The Hidden History of The Benches of O'Hara
WHAT IS IT WEDNESDAY/ AUGUST 5TH, 2020
Welcome back everyone! Today we are going to share the story given to us by Dave Little of a number of artifacts that can be found on our trails and the homestead. These wooden benches have quite an interesting background! Lets read about what Dave has to say about them:
“These rustic benches, recently built by Frank Brooks of nearby Queensborough, have an interesting story to tell:
They have been constructed from threshing floor planks, salvaged from the late 1800's barn on the Johnson farm just north of the O'Hara mill. They are virgin hemlock, sawn at the O'Hara water-powered sawmill.
These two inch thick planks, up to twenty inches in width, are scarred from decades of work horses drawing wagonloads of hay into the barn.
Sometimes these planks vibrated to the running of the threshing machine. Bushels of threshed grain were carried to the adjacent granary. The best-looking grain would be cleaned with a hand-cranked fanning mill on the threshing floor for planting in the spring.
Every winter day, straw and hay would be forked out of the adjacent mows onto the threshing floor, then pushed down the chutes for the livestock in the stable below.
Most likely the threshing floor soaked up old-time fiddle music, a popular place for square dances many years ago. And the laughter of children playing on a rainy afternoon.
So when you sit on these benches at O'Hara's, listen to all the tales they have to tell about bygone days when the threshing floor was a vital, active part of farm life.”
This goes to show that the most unassuming of objects have more to them than meets the eye!
