I was born on this farm in 1953 and grew up there - 3/4 mi west of the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School. The large barn and house were built in the late 1890's. The barn was originally constructed with horse stalls and was a breeding farm for race horses. My folks bought the farm in the mid1930's. and remodeled the ground level of the barn to accommodate a small herd of registered Brown Swiss cattle. The place was know as El-Leo Farm (combining the first part of my Dad and Mom's names). They milked about 15 head of cows and sold registered calves. The silo was built in the late 1940's and the corn crib built around 1956. The chicken house north of the big barn was built around 1940 - my mother had laying hens and she sold eggs for extra money.

My Dad's health declined and they sold off the dairy cattle around 1962. As I grew up, we had feeder pigs and about 40 head of sheep producing feeder lambs. The savings from those years of work paid most of my way through college at Iowa State. Dad passed away in February 1971 when I was a high school senior and my mother sold the farm that fall, moving to a house in Vinton.

The barn to the upper left of the photo was built in 1958 to replace an existing barn destroyed by a tornado the year before. I can still remember that summer noon on the enclosed porch on the west side of the house looking at the black clouds approaching, feeling the porch shake, and us all running down into the basement. When we came out after the noise and rain stopped, the barn was completely leveled with debris strung across the fields all the way to town. Incredibly, that was the only structure on the farm touched. That barn in the picture was again destroyed by the straight-line winds in 2011 that caused wide spread damaged across the Garrison/Vinton area.

The original barn and silo were destroyed by a fire in the early 2000's. and the other buildings have been torn down/replaced with new sheds. So the house is essentially the only building from this photo remaining on the site today.

The garage is also still standing

I believe your name is etched in on the foundation of the garage.

My parents purchased this farmstead in March 1972, I was about 12. My dad thought raising feeder pigs would be fun. He put 10 farrowing crates in the back (south) area of the big barn and converted the front into a space for weaned pigs. He slowly took the fences down to the north of the house (orchard area) and south of the driveway creating enough lawn to keep both I and my older sister mowing for several days. Always wondered why there were fences around all the trees in the orchard. Sheep, now it makes sense. Parents sold the place in the fall of 74 and moved to town, but this will always be my favorite place that we lived.