Round Barns in Marshall County
Marshall County is part of a group of four counties where the heaviest presence of round barns are/were located in the state and nation. This group also includes Kosciusko, Miami and Fulton Counties. Fulton County is con- sidered the “round barn capital”.
The Ramsay-fox Round Barn in West Township is the last surviving true-circular barn in Marshall County. A twelve-sided barn also remains at the Clarence and Nellie Quivey Farm on South Olive Trail, Green Township. Compiled from two sources, it appears that Marshall County at one time had three twelve-sided barns and six true-circular barns.
Sarah (Ramsay) Burch, though never living on the property, was responsible for the round barn in West Township. In Sarah’s will, dated February 1912, she bequeaths to George W. Ramsay the amount of $900.00 stating “this amount is to also cover amount of money paid out by him for building barn on my farm”. George W. Ramsay was Sarah’s nephew. It is not clear if George also lived on the farm owned by Sarah, though he is listed in the 1910 West Township census.
Round barns were promoted by agricultural authorities and through farm magazines such as the Farm Journal. Often barn developers published their own technique of construction in the farm magazines. Professor F. H. King of the University of Wisconsin conducted research on silos which led him to design a true-circular barn. His design became the prototype for future round barn development. Round barns were most popular in the Midwest with high numbers constructed in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. Indiana led the nation in the creation of round barns and continues today to have more round barns than any other state.
Nathan Henley is credited with building the first round barn in Indiana near New Castle in 1874. The majority of round barns constructed in the Hoosier state took place between 1900 and 1920 with the peak year being 1910. Included in round barn development were polygonal barns constructed with multiple sides including six, eight, nine, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, and eighteen sides. The barns were typically constructed around a central silo which supported the roof allowing the remaining interior of the upper level free of support posts. Constructing true-circular barns required use of lumber that was easily bent for forming concrete and sometimes for use of siding and interior bracing. Freshly cut sycamore and elm proved to work best for these purposes.
The Ramsay-fox Round Barn exemplifies a farm that was on the cutting edge of technology in construction of agricultural buildings when it was built in 1911. As the agriculture industry changed, the architecture of farms began to change also. While round barns were probably the most significant shift in barn design, the industry, with larger equipment and more livestock on larger farms, continued to create more demand for change in farm buildings. A 1953 article in the Pilot News carried this headline “Pole Barn-new Innovation in Marshall Farm Building.” It was located on the Pearson Farm in Marshall County. The pole building allowed for larger machinery and more livestock and continues to be the most prevalent building type constructed for agricultural uses today.
The loss of round barns
is very apparent from a survey in Indiana between 1985 and 1988. The survey identified 226 round barns of an estimated 250-300 which originally existed. By 1992, only 111 remained of the 226 surveyed, with an estimated 40 percent loss of these structures since 1960. Unfortunately, the trend of losing round barns in Indiana is consistent with their losses in Marshall County. The 1986-88 round barn survey showed three true-circular barns and three twelve-sided barns remaining in the county. By 1992, those numbers were reduced to two true-circular barns and two twelve-sided barns. Today, the Ramsay-fox Barn stands as the last true-circular barn and the Quivey Barn, built in 1914, stands as the last polygonal barn extant in the county. Both barns are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.