Texas Star

This family selected the Texas Star pattern because it reminded them of a huge 8 ft.x 12 ft. quilt they saw hanging in a foyer of a restaurant, close to Victoria, Texas, while visiting family. Max remarked “Now, that’s a quilt!” It was the Texas Star quilt, and they had ties to Texas.

This Bank Barn, built in the early 1840s when the farm was established and the land was cleared, was constructed of oak and ash timber from the farm, with wooden pegs and hand made nails, hinges and doors. The design was the “wooden frame in post and beam style” of the early 1840s, with an oblong frame structure on a stone foundation. The barn has maintained its original shape and size, and supported a hog farming operation, which recently closed. The bank level, with access from barn doors facing west, consists of a corn crib on each of the long sides, a granary, a center storage area, and a set of steps to the hay loft on the top floor. It once had an antique hay lift and part of the hay track remains inside the barn. Since 1966 it has had routine maintenance – new roof, spouting, paint and restoration to louvers on north side of the barn. The open area where antique hay hook was located had to be closed in order to maintain the rest of the barn.

The land has only known three owners since it was homesteaded in the early 1840s by Adam Bright. The Beck family purchased the property sometime in the early 1900s, and the current owners purchased it in 1966. Located on a step on the west end of the barn is a 1959 National Geographic Geo-physical year elevation marker which records the property as 1052 feet above sea level. Legend has it that if water reaches that mark, it will be to the hips of the statue on the Miami County Courthouse in Troy, Ohio.

Also of note – some metal used in the Neil Armstrong homecoming in Wapakoneta after his “moon mission” found its way to the barn. Max, who was a sheet metal worker, often used scrap metal from finished job sites for repairs on the farm.

The barn is and always was part of the family farm operation.

East of Troy – located on Rt. 55 East of Casstown, between Sodom Rd. and Rt. 201. Property is on the south (right) side of road. Can be viewed from road on right side of drive way. Do not block left side of drive which gives access to the rest of barns. Stay on front side of barn.