Waupaca County Post

July 18, 1991

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant.

 

            SEPTEMBER OF 1941, the old barn that stood on the A. M Penney property on South Main Street was moved to the Bailey cranberry marsh eight miles south of Waupaca on County Trunk E, where the old barn became a cranberry storage building.

            The barn was a sturdily built frame building that measured approximately 30 by 54 feet, and 20 feet in height on the foundation.

            This old barn stabled some of the finest carriage horses 90 years ago, back in the days when the horse and buggy was king.

A. M. Penney used to travel by horse and buggy to keep in touch with potato warehouses in a wide area around central Wisconsin.  The last horse that Mr. Penney drove was a little sorrel.  A young boy named Hanford Strand drove for him on frequent trips to the Penney farm just west of town.

The barn was sold by Mrs. Etta Penney Townsend, daughter of a potato magnate,

to Ralph and Ned Bailey, who also were members of another pioneer Waupaca family.

            Earl Cartwright had the task of moving the Penney barn, and it has been said that he handled it skillfully despite the size of the building and the length of the haul.  He sat the old barn down on the edge of the cranberry marsh without scraping a single shingle.

            In talking to Mr. Edmund Bailey, I learned that the move did not go all that smoothly.

            It seems that Mr. Cartwright had made a few miscalculations in road measurements, so Mr. Bailey had to pay for a few trees that were in the way, and the railing on the Dunbar Bridge had to be removed so the loaded barn could pass through without the need to block the building higher on the moving trucks.

            The old barn served as a cranberry storage house until into the 1950’s. It still stands on the Bailey property today, one end serving as a garage.