Michael Korns, Sr. Farm & House Photo Index

Introduction
The photographs indexed below document the Southampton Township farm associated with the Somerset County, Pennsylvania pioneer Michael Korns, Senior. Most of the photographs were taken in July 1998, when the main part of the banked farm house was still standing, and in July & October 1999, after it had partially collapsed.

The farm, which is still under cultivation, is located in a section of Southampton Township that is still quite remote and isolated today. The buildings are located on the peak of a hill, and have an outstanding view of the surrounding countryside. For as long as I can remember, the farm has been known locally as the "Blubaugh place".

General House Description
The house on the Michael Korn farm is a traditional banked two story timber-framed, central-hall plan farm house that is built on a cut-stone foundation. The house is located near, but not over, a spring. The banked style of farmhouses and barns, which became the predominant style in 19th century Somerset County, was a building tradition in eastern Pennsylvania, particularly in areas settled by Germans [1]. Michael Korn, like many others in the area, migrated from a more established eastern region, and he and his neighbors would have brought various skills, concepts, practices and traditions with them, including those related to construction.

The east end of the house has an interior brick chimney that incorporates a first story fireplace, and a connection point for a sheet metal flue for a stove. The foundation support structure for fireplace in the basement is built of stone, and does not incorporate a basement fireplace, or an attachment point for a separate stove, for heavy/messy cooking tasks. The fireplace and lower portion of the chimney is built of primitive brick that has a distinctively homemade appearance. The bricks located above the roof had a white glaze on the outside, as did the chimneys on the nearby Daniel Korns, Jr. family home.

Fireplace may indicate early construction
The presence of a fireplace may be an indicator of an early construction date. For example, the nearby Daniel Korns, Jr. family home, which I judge to probably be built after 1835, based on its particular 6 panel door construction, does not have a fireplace, and must have relied on one or more stoves for heating and cooking. Stoves were already being used by Michael Korns, Sr, by the time of his death, as evidenced by the listing from his estate sale. The presence of a fireplace may suggest that stoves were not readily available at the place and time that the house was originally built.

Introduction to dating the house
I am not an expert on early American architecture, and I have long been a pessimist on the subject of whether or not this timber-frame house could have been built during Michael Korn's lifetime (e.g. 1824 or earlier). As I continue to learn more, it seems at least possible that it may have been built during his lifetime.

General background information on early local dwellings
The first houses in Somerset County were nearly all log structures [1]. For example, the 1798 direct tax schedule for Somerset County records a total of 1235 homes, but only two of them were built with timber frame construction [1]. While the area where the Michael Korns farm wasn't annexed into Somerset County until 1800, and was still a part of Bedford County in 1798, the 1798 Somerset County tax schedule gives us a general idea of the general scarcity of area frame houses at the end of the 18th century.

Log homes, and early Somerset County timber-frame houses, like my Grandfather Dietle's banked farmhouse in Larimer Township, did not have central hallway entries. Rather, One entered directly into a room from outdoors, then went through doorways from one room to another [1].

The Southampton Township census of 1820 documents 40 houses and 41 cabins, and by 1830 there were 47 houses. This suggests that there was at least a 50% chance that Michael Korns would not have been living in a cabin at the time of his 1824 death. I don't know if the 1820 census category for "houses" would have included log houses, or just timber-frame houses. Judging from his obvious well-to-do, entrepreneurial status at the time of his death, as determined from his estate records, Michael Korn would be an obvious candidate for having one of the nicer, more modern style of houses in the area; i.e. possibly this timber-framed house built on a central-hallway plan.

1802-dated snow birds on the roof of the house
One thing that I can state with certainty from personal knowledge is that there were numerous 1802-dated cast iron snow birds installed on the roof of the house. This is suggestive of the age of the house, but not proof positive, because the 1802-dated mold patterns could have been in service for many years.

Michael Korn had a house of some kind in Southampton Township by 1804
Another certainty is that Michael Korns definitely had a house of some kind in Southampton Township by early 1804, and was well-established there as a resident, because his house is specified as the local election site in a Pennsylvania statute that was approved on February 20, 1804.

