On a stormy August Saturday in 1958, around 4:30 p.m. Harold, Dorothy, Gary, and Paul were eating supper and watching Big Time Wrestling while we ate. There was a loud crash of thunder and we all jumped up and looked out the window to see if there was any strike on the property. None of us saw anything so we sat down to finish our supper. Mom was working on the dishes not more than five minutes later and went to the window to hang up a dish towel. I will never forget what she said next, “Oh, Harold the barn is on fire!”. Immediately Dad and Gary ran out and mom called the fire department. Gary went to the south side of the barn to chase the cows out into a pasture and penned them away from the barn. He also did the same to some hogs that were in a nearby building. Dad went to the north side to get the fresh cows and calves out of the stable inside the barn. Dad said when he ran past the driveway through the barn, that the fire was rolling out of both sides of the hay mow. This was proof that lightning had struck on the west end of the barn, hitting the hay carrier track, and started the fire through all the hay that was in the mow.
Harold and Dorothy Bambauer
Perry running across the field toward the fire
Being in August the barn was full of hay and straw and some grain. Black smoke billowed from all the eaves of the barn when the fire department arrived. Before the fire department had arrived, Mom told me distinctly that I was to stay in the house, while she went out to check on Dad and Gary. They were fine, but very helpless. The cows and hogs were safe, but the cows were not milked that night. The fire was so intense that the firemen took the doors off the granary shed to use as shields from the intense heat. To this day we still see charred parts on those doors. The fire was out of control! All the fire departments could do was protect other buildings. Some of their painted siding was already blistering! NKFD also called for assistance from Kettlersville and Botkins fire departments. All other buildings were saved.
My sister Joyce was in Columbus at business college. Aunt Lois and Uncle Jess Peters brought her home the next morning. My brother Richard was at the State Fair helping Silas Lammers’ show cows. Richard suddenly said, Silas said we need to take you home right now. He thought he had done something wrong to make him mad. He was told why he was going home as Dennis Lammers drove him to the house that same night. Firemen stayed through the whole night.
The next morning, I woke up and went out to see the smoldering mess. A steer was in an inaccessible pen and was lost. Also, there was a newborn calf that wasn't walking on his front feet. Dad was unable to help him out because of the intense fire, so he was left behind. As I walked around in the morning, I found that calf laying safely next to the line fence. He had gotten himself out by jumping over an 18-inch-high door sill. The dairy cows had already been taken across the road to Alvin Warner’s farm where they were fed and milked until Dad could put in a temporary milk stable in the granary shed. A bulk milk tank was put in the garage and the milk was carried in buckets from the temporary milking stable.
Over the next weeks Dad, Richard, Gary along with Wayne Bambauer and Wally Kuck viewed different barns and milking systems. A barn and milking system were agreed upon and Hoge Lumber would make the plans. Ned Niemeyer was the architect. Many trees were cut out of our own woods and Hoge’s cut the timbers. Some timbers were also donated by neighbors.
The plans were a new style for Hoge’s and construction on the foundation started as soon as the plans were complete. Edwin “Spitter” Elshoff was the head contractor on the job, assisted by our friends and neighbors.
I remember coming home from school and great Aunt Emma Schroer and Mom always had fresh homemade cookies, apples, and cider for all the workers. Also, as a young boy I remember the days that the crew put up the trusses for the new barn. Hoges had a heavy truck with a winch on the back. They constructed a wood crane on the front of the truck to lift the trusses into place, very unique.
During this whole time of planning and building Dad had to remodel the granary for milking and round up more feed for the cattle because most of it was destroyed in the fire. One thing I remember is three picket fence silos that Dad built for corn silage. There were three close neighbors that always seemed to be here, Alvin Warner, Leonard Vohs, and Uncle Walter Kuck. Alvin's tractor was always here because it had the highest lifting capabilities. Through the help of many neighbors and friends, the building suppliers and a great contractor acted quickly from August and by January 3rd the cows were in the new milking parlor!
Rebuilding the Barm
The barn is taking shape.
This new style barn with a low profile, loose housing system, and herringbone milking parlor was new for Auglaize County and was put on the county tours the next year. A couple of years passed before we found out that Perry Kantner, another neighbor, had taken pictures of the fire. He started taking pictures of what he thought was fog over his lane and soon found it to be smoke. The picture he took of the fire and rainbow served as a lot of comfort over the years.
The total loss of the barn was $58,000, a tremendous loss for a family farm. Mom always told me that it was just like buying the farm a second time.