Photo 8-MMO-1

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I grew up here in the '50s and '60s. The two railroads are gone - now a bike path. The corn crib to the left of the barn is gone and maybe the wagon shed to the right of the barn is gone. The silo on the other side of the barn is gone. The garden has been moved from behind the house to that open area to the left of the barn. Tall trees are now where the garden was (in this picture). The house is now yellow and the section farthest away in this picture has been removed (was the oldest part of the house). My cousin's family has lived here for 35 years.

The railroad is the Dayton & Union that ran on from here to Greenville Ohio. The other railroad that split from the Dayton & Union here was the Dayton & Western that ran on to Richmond Indiana. The small village where this is located was Dodson that once had its own railroad station for the two railroads.

Clarence Somers built the buildings in the teens and twenties. Lowell and Dortha Eby bought the farm from Wilbur Reeder and moved there in 1950. I grew up there and was there when the milking parlor was built. It's the concrete block part of the barn to the front. It had four milking stalls and a center pit where I spent long hours milking our holsteins. Feed came down a shaft with a crank from an overhead bin under the roof. The milk went into the milkhouse at the left through a stainless-steel pipe into 10 gallon cans and later into a large bulk tank.
All the buildings had slate roofs when we moved there in 1950. The silo behind the right side of the barn in this picture was built with large ceramic hollow blocks and never had a roof. The trees on the right were black locusts on the east property line. The railroad nearest the farm was known as the D&U (Dayton and Union City) and ran steam until at least 1959 when I left home. It only carried freight. There was an old roadbed for an early traction line which ran along side the D&U but was on farm property. I always thought the other railroad in the lower left of the picture was the Pennsylvania from Dayton to Richmond to Chicago. Lots of passenger service in 1950 as well as freights. The trees between the railroads in the lower part of the picture were part of the C.F. Meyer Fruit Farm.

This place is on Temple Road, a mile-long road between Dodson Road and Number Nine Road. If this picture was taken in 1969, I was still living there then!

11721 Temple Rd.

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