looking for volunteers to move an old school house using draft power

[Uncle Joe]

I would be certainly interested in seeing photos and a write-up of the operation. Anyone who might like to tackle that for Rural Heritage magazine should contact me at editor@ruralheritage.com or call toll free 1-877-647-2452. Putting together a film would be a lot more work and harder to market, I am afraid. We are severely limited in the type of video we can show on RFD-TV these days. Cameras have to shoot Pro HD quality to be accepted by the network now. If someone could provide that kind of footage, we would love to use it on our program, but it is a professional-grade camera that is required.

Here is a photo of a couple of work horses, each put to a separate capstan, leveraging a house down a house in 1908 San Francisco that we published in a book in the 1990s called Working Horses that has since gone out of print. Don’t know if this is the photo you were thinking of or not, Geoff.

Joe

[Rod]

I wonder if the reason the old timers used oxen rather than horses was that they are generally less likely to spook? I would hate to think of what could happen if the horses spooked on route. The nice thing about the capstan is it puts a fail safe between the load and the animals. That is some big house in the photo…

[mitchmaine]

i was wondering about the oxen myself, and wondered if it might be the way they start a load. especially with eight or ten yokes hooked to a long chain, a steady strain would be better than that snap that horses can make. maybe they just used what was handy.
about the schoolhouse, i would worry about a 15 ton load on wheels hooked behind the animals getting away. we moved a 34 by 38 foot barn a few years ago that probably outweighed the schoolhouse. it took two 40 foot flatbeds side by side to carry it hooked to a skidder with a 353 detroit in it and on the slightest grade, soil to boot, it slowly pushed the skidder, brakes on, til the ground smoothed out. you will probably know if you have enough animals long before you hit the road, but i’d ere on the side of too many animals than just enough.

[near horse]

@Uncle Joe 29747 wrote:

Here is a photo of a couple of work horses, each put to a separate capstan, leveraging a house down a house in 1908 San Francisco that we published in a book in the 1990s called Working Horses that has since gone out of print. Don’t know if this is the photo you were thinking of or not, Geoff.

Joe

That could be the house I’m thinking of but the photo was from a different perspective I think – closer.

[Baystatetom]

If I had to speculate I would say that we New Englanders held onto our oxen long after the rest of the country switched to horses for two reasons. One being we are “thrifty” and the other resistant to change. I bet the reason oxen are in the pictures is because anybody thrifty enough to move a building over onto their property is also thrifty enough to refuse to buy horses.
Oxen are also known to be slow and steady, which might be a asset in a project like this. I would also assume not many people moved enough buildings to become expert at it. Probably everybody who tried it had their own ideas and techniques.
I remember when they moved that bridge in Mass. I think it took at least a weekend and they only moved it off the brook and onto solid ground. Sounds like a great project though, should be fun.
~Tom

[goodcompanion]

There are a whole bunch of Victorian hotels on the “Georgia Shore” of Vermont (Franklin County). For whatever reason they were built on the New York side of the lake and slid across the ice and installed on foundations in Vermont. Huge buildings. Dozens of oxen. And thicker ice than you can count on these days.

[mitchmaine]

@Baystatetom 29765 wrote:

If I had to speculate I would say that we New Englanders held onto our oxen long after the rest of the country switched to horses for two reasons. One being we are “thrifty” and the other resistant to change. I bet the reason oxen are in the pictures is because anybody thrifty enough to move a building over onto their property is also thrifty enough to refuse to buy horses.
Oxen are also known to be slow and steady, which might be a asset in a project like this. I would also assume not many people moved enough buildings to become expert at it. Probably everybody who tried it had their own ideas and techniques.
I remember when they moved that bridge in Mass. I think it took at least a weekend and they only moved it off the brook and onto solid ground. Sounds like a great project though, should be fun.
~Tom

hey tom, i agree with your assessment of most new englanders. however, one point sticks, and i think, like timberframing, even if the locals cut their own frame, when it came time to lift the bents, someone was in charge who knew nwhat they were doing.
each drover was in charge of his team, but someone was there to run the show who knew what he was doing and was respected by all concerned or it just wouldn’t happen. those guys all had to be on the same page. the book i’m reading tells of oxen “rigging” being simpler in respect to harness and better suited to moving boats, buildings, mast pine and so on. even so, teamsters were lost under the load and i just read about tearing up a floor in a building to remove the body of a teamster crushed in the process. tricky bussiness.

