Deimerly estimates the barn was built in the late 1800s, as the house was built in 1895.

After Sebastian Deimerly’s death in 1940, his son John and wife Mary, Dale’s parents, became the next generation to farm the Century Farm. John Deimerly was one of five children and born on the farm.

John and Mary Deimerly had seven children with an age spread of 18 years, with son Dale being number seven.

Dale Deimerly tells of a farm accident when his father lost the fingers of his right hand, when his hand was caught in a feed grinder in front of the barn on New Year’s Day, leaving only his thumb.

-Submitted photo John Deimerly, Dale Deimerly’s father, is pictured here. After his father lost his fingers in a feed grinder accident, Dale Deimerly literally became his father’s “right-hand man.” Dale Deimerly began farming in 1985.

With only the use of one hand, young Dale worked alongside his father, helping when tasks required more than one hand.

“I was actually his right-hand man,” said Dale Deimerly. “I climbed bins.”

The barn became a dairy barn under John Deimerly. His wife Mary kept chickens in the haymow.

“Lots of chickens,” said Dale Deimerly.

The chickens laid 10 cases of eggs a week. Deimerly remembers getting up early before school to gather the eggs before they froze in the unheated barn.

Once the chickens were gone, the opening at the east end of the barn was enlarged to accommodate beef cattle. They fed 100 head of cattle at a time.

John Deimerly had the barn tinned to keep it in good shape.

Dale Deimerly started farming in 1985.

“Dad was done with livestock,” he said.

Deimerly bought feeder pigs, feeding three bunches a year until he quit in 1994. The cattle operation ended in 2015.

Looking back at the livestock that were housed in the barn, Kim Deimerly said, “They had everything.”

Today, the barn is home to five or six feral cats, down from 20 cats at one time.