…a little history
While we were still considering buying this property I sat up nights on my iPad researching the property’s previous owners. The history of old houses has always intrigued me, especially one that’s almost 100 years old. This house was constructed in 1919-1920 so it’s 97 years old!
During my late night online research I discovered an old plat map from a book dated 1916. On this map the farm is in section #9 where it was labeled with the owner’s name “V. Vacinek”. A small black dot indicates where the house was located on each parcel of land. From this owner’s name I was able to find detailed information on the people who built this farm from the ground up. It is not clear when the land was first purchased. It would be interesting to find out, but that’s another day of searching, I suppose. I found all the historical information about the Vacineks on Ancestry.com. The Pine City Historical Society has some great archival records too. Maybe a trip there to look at physical books and records for information even further back in history?
The first recorded owners where Czechoslovakian immigrants. Vaclav (1851-1919) and Anna (1848-1921) immigrated in 1888 with their 5 children; Vaclav Jr. (1878-1967), Albina (1879-1965), Bessie (1880-1952), Vladimir (1882-1954) and Emelie (1884-1929).
Vaclav Jr. is the name that appears on the plat map (section 9). I noticed while looking at the map again today that a neighboring farm bears the name “Spinler”. This is the maiden name of Vaclav Jr.’s future wife, Mary (1888-1964). He marries her in 1905 and they have 5 children of their own; Edward (1905-1933), Fred (1907-1997), George (1910-1934), Henry (1912-1995), and Emma (1917-1918). Sadly, it appears Emma only lived a short time, less than a year.
Henry goes on to own the farm with wife Helen. They have two children, Lois and Roger. Roger grows up on the farm and eventually marries a woman named Doris. They purchase the farm in 1958. Roger and Doris have 3 children and raise them here until 1970 when the farm was sold to a non-family person for the first time in almost 100 years.
As if this weren’t all fascinating enough, we got an interesting visitor to our new farm just days after we arrived. It was Roger! Son of Henry and Helen Vacinek! After all my searching, a real person who grew up here was standing in front of me. We talked for a long time. Roger told stories of being raised in this house and beautiful farm which he described with great detail. He invited Keith and I to visit his present home in a nearby town. We were shown his multiple greenhouses. Each large greenhouse was big enough to walk through and each was bursting with raspberry vines, tomatoes, peppers and flowers. He invited us into his home and gave us one of the coolest things EVER. It was an original aerial photograph of the farm as it was in 1958.
Roger would later come to our farm warming party with his 3 grown children and sister Lois. Lois brought MORE amazing pictures of the farm from when Henry was a young boy.
Roger’s grown kids recreated a picture taken in 1953 when the youngest of them was just an infant. We all laughed and talked about their childhoods here. They were excited to get a look at the farm after all the renovations. They described all the changes that had been made to the farm since they lived here. It was really exciting to hear all their stories from yester year.
Top Left: view from front door of house, unknown who the children are. Top right: same view from front door of house, unknown who people are. Bottom Left: Old pole shed. Bottom Middle: One of the only pics of the beautiful barn Henry built. Bottom Right: garage (and a dog).
The farm has gone through many hands. It was left to grow over and even left vacant for a time. Around 1998 there was a family room added on to the main house. Also, major renovations were made to the main floor of the original farmhouse. The front screen porch was built in to be part of the actual house. The pantry and kitchen went through a few changes too. The pantry became a laundry room and the old basement steps below it were covered over and new steps were relocated off the kitchen. The main floor bedroom from the old house layout was changed into a large master bathroom with a whirlpool tub.
After all the time that’s passed, I’m sure this old place has seen many happy times and I’m sure its seen its sad times too. We intend to make it happy once more. Our dream is to bring our newfound home back to a beautiful, operating farm. A farm like the one in the pictures or at least our version of it. It will be exciting to build, grow and create. To see what the future holds for us and how OUR history will be looked back upon years from now.
God Bless This Farm and all who live(d) here.
Farmer Nancy's Notes 