wood in those old barns make beautiful crosses which my husband, Tom, has made. Also our daughter-in-law’s father made her a triple shelf corner flower stand that she cherishes.
We love pictures and paintings of old barns. Maybe there still is the round barn out on Big Bend Road…good memories. Thanks, too,
for Dick McClard’s remarks.
Ah, as a child, nothing like an old barn with a hay loft to lie in during a rain. Mine was built some time in the 1800s by a long ago relative at Gravel Hill, a wide spot in Rt.34 which we all passed en route to the Twin Bridges swimming hole on the Caster River. Makes a great picture. Turn right on a gravel road just prior to the bridge over “Dillards Creek”. Go 100 yards and park … walk a short distance down a lane to the right. Then, if you want an idyllic country setting for an old cemetery, head on up the gravel road a few miles…it’s also on the right.
My Grandparents old barn is about to go down too. But of the memories I have of it. Of going there with my grandmother while she milked the cows. Sometimes telling her of a Snake hanging above her and the cows.She would have to get out till it was gone. Of the Knife carving on the wall of how much hay or grain was stored there. Of the time the barn door fell on me and Grandmother picked me up and carried me to the house and laid me down on one of her finest bed spread, manure and all.Stepping on the slick rocks to get into the barn after a soaking rain sometimes slipping off of them. Guessing it is over 100 years old.