Both family ties in old farm

No one stayed the night but the hubbub at the Both farm during the annual Chapple Day celebration Saturday was reminiscent of the early 1900s. The homestead, located four km north of Barwick and which includes a barn and blacksmith shop, was once a regular visit for farmers in Chapple. “If it was night time and you were at the blacksmith shop, you just stayed for the night,” said Steve Both, whose grandfather bought the property in 1899. When the homestead belonged to Sam Both, customers, visitors, and even neighbours would stop by to purchase items or simply observe. His wife, Marge, would ring a triangle for lunch and supper not knowing who would come in from the blacksmith shop for a meal. Now the property has been renovated for the sake of memories, and as an example of how the Boths and other district farmers lived in the early 1900s. “I would rather it be looked at as the Both Homestead or uncle Herb’s farm,” said Steve Both. “Sure I own it but as far as I see it, it’s everybody’s.” After buying the property in 1899, Sam Both built a shanty and then went back to his birthplace in Denbeigh, Ont., where he married his wife, Martha. The couple returned to Chapple in 1901 and the family has been in Rainy River District ever since. “It was my grandparents’ originally and then I had an old bachelor uncle who lived there,” said Steve Both, who undertook renovating the family farm beginning in the mid-1970s. “I never knew my grandparents, it was always Herb’s place as far as we were concerned,” he noted. “The only stuff that I can remember is stuff that dad told me.” A number of district residents visited the farm during Chapple Day and watched as hay was picked up with pitch forks and rakes, carried on a wagon, and then hauled into the barn’s loft using ropes, pulleys, and a 1938 John Deere tractor. A number of men pitched in with the work while Joan and Lauralee Both and Lynette Sargeant, dressed in early 20th-century garb, served pitchers of cold water and lemonade. “I put in a lot of hay that way. The hay-loading . . . would sure make you sweat,” recalled John Angus as he checked out a piece of the homestead’s original machinery--a horse-drawn mower. No one lives in the original home built to replace the shanty in 1907. The house, which consists of a kitchen, dining room, den, and open top-floor, has been turned into a museum with antique furniture and decorations--some of which were shipped from Denbeigh in 1901. Some of the original items that Both’s grandparents shipped in 1901, by train to Kenora and then by boat to Barwick, sit in his modern house next door, including a 1903 pump organ. The farm was active up until 1985 when Herb Both suffered a stroke. He had to give up his milk cows, crops, and the blacksmith shop, and was moved to a nursing home. “We started fixing up the old house. One thing led to another and finally we decided to make it worth something,” said Steve Both. Some of Sam Both’s original metalwork can be found tucked away in area barns. Steve Both recently discovered parts of a logging skid his grandfather made at a neighbouring farm, and has found a number of original forged tools and other items around the property. “We have a little pair of pliers that my grandpa made. They used it to pull my teeth and I use it for my kids,” chuckled Both. The blacksmith workshop remains in running condition complete with tools, anvil, forge, and even a hidden liquor cabinet. “Those bottles have been there for 50 or 60 years,” Both noted. Sam Both passed away in 1944 at the age of 87 while Martha died in ’52, leaving behind not only a number of relatives in the Both and Jackson family but a property that tells the tale of farming. During the Chapple centennial celebrations last year, the Boths had visitors try thrashing hay by hand. This year, they picked it up and loaded it. Steve Both already is considering what next year’s activity will be. “We’re going to try and do something a little different each year,” he said. “It’s a lot of work but we have a good time at it. “Hopefully, my kids take it on,” he added.