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News from Garfield Farm |
On Saturday, June 30th from 9 am to 4 pm a
barn sale will be held at the Garfield Mongerson Farm at 39W962 ILL Rt.
38 to benefit Garfield Farm Museum. Friends and members of the museum
have been donating items from their households for the sale.
This is the first fundraiser of its type to be
held at the Edward Garfield/ Mongerson Brothers Farm that the museum
acquired in 2002. “We have had a great response from our
supporters and have had to expand from the 2400 square foot Duane
Kilgore Memorial Workshop into the cattle shed of the large dairy barn
to display all the items,” said Donna Neiler, Garfield Heritage
Society treasurer and veteran of the LaFox Barn Sale.
Volunteer organizer Denise Morgan of LaFox is
amazed at the variety of items that have been donated from appliances,
books, outdoor items to true antiques. Mark Weaver of Inglenook Pantry
decided to downsize his collection of antique scales and the retiring
Kane County Bank banker Dean Capes donated seven truck loads of
furniture and household items as he and wife Carol move to their
northern summer home.
Environmentalist George Johnson of McHenry
County and Campton Township naturalist Jack Shouba and wife Terry have
contributed some favorite artworks they collected and hope find a good
home. Barbara Curtis of Hinsdale and president of the Chicago Suburban
Antique Dealers Association, donated a number of antiques including a
large spinning wheel.
“A tennis racquet stringing machine is
the most unexpected item,” said Jerome Johnson, executive
director, “but my favorite is a collection of placards from
the 1930s with celebrities like Knute Rockne and Herbert Hoover warning
of the dangers of alcohol or tobacco. Our supporters have a penchant
for the historic or artistic, so some very interesting items have been
assembled.”
Inglenook Pantry will be selling food and
refreshments. Parking will be on the farm grounds. Museum volunteers
will be on hand to answer questions and help load. All proceeds will go
to help with the daily operations of Garfield Farm Museum, a former
1840s prairie farm and teamster inn that is being restored as an 1840s
working farm museum.
In 2002, the museum’s land
preservation board, Campton Historic Agricultural Lands, raised $2.5
million to acquire the 95 acre Edward Garfield/ Mongerson Brothers Farm
that was once part of Timothy Garfield’s 1840s farm.
Timothy’s son Edward built his 1859 house and barn there and in
the 1930s his descendants sold the farm to the Mongerson Family. Grants
from the Kane County Riverboat Fund, the USDA NRCS Farmland Protection
Program, the Campton Township Open Space program, and museum donors and
foundations helped save the farm that was adjacent to the 280 acres
Garfield Farm Museum had assembled in the previous years.
The Mongerson Farm is located on the north
side ILL RT. 38 approximately 2.5 miles west of Randall Road. For
information or to donate items call 630-584-8485 or email
info@garfieldfarm.org.