Transcript
If you're walking through the woods here at the Chellberg farm, you might come across this, uh, historic building, built in 1835, by Carl Chellberg and Alden Studebaker.
This is the sugar shack. This is where they helped pay their property taxes, by boiling boiling away maple sap during the 1930s, during the depression, and making maple syrup and maple sugar, and bringing in some extra money for the farm and for the family. So, here on the trail, when you come past this sugar shack, it's a nice place to rest, good shady spot to take it easy for a few minutes.
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A short description of the Sugar Shack at the Chellberg Farm by Ranger Bill Smith. Transcript
If you would have walked into this room in 1885, this was the parlor.
After 1885, or the early 1900's, the parlor was the next room to, in front of me. This became the dining room because they had to add a kitchen to the back of the house.
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A short description of the Dining Room in the Chellberg Farmhouse by Ranger Bill Smith. Transcript
This is the Chellberg farmhouse.
The Chellberg Family came and worked for descendants of the Baillys, to help do some logging around here. The first wooden structure burned down in the early 1880s, and then in 1885 this brick building was built to take its place of that house. Ah, the bricks are from the local Porter Brickyard.
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A short description of the Farmhouse at the Chellberg Farm by Ranger Bill Smith. Transcript
This room was originally the kitchen.
Over time, when the parents had a hard time moving around, they made their bedroom down here and added another kitchen onto the back of the house. Some of the normal things you'd see in a bedroom of that time was a razor, with a belt to sharpen it, a mug with a brush to apply your shaving cream, maybe a place to wash your hands and face. Ah, or, if you had to answer nature's call in the middle of the night, and you went outside to the outhouse, or if it was too cold, you could stay inside, and you could go visit the chamber pot.
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A short description of the Bedroom in the Chellberg Farmhouse by Ranger Bill Smith. Transcript
After the Chellbergs did away with the kitchen, in the rest of the house, the main part of the house, they, ah, they added a summer kitchen.
So this is the summer kitchen. The pantry back here is where they would have kept their supplies for cooking. You would have seen the mom cooking on a wood burning stove. You would have seen the kids keeping the box full all day, that was one of the chores for the children, keeping the tinder box full. And then we have over here what we call a dry sink, where the water is pumped using a hand pump, that comes up from a cistern that holds rainwater. You wash your dishes in the dry sink and then take the dirty water out to the garden to help with insect control in the garden.
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A short description of the Kitchen in the Chellberg Farmhouse by Ranger Bill Smith. Transcript
So this is another room that changed over time.
Originally, this was the dining room, because the kitchen was on the other side of this wall. This is now the parlor, as of 1905. The parlor was a place the family would come to rest, rested and kept warm next to the wood burning stove, maybe played a game of blocks, with these, ah, blocks. Alphabet blocks, there we go. They may have even used their stereoscope to take a look at some pictures to see if they could get some some 3D images of some, ah, some far away place.
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A short description of the Parlor in the Chellberg Farmhouse by Ranger Bill Smith. Transcript
One of the things you will find here at Chellberg Farm is the family garden.
It was, the Chellberg's had a garden that they helped feed their family. They had gardens closer to the kitchen to help make it easier to season their food when they were cooking. But we have lots of volunteers that like to come out and help around on the farm. One of the things they help with is the garden behind me. It is about a quarter acre. All of the vegetables, all the herbs, all the flowers that are planted there. All the decisions are made by the gardeners, and they are responsible for taking care of the garden. They take the produce home and many times they donate it to the local food pantries. So, if you like gardening and you need a space, come on out and help us here at Chellberg Farm.
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A short description of the Garden at the Chellberg Farm by Ranger Bill Smith. Transcript
Another thing you might want to do when you are here at the farm is come visit the animals at the barn.
They like to have the flies knocked off their head, and things like that. But, uh, the ah, animals that are in the barn are owned by local residents and their taking care of them getting them ready for the local county fair. This barn is a hub of activity when we have our Apple Festival, and we have a few things going on during Maple Sugar time too. So this is the Chellberg barn. It was built sometime between 1871 and 1879. And, ah, it's a mortise and tenon is the construction method, when they built it. It was used to house dairy animals by the Chellberg family. Today its used to house steers and other animals, sheep for example, that people are using at some of the local county fairs. So, animals are living at Chellberg farm again, but they are owned by someone else, taken care of by someone else. These are animals that are traditional to what you might have seen when the Chellbergs lived here.
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A short description of the Barn at the Chellberg Farm by Ranger Bill Smith. Transcript
Ok, besides the barn, here at Chellberg Farm.
Some of the other buildings you might be interested in learning more about include, right behind me, we've got the pump house, with the wind mill attached to the top of it. That would draw water up from the ground, just like a pump, and provide water for the animals to drink and sometimes for the plants. The gray building is the granary. The granary was built in 1935, after the wood frame house burned down, with all their grain in it. They decided it'd be better to separate the grain from the main house. So the brick house they lived in, the granary took its place of grain storage. To my left is a corn crib. The wood from the corn crib actually used to be part of what was the silo on the west side of the barn. We'll take a look at that in a few minutes. That was used to store the corn so that wind, over time, the wind, the air would blow through and dry the corn. It was also sealed pretty well to keep out the rodents. The next building, to the left, is the chicken coop. Chellbergs kept chickens here for meat and for eggs. The chicken coop was built sometime in the late 1880s. The chickens would have run free throughout the yard. And then finally, on the west side of the barn, you see what is the foundation for what used to be the silo. I believe the silo was here until sometime in the 1930s. And then in 1941, the wood was used to make the corn crib.
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A short description of the Chellberg Outbuildings at the Chellberg Farm by Ranger Bill Smith. Transcript
Welcome to the Bailly Homestead/Chellberg Farm picnic area.
These picnic shelters, by the way, are reservable online. This is just a good place to get started while you're here on your visit at the Bailly Homestead/Chellberg Farm. At the farm, for example, you can visit the barn, walk around and check out some historic buildings, see the farm animals. You can continue on the four mile trail, or a two mile loop, or a one mile loop. You can continue over to the Bailly Homestead and see the historic buildings there. But, make sure you come sometime in early March, the first two weekends in March, when we have our Maple Sugar Festival here, and in mid-to-late September, when we have our apples festival. So, there's lots of things to do here at the Bailly Homestead/Chellberg Farm.
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A short description of the picnic area at the Chellberg Farm parking lot by Ranger Bill Smith. Transcript
Another thing you might want to consider doing while you're here at the Bailly/Chellberg area is visiting our volunteer office.
You can sign up for volunteering, anywhere in the park. We've got all kinds of things to do over the whole 20-mile stretch of the park, for helping you become more involved in your park, and volunteering to help make it a better park.
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A short description of the Volunteer Office at the Chellberg Farm parking lot by Ranger Bill Smith. |
Last updated: July 29, 2020