[CharlyBonifaz]

gracias a Fabian 😎
I found them again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhMorzt54gQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Gv5lOiz7FLE
there are more to watch…

[Baystatetom]

So much for oxen being slow, looks like they were moving at a good pace with that building! Could be some breed I am not familiar with but those look more like bulls then steers?
There is a house here in my town that was rotated 180 degrees in the 1800s when the road was moved from one side of the house to the other. I am not sure exactly how it happened but there is a tale that the women of the house started doing the dishes looking to the east and ended them looking to the west out of the same window.
Mitch I have heard lots of stories about the old farmers working together to get big projects and harvests done quicker, to bad we still don’t see that happening more often.

[mitchmaine]

Boys tom, good question.this could be a thread all by itself. I wasn’t going to add any more to this thread cuase I thought I’d shot my mouth off enough on the subject, but……now that you ask……….theres probably dozens of folk, myself included, who’d like to help miles move that schoolhouse, but our community is spread out over the globe. Pretty tough task, getting us together. Then, there must be dozens of teamsters and drovers within thirty miles of miles who’d be happy to get involved. What then?
This new England independent attitude might be a cover-up. 150 years ago, before the crane and excavator, the only way to move that schoolhouse was with your neighbors help. Lots of neighbors. And you couldn’t possibly afford to hire them all. Unless, they all came for nothing to help you out, knowing if they didn’t when it came time to move their own building they’d need your help too. Those people depended on each other for everything. Before the mowing machine, teams of men worked across the neighborhood mowing each others fields, bringing hay together, cause they couldn’t do it alone. Most jobs required lots of men and that was that. We have island people up here in maine. Not the ones that come for the summer, but the fishing families that spend the winter with six or ten other families on a rock out in the north atlantic. Inspite of helicopters and cell phones when the wind is out of the no’theast for three or four days straight with 60 mile winds(jim ostergard back me up on this one) you are on your own. The only thing they have is a boat hanging on by twelve thread to a engine block on the sea bottom. And each other. Their lives depend on each other, really. You can’t dwell on the idea too long cause itll drive you nuts but its there in the back of your mind all the time and they are pretty close, so they take it out on the next island over and its them against us. the rest of us don’t think that way cause we don’t have to. Life is easy and we can rent a crew to move our school house for us if we have too. We may actually have too many options. Anyway, your turn. What do you think?

[jac]

Mitch we had this “help the neighbour” mentality over here till very recently.. well in the last 20 years at least.. I remember grandfather and one of my uncles being away most of the summer clipping sheep round the area and then for a day they all decended on our farm to clip our sheep.. hay time saw a gang of retired miners round the table.. these were very much a social event and some great times were had.. that seems to have died out with that generation.. John

[dlskidmore]

@jac 29778 wrote:

hay time saw a gang of retired miners round the table.. these were very much a social event and some great times were had.. that seems to have died out with that generation.. John

Between welfare and unemployment pay, there’s a lot fewer Americans interested in seasonal work.

[dlskidmore]

The output might not be easily available to Rural Heritage, but it couldn’t hurt to call the nearest public TV station and see if they are interested in recording it. Our local public TV produces a good number of documentaries about local topics.

[Baystatetom]

I remember all the stories of a barn burning and all the farmers in the county coming and helping put up a new one in a weekend. My grandfather had a mill and did a lot sawing for those projects. All the farmers in my town helped each other with the harvests, hay corn etc. That way no one person had to buy every piece of equipment. I think you are right about having to many options. We may not always feel wealthy but now a days we can afford to rent the machine rather getting help from several neighbors.
I for one can’t ever remember turning down somebody who asked for help. But there are a lot of selfish people out there.
Selfish or not I like working my team enough to do just about anything with them and think it was good fun.

[mitchmaine]

@jac 29778 wrote:

Mitch we had this “help the neighbour” mentality over here till very recently.. well in the last 20 years at least.. I remember grandfather and one of my uncles being away most of the summer clipping sheep round the area and then for a day they all decended on our farm to clip our sheep.. hay time saw a gang of retired miners round the table.. these were very much a social event and some great times were had.. that seems to have died out with that generation.. John

had to be the food, john. feed them good and lots and people smile and laugh easier. baked beans and a good lemon meringue pie will keep ’em coming back.

[Author]

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