Photo collection: Heuer family farm (Bertha, Minnesota) Photo comments provided by Wally Heuer, who also provided these photos, and who took many of them during the summer of 1980 just before his mother (Sal Heuer) sold the farm and moved into town. (Some photos of her new house she built in Bertha are also included at the end of this collection.) The farm house, shortly after our grandfather (William FC) built it. L to R: Wm FC with my father, Wm CF, sitting on his dad's lap; Edna and Anna (seated in front of the porch); Ernst with Grossmama, who's holding Herman; and Luella and Alma with the family dog. My dad's four older sisters were born in the previous family farm house in Perham, Minnesota. My dad was born in the log house that sat on the Bertha property before this house was built. I'm not sure where Ernst was born, but I think Herman, I think, was born in Nebraska when Wm FC and Anna lived there briefly from 1910-11. For more details, read The William and Anna Heuer Story. According to Tanta Alma when I interviewed her on her 100th birthday, she said the log house had two rooms a kitchen with a table and chairs, and a bedroom. A ladder led to a upper-level loft where the kids slept. I don't know when the log house was torn down.
The stone milk house. The photo above shows the side door which we would open each evening after milking to place the 10-gallon-filled milk cans for cooling into about 2-plus feet of cold water. The inside cement water tank ran the full width of the milk house (about 12 feet) and half the length (about 10 feet). The other 10-foot length was a cement floor where ceiling-mounted pulleys remained from the old days when cream and milk were separated. The two back doors on the milk house were hinged on the top, which allowed the cows to walk up, press against the door and stick their head in to get a drink of cool water. When a cow pulled its head back out, the door would automatically close, thus keeping the hot sun and hot air out of the milk house. The steel tank was just set there after Dad sold all his beef cattle and the milk house no longer used. Below: The entrance to the stone milk house taken from the driveway on to the farm.
The windmill and well, just outside the milk house and across the driveway from the farm house. The windmill continued to run as long as their was a breeze, or you could shut it off using a lever. The well at the base of the windmill served for the family drinking and cooking water until about 1946 when Dad had a new well dug right next to the east side of the house. At that time also, Dad, Don, and Jerry dug a trench and layed pipe to serve as a drain field for the new bathroom that Dad put into the farm house pantry. Prior to that time we used an outhouse and the barn for no. 1 and no 2. The silo and part of the barn. This pathway was our entrance to the field south of the buildings.
The foundation of the pig barn and the hand pump used to pump drinking water for the pigs. In 1974, Chuck tore down the pig barn and used the lumber to build a large garden shed at his lake home. The garage, with the brooder house in the background. I remember Dad hatching little chicks in the brooder house when I was a teenager. In later years it was a play house for Carolyn.
The view of the property from Highway 71, showing the mail box and long driveway on to the farm. The cow barn is on the left, then the chicken coop, then the house. The milk house is behind the coop. The long driveway off the farm leading down to the highway. The view from the foot of the driveway along Highway 71, looking south.
The farm yard, where we kids would play all our outside games... kick-the-can, hide-and-seek, softball (sometimes knocking out barn windows), and anti-i-over, where you'd throw the softball over the barn and someone could try to catch it coming down the other side. The cow barn had stanchions for 20 milk cows. In 1956, when I was a 50/50 partner with Dad in the farming business, I added eight more stanchions for the growing herd. The large barn also had horse stalls that we converted to space for raising calves after Dad bought his first tractor in 1940 and sold the horses. The entire upper level of the barn was used to store hay to feed the cattle in the winter. The silo held the corn silage for additional food. Dad on his Ford tractor giving Todd a ride. The milk house and windmill are in the background. The tractor has a hydraulic manure scoop attached that I had purchased. Included was also a six-foot-wide snow bucket we used to clear the yard and driveway after winter snowstorms.
The back entrance to the farm house cellar, with the smoke house in the distance. After butchering a hog and a steer in the fall of the year, Mom and Dad would make sausages and hang them in the smoke house. They would also hang bacon and ham for smoking. I remember playing in the smoke house and the lingering smell of smoked meats. The smoke house floor and the first three feet of its walls were cement to prevent fire from damaging the building. The outhouse stood just to the right of the smoke house. The east side of the house, showing the tree with a swing. Behind it was the orchard of apple and plum trees, where Mother also had an asparagus patch.
Here is a floor plan of the farm house. The interior photos are on the following pages
The farm house living room. Another view of the living room. I think that's Tammy on the sofa.
The front room, used as a foyer and family room. This was originally the front porch, and was converted by Mom and Dad sometime in the early 1970s. The farm kitchen, front corner, with Todd caught off-guard. The doorway leads to the family room.
The farm house kitchen. Mother busy in the kitchen.
The boys' bedroom. All five of us boys slept here. The bedroom was large, with three beds and plenty of space. The photo above shows the bed that Jim, Chuck and I slept in all during our growing-up years until we left home. When we were younger, all three of us slept here together. The photo below shows the second bed in the boys' bedroom. There was also a single bed on the right (off the picture). All three girls also shared one bedroom, although Carolyn had the room to herself after Maxine and Ramona were gone.
Two views from the banister in the farm house upstairs hall. The photo above shows the paneling that was added after us most or all of us kids were grown and gone. Out of sight to the left is another small room that was used for storage, and later as a playroom for grandkids. The photo below shows the doorway to the girls room, with another bedroom to the right for guests.
The farm house and its gardens in later years. In 1980, Mother sold the property and built a new house for herself in town. Mother's new home in Bertha.
Mother planting a bush in her new front yard. Looking on (left to right) are Lois, Tara (hardly seen), Tammy, Tracy and Todd. Below, the back of the new house, with Mother and Lois preparing to start a garden.