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The Southampton Township, Somerset County Pennsylvania barn shown below was far back from the road on the farm of John Wilson Korns. It was destroyed by fire in 1923. Calvin Bittner (the future father in law of John Wilson Korns' son Allen Lester Korns) was threshing there at the time, and it is believed that the threshing machinery caught the barn on fire. This photograph has been handed down in the Wilson Korns family line. The barn was located at 39.762388599726556, -78.82546506889919.
When I visited Lester Korns in July of 1998, he told me that this barn, which burned down when he was about 15, was built by Dan Korns, Jr. He also said that there was once a log barn on this farm out by the road above the house; i.e. below where the driveway goes back to the "new barn".
Like most barns in the area, this one faces south, has a gabled roof, and is a banked barn that is built parallel to the hillside. The banked arrangement provided wagon access to the mow and threshing floor, and provided access for livestock on the ground floor. Note the overhanging mow, which provided shelter to livestock in inclement weather. The southern exposure would have lent warmth to the barnyard in the wintertime.
Notice the horse-drawn sledge in the foreground.
The next image is a frame grab from a July 19, 1998 video of another photo of the same barn. It appears to be a more recent photo because a portion of one of the false windows has fallen off, and a siding board has broken or sprung loose. Compared to the preceding photo, a fence has been added below the barn, and a different sledge is located in the foreground. This photo was owned by Lester Korns when I took the video.
L. Dietle
Go to the Wilson Korns family index
Go to the Korns family genealogy home page
