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Historic Secrest barn gets windmill
by Joanne Salemink, reporter · News · August 21, 2024
A historic farmstead southwest of Downey is now looking a little more like it may have a century ago.
Richard Tyler, who owns the acreage where the Secrest 1883 octagonal barn sits, said he had been considering erecting a windmill on the farm for several years.
This summer he “decided it was time.”
“I thought something was missing from the landscape,” Tyler said. “I thought it would be fun to see a windmill spinning” on the farm again.
On Aug. 14, Great Plains Windmill Service erected a refurbished unit between the barn and the house. Phil Gahman, whose family owns the Fairfield-based company, said the windmill they installed for Tyler is most likely from the 1940s.
“We do a lot of [windmill] restoration work,” in addition to installing and servicing new units, Gahman said. That restoration work includes repair, repainting, removing, and sometimes — as in this case — relocating windmills.
Gahman said the company installs up to 350 windmills each year. Some of the units are used to pump water for livestock, while others are purely decorative.
The windmill on Tyler’s farmstead is just for decoration, but its location in relation to the barn and house matches with an illustration of the farmstead from the late 1880s found in a book on the history of Johnson County. A copy of that illustration is on display in the octagonal barn and can be found in the book, “West Branch: The First 150 Years.”
The remains of an old well are also located at that spot, adding to the likelihood that a windmill stood there before.
The well was abandoned and filled in years ago, Tyler said. However, the top two feet of the well has been excavated to reveal the double row of bricks that were used to line it.
Getting the location right was important to Tyler who is trying to keep the farmstead setting as historically accurate as possible.
“Iowa grew from a farming industry,” Tyler said, and preserving places such as the octagonal barn and farmstead is an important way to honor that heritage.
The octagonal barn located on Tyler’s farmstead has a special history of its own. The one-of-a-kind barn was built in 1883 by George Longerbeam for Joshua and Esther Secrest, who owned the property at that time.
“They planned and then built one of the largest round barns in the country. The graceful bell-shaped roof is unique. There is none like it anywhere,” Tyler said.
The Secrest octagonal barn was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Tyler bought the farm in 1993 and has since restored the barn with the aid of grants and volunteer labor. A donation from Hills Bank helped make the new windmill possible, Tyler said.
A variety of vintage farm equipment is on display in the barn, helping visitors get a better sense of how the barn was used and built. Some of the items have been donated, but others Tyler has found in and around the barn.
The found items include a portion of a rusted, metal windmill tower and a section of windmill blades which now rest outside the barn, not far from where the current windmill spins in the breeze.
The Secrest 1883 Octagonal Barn is located at 5750 Osage, southwest of Downey. Tours of the barn are available and it can be rented for weddings and other functions.
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