Seventy-five years ago, this writer sat within walking distance of the Farm listening to his grandparents talk of “50 years ago” when the Dutch* brought dairy farming to this area. Hay barns were separated from milk sheds (“parlors”) by cold, then seemingly ever-running creeks (in which the milk was cooled). If still standing today, most would be next to dry gullies. Many streams have been piped, dried up, covered over; an example is the small creek that once crossed under a buggy-wide 300th NW and runs through Freeborn Cemetery in CAPA designated wetlands.  To celebrate those from the Netherlands, last month we’ve rescued an old Dutch milking shed built in 1894 that has sat unused (for milk) for 70 years. (Do other readers remember the milk-stands along rural roads where we’d place 10-gallon milk cans for pick-up before we left for our high school classes?)

*During the early nineteenth century large numbers of Dutch farmers, forced by high taxes and low wages, immigrated to America. Most were emigrants from the southern Netherlands who desired greater religious freedom.  They were not poor, as the costs of passage, expenses, and land purchase were substantial. Many of this area’s Dutch settled in the Fir-Conway area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Americans
https://www.emmigration.info/dutch-immigration-to-america.htm 
https://www.everyculture.com/multi/Du-Ha/Dutch-Americans.html
http://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Dutch-Dairy-Shed.pdf 

Most Dutch are thought to have immigrated to America in search of:

economic reasons
a better climate
religious freedom

Comments, content, questions appreciated, email bb@plc215.org

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