Thread: My 1930s Farm Shop (2)

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"womanado".....

I have a new and unexpected addition to the office in my shop.

SD1 by M Patterson, on Flickr


My brother had always loved the safe and he inherited it when mom passed away. I was pretty surprised when he called a while back and asked me I I wanted it. He wanted to insure that it would stay in the family when he is gone and knew that the family stuff I collected would eventually be passed to my grandkids. Anyway he even brought it out to me from Illinois.


The safe had been my Great Granddad’s (E.F. (Edward Foster) Stanbrough). The letter the Victor Safe Company sent him when it was shipped is even still in it. Unfortunately the letter isn’t dated but I think I can date by the serial number. I think it’s probably from the early 1900s.



SD2 by M Patterson, on Flickr


Darn thing probably weighs between 500 and 750 pounds. Like most safes of the time it’s concrete lined. The combination works and even has the key for the small internal lock box. It will be a good place the store some of the important papers.


The desk it sits next to had been my grandfathers (Foster’s son in law) and safe and desk had pretty much always been together since the 1940’s. I’m glad to see them reunited again.




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You're pretty fortunate to have the combination for the lock!

My younger brother recently passed away. I was fortunate enough to get back to Iowa before he died and while he was still lucid enough to talk to. I am so thankful I could make the trip back and spend some time with him although in retrospect the time was far too short. I’ve been working on this post for a while now, it seems to help me process what happened. He was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer January 1st and passed on the 14th of March.

While I was back there, he passed a few things on to me that he wanted to stay in the family. I haven’t cleaned and displayed them yet, that’s a job for a little later. When I look at the old family tools in my shop, I can’t help but think about the hands that held them and these will be no different. This post is dedicated to my brother.




The planes are all special. The large one belonged to our Dad, the middle sized one had been my brothers and the small palm plane had belonged to our Great Grandfather (moms’ side).



planes by M Patterson, on Flickr


The saw and older hand scythe had belonged to our Great Grandfather (Dad’s side). The newer hand scythe had been our Grandfathers’. The pulley had also belonged to our Great Granddad, and I had restored it for my brother a few years back.


saw hand scythe by M Patterson, on Flickr


Then there are the irons that had been our Great Grandmothers’ I had seen the irons before but had never seen the handle that fit over them to lift them off the stove.


The Rail Road padlocks came from my Grandfather when he worked as a Rail Road express guard in 1920-21 after he came back from the war.


irons locks by M Patterson, on Flickr




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This is a picture of my Grandfather Cecil that I had also never seen. He’s standing by the 1936 John Deere Model A he bought new in 1936. As far as we can tell the picture was probably taken in 36 or 37. This was the first tractor on the farm and began the phaseout of farming with horses.


Cecil 36 JD A by M Patterson, on Flickr


The tractor is actually still in the family. It was passed to my Dad after Grandpa passed away a couple years before I was born. One of my first paint jobs was redoing the tractor in 1969 (the picture is of my younger brother Dennis). When dad quit farming the tractor went to him. When Dennis sold his place a few years ago the tractor went to our cousin (who is also a grandchild of Cecil’s). It looks a little worse for wear now but her and her husband are planning on doing a restoration on it.


Dennis 36 A by M Patterson, on Flickr



Another piece I got from my brother was an old toy dump rake. This had belonged to my Uncle Wilbur. Wilbur died when he was 16 and this was packed away and passed down thru my side of the family. The rake is horse drawn and appears that it was barely played with.


Dump Rake by M Patterson, on Flickr



I thought it would be neat to make a small display to show the rake and picture (and bore my Grandkids with more stories ) so I looked around and found a model A tractor to display the rake with.

RTP by M Patterson, on Flickr


The tractor is not really inappropriate to be hooked to the hay rake. In many cases like my grandfathers’ when a farm bought it’s first tractor there was usually not enough in the budget to replace all the horse drawn equipment at the same time. As I understand it, the first year Grandpa only bought the tractor and a plow.

He also kept the horses instead of selling them off. This was basically insurance in case the whole tractor thing didn’t work out and for the equipment that just couldn’t be adapted for tractor use. In the case of the rake the tongue was extended and Grandpa could either use a rope from the dump handle to the tractor to release the hay or simply have one of his sons ride the rake to operate it.

Come Christmas I suspect this will go out in the living room, there’s just something about putting old toys out that time of year.

All in all I fell pretty blessed to be able to tell the kids the story of this stuff and eventually pass it on when the time comes.




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Sorry to hear this news Mike.. Condolences to all the family. I love the Tractor / Rake combo tho'.. I guess it's just the kid in me.

Mike, I'm very sad to hear your brother has passed. My thoughts and prayers go to you and your family. The pictures of your Grandfather with the old John Deere are really cool. It's amazing they had a camera and the fact the pic survived all these years. One of the places my friend farms is a 100 acre plot. The man that lives on the last remaining portion of the original farm is the 3rd generation of his family that lived there. I love hearing his stories of the progression of that farm. He grew up using horses and as well was around when tractors came to be. Their first tractor was a McCormick. I want to say he said the time to plow, and plant that 100acres went from 6-8 weeks to 4 weeks with the tractor. There aren't many folks left that can tell these stories.


I can relate to using horse drawn equipment behind tractors. My Dad has a few pieces of equipment that were horse drawn and we modified them to use behind a tractor in our garden when I was a kid. My Grandpa used them as a boy. Those are the only things left from his farming days. It's really sad.

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Sorry to hear about your brother, Mike. I've lost two of my older sisters in the last few years and it leaves a big void in your life for sure. Prayers heading your way, brother.

I'm sorry for your loss of your brother, and as you mentioned, happy that you got to visit while there was time to reminisce.

Sorry for your loss. What a wonderful legacy you shared with him.