{"id":1555,"date":"2024-04-26T20:11:48","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T20:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/?p=1555"},"modified":"2025-04-23T15:11:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T15:11:19","slug":"farm-foreman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/farm-foreman\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm foreman\u2019s house (1869\u20141930)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Farm foreman\u2019s house, circa 1913, in its second location. Building at rear is an\u00a0Implement Barn<\/a>, refitted from the \u201cnew\u201d horse barn of 1872 and moved to this location circa 1907.\u00a0Image source:\u00a0Beal<\/a>, p.\u00a056.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day-to-day operation of the College farm and gardens was handled by a foreman and several laborers who lived on the grounds in a succession of small cottages, including one that was originally the Smith cabin and pre-dated the founding of the Agricultural College. As the land was cleared to expand the useful farmland and the staff grew, the \u201ccottage formerly occupied as a farm house was entirely too small to afford the requisite accommodations.\u201d1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore in 1869 the College built a new \u201cFarm House\u201d to be occupied by the farm foreman and laborers, a two-story brick residence measuring 33 by 42 feet. It was located well to the east of the \u201ccampus\u201d buildings (College Hall<\/a>, Williams Hall<\/a>, and Saints\u2019 Rest<\/a>), near a growing complex of farm buildings<\/a> at the western edge of a large range of experimental gardens and orchards that extended east to the present Bogue Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time it was one of the easternmost buildings on campus, and when built it was probably considered to be deep within the farm. But as the academic area grew and the farm buildings gradually crept further east and south, it began to be surrounded by laboratories. Horticulture<\/a>, Agriculture<\/a>, and Botany<\/a> (2nd) were added in the 1888\u20131892 era, creating a gently delineated laboratory row<\/a>. For a few years, the farm foreman\u2019s house was flanked by Botany and Agriculture.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Laboratory Row, viewed from the northwest, circa 1896. Left to right are\u00a0Horticulture<\/a>,\u00a0Botany<\/a>, Farm House, and\u00a0Agriculture<\/a>. Image source:\u00a0MSU Archives<\/a>, reprinted in\u00a0Widder<\/a>, p.\u00a0113.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By 1900, the new Dairy<\/a> replaced the foreman\u2019s house in the lab row. The house was moved twenty rods to the southeast where a smaller building had stood: the herdsman\u2019s house, which was moved north and a little east.†<\/a><\/sup> By the time of Beal\u2019s writing in 1913, the foreman\u2019s house had \u201cfor some years past\u201d been occupied only by the foreman and his family, the laborers having moved to other cottages or into off-campus housing.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Excerpt of 1927 campus map with the farmhouse marked in green, northeast of the Kedzie Chemical Laboratory<\/a>. The house and all the barns seen here have since been removed. Image source: MSU Archives<\/a><\/span>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This new site for the farm foreman\u2019s house was on the west side of Farm Lane<\/a> immediately northeast of the current site of the Kedzie Chemical Laboratory<\/a>, which was built in 1927. The house remained until the Board voted in 1930 to have it torn down. At that time the College rented a house for the foreman, along with 18\u00bd acres of land, somewhere along Harrison<\/a> Road (although it is not clear to this author exactly where). This arrangement lasted until 1936, when the land was purchased by the College.4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

  1. Beal<\/a>, p.\u00a0268. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. Lautner<\/a>, pp.\u00a074, 80. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  3. Beal<\/a>, p.\u00a0268.\u00a0Lautner<\/a>, p.\u00a0102. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  4. Minutes<\/a>, 14\u00a0Jul\u00a01930, p.\u00a0885; 2\u00a0Jul\u00a01936, p.\u00a01257.\u00a0Dressel<\/a>, pp.\u00a0365\u2013366. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>
    1. † After the the herdsman\u2019s house was moved in 1900, it was occupied by the foreman of the horticulture department. Beal does not mention that the herdsman\u2019s house was supplanted yet again in 1912 by the second Dairy<\/a> building, though whether it was moved again or razed is unclear. [Beal<\/a>, p.268. Lautner<\/a>, p.102.]\u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Day-to-day operation of the College farm and gardens was handled by a foreman and several laborers who lived on the grounds in a succession of small cottages, including one that was originally the Smith cabin and pre-dated the founding of the Agricultural College. As the land was cleared to expand the useful farmland and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"Beal<\/a>, p.\u00a0268.\",\"id\":\"5abc69a3-8713-4458-8f81-8b3590e946be\"},{\"content\":\"Lautner<\/a>, pp.\u00a074, 80.\",\"id\":\"ee021ced-906e-4ff6-a519-ff049729eb66\"},{\"content\":\"Beal<\/a>, p.\u00a0268.\u00a0Lautner<\/a>, p.\u00a0102.\",\"id\":\"d8b0b8b3-1457-443f-99b0-b1525829b529\"},{\"content\":\"Minutes<\/a>, 14\u00a0Jul\u00a01930, p.\u00a0885; 2\u00a0Jul\u00a01936, p.\u00a01257.\u00a0Dressel<\/a>, pp.\u00a0365\u2013366.\",\"id\":\"01128a93-2639-45a2-9b21-08c4577e418f\"}]"},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-m-a-c-buildings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4544,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions\/4544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}