PART ONE: BARNS, OUTHOUSES, PIG PENS AND COUPS - Still Standing Reminders Calhoun Farm Life

(08/01/2024)
STRUCTURES LOCATED ON BEECH ROAD

By Bob Weaver

Still standing around Calhoun are, barns, chicken coups, outhouses, cellars and pig pens from the 1800s and early 1900s.

Stone root cellars, some with rocks and others using cut stone, are among the last structures standing.

The county's earliest pioneers had to be dedicated to agriculture, the structures were important to mountain existence in the hills and hollows.

Those early farmers brought their traditions and technology along with them, many of the farm buildings are similar in style and architecture.

The raising of cattle, important for family food, meant that one of the first buildings constructed was a substantial barn for winter silage, although the art of stacking hay to be doled out to the cattle during long winters was quickly used.

Barns were also the location for grain crops of oats, wheat, rye, and barley, and some used the space for home-grown tobacco.

There are numbers of obsolete and decaying barns and outbuildings still around, reminders of times past.