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OCTOBER 29, 2010 -- We pass them often, perhaps daily, depending on where one lives in the Nutmeg state. But like agriculture itself, barns, those great American icons, are steadily declining in the landscape. They stand witnesses to centuries of agrarian life, but over the years, as agriculture has faded, barns are abandoned in the elements to decay, sagging under the years until they finally crumble or are bulldozed.
But when one irreplaceable barn on Roxbury’s South Street was demolished several years ago, the loss prompted the Roxbury Historic Commission to take a stand: If they were unable to save Roxbury’s barns, they might at least document the structures still standing in town. And so for several years, commission member Georgette Miller and fellow Roxbury resident Pamela Edwards conducted hundreds of interviews with Roxbury’s farmers “… to shed light on rural life in our town, a way of life few of us can remember or even imagine,” the book’s introduction states. “The farmers told stories of milking, haying, going to school, plowing with horse teams, breeding stock and more—a lifestyle that exists, for the most part, in fading memories.”
What emerged is “Barn Stories from Roxbury, Connecticut: A Survey and Oral History,” a book designed by Jack Huber featuring essays by historians Rachel Carley and James Sexton and photographs by Donna Cloutier and Lincoln Turner.
As the book, offering readers charming stories and forgotten Roxbury history, makes its debut, the Minor Memorial Library opens its latest exhibition, “Barn Stories from Roxbury, CT: The Exhibition,” sharing rustic Roxbury reminiscences in another format.
“Barn Stories from Roxbury, CT: The Exhibition” features Roxbury barns as depicted by area painters Ann Harriet Carew, Cookie Finn, Carol Johnson, Lorraine Ryan, Bettina Skor, Tina Underwood and Chuck Urban and photographers Donna Cloutier and Lincoln Turner. The show opens at the Roxbury library’s Community Gallery Oct. 30 with a reception and release party celebrating the Roxbury Historic Commission’s book from 2 to 4 p.m. The book will be available for sale at the library for the duration of the exhibit, through Nov. 30.
“I know that Roxbury residents and neighbors are looking forward to seeing the barns they pass every day presented in a new light by these talented artists,” said library director Valerie Annis. “This is an opportunity for [residents] to see them … from an artist’s point of view. … I haven’t seen all of the work, but I have seen some of the pieces, and it will be positively gorgeous.”
The show, according to library gallery curator Paula Lazeski, was the brainchild of Ms. Ryan, an artist known for her representational renderings of local landscapes. It was then Ms. Lazeski’s search began to find the right artists for the exhibition.
“I chose artists who work in traditional representation. … I wanted a real cross-section of artists,” Ms. Lazeski said. “Some of these artists have never shown in the gallery here and some have. And though it is a smaller show, it is quite powerful.”
There is a blending of the exhibition and the book, which shares countless stories about the region’s agricultural history. Bob Ognan, for example, talks about his family’s 19th-century arrival to Roxbury.
“My grandfather, Nicolas Ognan, and my grandmother came to Roxbury in the 1880s from Czechoslovakia,” he said. “My grandfather had the first threshing machine in Connecticut.” Nicolas Ognan raised tobacco, which he sold to Cuba, while the family kept goats, pigs and chickens, grew corn and potatoes, and made cider from the apples in its orchard.
Cathy Bronson of Maple Bank Farm recalls in the book how their land has been in the family since the early 18th century, when it was granted to them by the reigning English monarch. “After eight generations, it’s still in the family,” she said. “When we took over in 1980, we had 55 acres. When Howie [my husband] and I first started here years ago, people would tell us, ‘Oh my grandfather had a farm like this.’ Now people don’t know anyone who farms.”
And there are reminiscences from Bud Voytershark: “We’d get up at four in the morning. It was just me and my brother. We’d call the cows in from the fields, then milk them. It would take an hour or so: we had six milking machines. After that, we’d clean the barn. Then, we’d have breakfast. Afterwards, I’d start mowing hay or something. We had a hay baler, hay chopper and about a half-dozen tractors with attachments on each one of them. We sold the farm in 1996 or 1998, somewhere around there.”
Essays relay local history and curiosities. Among them is the origin of Chalybes Road. According to Ms. Carley, “ … the outcropping called Mine Hill early attracted prospectors with its deposits of minerals and granite and intrigued colonists as the site of chalybeate [mineral] springs.”
Good Hill, near the border of Woodbury, bears a name bestowed upon the region as early as 1673, when an exploratory survey declared the spot to be a place of “good hopes and anticipations.” Jack’s Brook, local legend says, “takes its name from an African slave who killed himself on the banks, believing that when he died he would return to his native land of Guinea.”
While the exhibition does not tell stories through words as does the book, it does celebrate the barns that remain in the area, each of them a hallmark to an era long since past.
“It’s sad to see these beautiful barns neglected,” Ms. Lazeski said. “They either collapse or are dismantled ... never seen again.”
“Barn Stories from Roxbury, CT: The Exhibition” opens Oct. 30 with a reception from 2 to 4 p.m., and runs through Nov. 30 at the Minor Memorial Library Community Gallery, located at 23 South St., Roxbury. The library is open Mondays from noon to 7 p.m., Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursdays from noon to 5 p.m., Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It can be reached by calling 860-350-2181, or visit www.biblio.org/roxbury. |
