Wilson Barn

Ira Wilson was a descendant of John Thomas Klumph, who was born in Germany in 1729 and who emigrated to America in 1758, settling in New York State. Klumph's third son was Jeremiah Klumph, born in 1769, and a participant in the Revolutionary War at the age of 7 years. Louisa A. Klumph, daughter of Jeremiah, married Phineas Wilson, and in 1835 a son was born whom they named Jeremiah; he would become the father of Ira Wilson. In 1836 Louisa and Phineas Wilson and their family began the long move to Michigan from New York; their son Erastus had preceded them. He had settled on a 40 acre tract of land in Livonia Township, and his father and mother settled nearby. At a later date the Wilsons moved to the ancestral property bordering Middlebelt and W. Chicago Roads. This move may have taken place in 1847, for it was on February 10, 1847 that Louisa A. Wilson purchased from Nathaniel Prouty of Detroit 80 acres of land, specifically the south half of the northwest quarter of section 36, township 1 south, range 9 east in Livonia Township, according to the Early Land Transfers: Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan. Ira Wilson was a future owner of that land. Ira Wilson, born February 20, 1867, was a businessman from his early years. A story is recounted that at the age of 7 years, in an effort to acquire some firecrackers for the Fourth of July, he contracted with a neighbor to milk seven cows twice a day for one week, the wage being his quota of firecrackers; he fulfilled the contract. The Detroit News, in an obituary of Ira Wilson on April 11, 1944, referring to that early enterprise, noted that "He continued to deal efficiently with cows through his long life, amassing more than a million dollars from them and heading Ira Wilson & Sons Dairy Co." He spent much of his adult life performing the functions of a farmer, and it was for that purpose that a barn was constructed about 1888. He raised dairy cattle from which milk was sold for profit. He had some 50 cows which produced about 150 cans of milk a day. An article in Detroit Saturday Night for June 9, 1928, recalled how he and his sons would rise early in order to milk the cows and transport the milk cans to the Elm Station on the Pere Marquette Railroad for the 6:30 train. It was this effort that eventually led him into the milk and creamery businesses.

The Wilson Barn is a bank barn, but not of the Pennsylvania style, for it lacks the typical forebay and the common stone ends. It is of vertical board construction, with a wood-shingle gambrel roof. The entire structure rests on a fieldstone foundation which forms the walls of the lower level; the bank is also braced with fieldstone. Some spotty patch work has been done on the face of the foundation for strengthening and repair purposes. Although the present barn is the second built on the Wilson farm, the foundation is the original; a great grandson of Wilson dates the first barn around 1888, and it lasted until 1919. According to the Field Sheet of the Bureau of Taxation Wayne County for 1905 that first barn measured by 30 feet, was frame with stone foundation, and had an 18 by 40 foot silo with a concrete floor; when the farm was in operation pigs would in the water-filled concrete floor of the silo. On Friday, March 21, 1919, The Plymouth Mail reported its fate: "The large barn and silo on the Ira Wilson farm, south of Elm, were consumed by fire Monday night. Several fat hogs and a large amount of feed were burned, and the adjoining straw stock went with them." It has been said that three men were asleep in the barn at the time the fire began, and after emerging one of them returned to retrieve a cage of pet white mice. When he exited with the cage it was flaming in his hand, a situation relieved only after plunging the cage into the horse trough. The fate of the mice is unknown. Ira Wilson's great grandson claims the present barn was constructed in June, 1919; while that specific date is undocumented, the year seems correct due to the need for sheltering the livestock of the farm, for Wilson could not have survived into the winter without a barn. John Paterson, a Detroit contractor, was both architect and contractor for the new barn. When this one was built, the silo was placed at the opposite end (the south end) of the barn from the first silo, and the new one was constructed of tile obtained from a local manufacturer. There was also a small shed connecting the silo to the barn. The interior of the barn, on the lower level, presently contains horse stalls, although prior to 1944 it was equipped for cattle and milking machines. The second floor had been reserved for horses, hay, and other supplies before 1944 when the barn was taken out of dairy production. The Livonia Historical Commission has definite plans for the barn's use. Its exterior would be unaltered, while the property would be turned into a community center; the interior would be used for art shows, productions, and education activities. This would better serve the community than commercial development. A concerted effort on the part of Livonia citizens and organizations is being made to preserve some remnants of their past, and the Wilson barn represents not only the foundation of a major commercial enterprise, the Wilson Dairy, but it is a fine example of a disappearing architectural style worth preserving, and in this case preservation is being combined with a culturally and educationally enriching program.