I wrote a long post about the farm and farmhouse for The Old Homestead theme in April. Missing from that post were photos of the aftermath of the tornado that hit the farm in 1926. The photos themselves are in a magnetic album that belongs to my cousin. This week I was finally able to scan them with my Flip-Pal scanner.
These photos show what was left of the barn after the tornado hit.
And these show the construction of the new barn.
I'm about 99% certain that the man standing on the viewer's left in the photo below is my great-grandfather, James Louden Dean. Notice the bushy mustache and the empty-looking right sleeve. You may remember that he lost his arm in a farming accident in 1912. I believe the boy is Lawrence, the youngest child of his first marriage, who was killed in WWII. He would have been twelve here. The last person I was able to identify is seated in front of Lawrence and is my great-uncle Ken who took over the farm after his father's death in 1935 and would have been 20 in 1926.
And here is the finished barn.
It still stands today.
Very sad to see those photos of the tornado destruction, and then see that the barn was rebuilt and still stands today!
ReplyDeleteThat must have been a devastating tornado. Are they common in Quebec? Do you know if there were animals in the barn when it was destroyed? The photos of the new barn being built were very interesting. I'd never seen the actual "bones" of a barn before.
ReplyDeleteI can't seem to reply to your comments so this will have to do. Tornados are not uncommon in Quebec, they probably happen every summer. The stunning tornados ten days or so ago on the Ontario-Quebec border are very rare. Usually, they are EF1 or less. The barn and a stable were destroyed and a horse was mortally wounded. I don't know if all the cows were in the barn, but my great-uncle did not tell of any cows being hurt or killed.
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