Watering Trough Farm - Juniata County, Pennsylvania

The Watering Trough Farm

(John M. Gingrich farm)

 

A few miles west of Richfield, just east of the village of Evendale on the Snyder/Juniata county line, lies a farm that was once known as the Watering Trough Farm.  In the days of horse-drawn travel, a spring just south of what is now State Route 35 filled a trough which travelers used to water their horses when passing through.  In the late 1700's, the spring was owned by George MccTeear and was part of the notably crooked county line between what was then Cumberland and Northumberland counties, now Juniata and Snyder counties.

       The crooked county line is explained in Volume II of the Snyder County Historical Society's History of Snyder County.

 

“In West Perry Township a distillery was owned and operated by the Pyle brothers as early as 1825 or maybe before and ceased operation about 1865 or along there.  No permanent record is available.  This still was built over the famous [Robert MccTeear] Spring, which is now part of the boundary and also a corner of the Snyder and Juniata County line.  With this one (distillery) is connected the story of the crooked boundary of Snyder County, the story of how the surveyors, when they were surveying the county line, deviated from the straight and narrow path to go up to this still for a refreshing drink.  After having their spirits revived, they turned north to the Mahantango Creek, which is now the county line.”

 

A June 19, 1809 surveyor's document showing the Watering Trough farm, stating that it was surveyed for Peter Kauffman (Kauffman is shown on the document to have also owned the land bordering the farm to the northeast) shows a 125 and three-quarter acre tract of land, part in Cumberland and part in Northumberland counties, with a house and barn.  The house is on the west side and the barn on the east side of a stream or creek of some size, originating from what appears to be a spring in the field south of the “Publick Road” running just south of the house, and a smaller branch from the aforementioned “watering trough” spring.  This places the house in what is now Snyder County, while the barn is across the county line in Juniata.

 

The farm came into the Gingrich family through the Sellers and Knouse families.  In the latter part of the 1800's, it was owned by Jerome Winey and his wife Susan (Sellers) Winey.  The Wineys had no children, and upon her death, Susan's will bequeathed her possessions, including the farm, to her sister Amanda Sellers Knouse.  After Amanda's death, her son-in-law and grandson, John W. Gingrich and J. Lloyd Gingrich, acquired the farm from her estate in 1952.  Father and son had formed a business partnership; both lived on the Gingrich farm in the village of Evendale, several miles west of the Watering Trough Farm.

 

In the spring of 1974, the old log barn shown in the 1809 surveyor's report caught fire on a windy day in March.  Glenn Graybill (a friend and neighbor of Lloyd Gingrich) was traveling on Middle Road just north of the farm when he saw the smoke.  He was able to get to the barn in time to let the cattle out so that none were lost.  Neighbors took the cattle to Merrill Hoffman's barn, located on Middle Road, north of the Watering Trough farm.

 

Richfield firefighter Sam Graybill Jr. remembered the day well.  The Richfield fire company had recently purchased a new 1973 fire engine and equipment which Sam described as the “beginning of the modern era of firefighting in Richfield.”  The new engine had a 1000 gallon water capacity which was double the capacity of the company's 1954 engine.  But on that windy day in March, the 1973 engine was at Regesters being serviced and Richfield was only able to respond with the 1954 truck which held 500 gallons of water.  Richfield was assisted by mutual aid from McAlisterville and Fremont fire companies, who each responded with trucks with a 500 gallon capacity.  The wind blew the fire across route 35 and set the field to the southeast of the barn on fire.  Fortunately, the firefighters were able to put the field fire out before the fire spread significantly.  But with the tremendous heat of the fire, limited equipment, and high winds, the firefighters could do little more than stand back and watch the barn burn, and keep the fire from spreading.  The old log barn burned to the ground.  The fire burned so hot that an entire aluminum elevator was never accounted for in the wreckage afterward.  The electrical wires above the barn, running parallel to Route 35, were melted, causing a power outage for hours and posing further danger to the firefighters and other first responders. 

 

(Contrast the capabilities and available water of the early 1970's with firefighting of today—in 2017, Richfield responds to a fire with 5250 gallons of water.  Each mutual aid company responds with 4000-6000 gallons of water, depending on the size of their engines and tankers.  Besides the water each company responds with initially, the tankers then go to a fill site and bring more water back to the scene.  Firefighting has changed a lot since the 1970's!)

 

The old log barn was replaced by a new barn, completed before the year was out.  Lloyd's son and daughter-in-law John M. and Rosanne Gingrich moved to the property in 1979 to raise their young family.  A 62,000 layer hen house was built in the field to the northwest of the house, completed in the fall of 1979.  The farm became known as the Gingrich Egg Farm.  Neighbor Brent Snyder remembers riding his bike from Richfield to the farm to work in the chicken house when he was a teenager. 

 

The old Watering Trough farm has kept pace with the times, but reminders of long-ago are never far away.   An addition was added to the old farmhouse in the 1990's, but the brick fireplace in the center of the kitchen, original to the house, has been beautifully restored.  The old wash house still stands out back, now used as a garden shed.  John and Rosanne's children and their cousins have fond memories of playing in the water of the old spring, under the tall trees that grew around it, although the watering trough of bygone days has crumbled with the passing of time.  The children of the 1980's are grown, and now grandchildren come to visit, the next generation to play in the spring and climb the apple trees.  Among the older folks of Richfield, if you know whom to ask, there are still a few who remember the days when the old watering trough still offered a drink for the weary traveler.