Eclectic Collection: Antique Farm Relics Find Two Unique Homes
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On entering the barn’s ground floor, the first thing you see is an enclosed, horse-drawn U.S. Mail delivery wagon. A small chimney on the side indicates it was once outfitted with a small stove. Nearby is a pair of restored Ford cars: a 1914 Model T 3-door touring car and a 1929 Model A roadster complete with a rumble seat. A restored 1919 Gray tractor (with a 70-inch drive drum instead of back wheels) is displayed alongside a handsomely restored 1925 Fordson. A bear trap is attached to a length of chain and a grappling hook. But don’t worry: It’s wired open.
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A hardware museum
Marvin’s downtown building is a veritable museum of the old and unusual. On entry, visitors are nearly overwhelmed by the vast collection of antique tools, equipment, tractors, cars, bathtubs, typewriters, cash registers, horse collars, plows and outboard motors. The inventory is enormous and varied: It includes a cream separator, an old jail door, a windmill, lathe, disc sharpener, printing press and a 6-volt wind charger. Topping it all is a log cabin positioned prominently in the center. Originally located near Crescent, Okla., the cabin dates to the state’s 1889 land rush.
“I took it apart log by log, marked each piece with a number and reassembled it in the store,” Marvin says. “Because it had a good roof, it was still in excellent condition.” It’s furnished with a vintage bed and wood stove.
Another display – homemade broom-making equipment dating to the 1880s – tells a related tale. “It belonged to a family who farmed west of Medford, Okla., on 160 acres acquired during the 1893 Oklahoma Land Rush,” Marvin says. “In winter months, the family would manufacture brooms.” A photo of the family’s farmstead – complete with a sod house – appears elsewhere in the store.
A horse-drawn potato digger (dating to the 1920s) uses a shovel to lift potatoes from the ground and a reversible rotary rake to deposit them in double rows. A Western cane mill, now restored, was once used to press juice from cane in preparation for making molasses.