R. 1, Pataskola, Ohio 43062
I read Mr. Cline’s story in Jan.-Feb. Album and it was very
interesting. I never saw a rail fence like he tells about on his
grandfathers farm, with the two rails set in the ground, with the
rails in between.
On my father’s farm he had three different kinds of rail
and the rails wired on with No. 9 wire. Drive a spike in the post,
tie the wire to it and come around the rail and drive another
spike, tie wire to it by wrapping wire around it, then repeat the
same thing on up the post with each rail.
He had another one where the rails were split thin, with the
ends hewed down and spiked to the post. These two were known as
post and rail fences.
The third kind was like the one in this picture. This is seven
rails high and used two rails to lock the corners. This rail fence
is a line fence between Issac Coverts farm and my own. It is about
1000 feet long and is made of all chestnut rails. I run my herd of
beef cattle against this fence. It is located on the south side of
Beaver Co. in Green Township about two miles south of the junction
U. S. Route 30 and Pa. Route 168.
In regards to the rail fence in the January-February issue. The
rail fence of that picture was called the worm fence and the proper
way was three rails high and then two stakes at the bend and one
rail between the stakes leading from the top crutch and under the
second and the top rail on top, which was a five rail fence. I have
split thousands of them at 1 cents a piece or $1.50 a hundred for
chestnut and 2 cents for oak rails. They were 12 feet long and the
stakes 7 feet long.
Now for the post and rail fence, the post was 7 long by 7 inches
by 6 inches at the bottom and 3 by 7 at the top. They were tapered
and then bored and mortised for five rails which was 14 feet land
and a flat side post in the center or 7 feet apart. One mortised
post and a flat side post and then another mortise post. The rails
were nailed to the middle post which kept them from shifting. The
rails were sawed on a sawmill so as to keep them straight and in
balance. I got 5 cents for sawing posts and 3 cents for rails and I
will say that I earned my money twice at that kind of sawing. I
also have the auger and post ax and wedges and splitting ax with me
and the old dog for holding posts that were hauled out.
As far as rails are concerned, I could beat old Abe in splitting
rails, 225 in one day when I was 14 years young.