A similar-appearing house in Brotherton is dated 1812-1815
Page 298 of the 1962 book "Two Centuries of Brothersvalley Church of the Brethren" shows a very similar-appearing house in the Brotherton area that is said to have been built circa 1812 (page 177) to 1815 by Jacob Schrock. If the circa 1812-1815 date of the Schrock house is indeed accurate, this would demonstrate that this style of house was already being built in Somerset County during Michael Korn's lifetime. Building a timber-framed house such as this was labor-intensive, and required a good bit of skill.

Michael's brother Jacob had a sawmill in Southampton Township by 1805
Another thing that I can say with certainty is that a sawmill was used to build this house. There were several local sawmills operating in Southampton Township by 1805; one belonged to Henry Imhoff, and the other belonging to Michael Korn's brother Jacob Korns (according to the 1932 book "The Somerset County Outline"). An 1805 Southampton Township tax list, given on page 578 of the 1884 " History of Bedford, Somerset and Fulton Counties Pennsylvania", lists Jacob Korn with a "mill and sawmill" and also lists Henry Imhoff, George "Kook" and Adam "Startz" has having sawmills. The same page also states "The first gristmill in Southampton township was built by Jacob Korns, where Wellersburg now is, about the year 1809.". At that early date, these sawmills would have had reciprocating blades, and would probably have been water powered. In any case, the presence of these local sawmills would have made the construction of this timber frame house at least theoretically possible during the time when Michael Korns was living in Southampton Township. Click here for photos of an old race for a water powered sawmill that was located near the Michael Korns, Sr. Homestead.

Jacob Korn left the area circa 1810-1817
It might be plausible to guess that Michael might have used lumber from his brother's sawmill to build a house. If so, that would suggest a construction date of 1817 or earlier, because Jacob Korn emmigrated to Ohio in the 1810 to 1817 time frame. Chapter XV of the 1949 book "The Genealogy of Michael Korns, Sr. of Somerset County Pennsylvania" states "Jacob Korns and wife Elizabeth, came to Holmes County, Ohio, in 1817, from the state of Maryland.". Volume 1, page 936 of the 1898 book “Historical Collections of Ohio” mentions that a Jacob Korn migrated to the Berlin area of Holmes County circa 1810-1811.

Jacob Korn had the technical ability to build a sawmill
Information on Jacob Korn is given on page 78 of the book "Holmes County Historical Sketches" by the Holmes County Historical Society. Jacob Korn is described as being one of several German mechanics (as opposed to farmers) who came to the Berlin, Ohio area from Pennsylvania "immediately after" several other people who came in 1812. Jacob Korn is credited with having the first blacksmith shop in the area, and is described as being a "jack-of-all-trades", whose work was in high demand. For example, he is said to have made the metal parts for gristmills. This documented evidence of his technical abilities relating to mills supports the above-noted reports that Jacob Korn had an early sawmill in Southampton Township.

The original lumber was cut with a reciprocating saw, consistent with an early construction date
If the lumber used in the core, original construction of the house exhibited circular saw marks, it would not be reasonable to believe that the house was built during Michael Korn's lifetime. The first U.S. development of the circular saw is sometimes attributed to Massachusetts Shaker Tabitha Babbitt circa 1810/1813. Page 202 of the 1895 book "One Hundred Years of American Commerce" indicates that, although the circular saw was invented much earlier in Europe, the first importation and manufacture of circular saws in the United States seems to have occurred in 1814, and "until about 1830 the rotary saws did not find much favor", and by 1860 "the great mass of lumber was cut by them". The 1923 article "The Dating of Old Houses" by Henry C. Mercer suggests that the general introduction of the circular saw didn't occur in Pennsylvania until circa 1825-1835.

In the photographs of the core, original components of the house that show saw marks, the saw marks were clearly made by a reciprocating blade, and not by a circular saw. See the clear reciprocating saw marks on this photo, this photo and this photo, and the less-definitive reciprocating saw marks on this photo.

The presence of reciprocating saw marks on core, original components is not proof-positive of an early construction date, because reciprocating blade sawmills remained in use long after the general introduction of the circular saw.

Why is some of the timber hand-hewn?
In addition to the sawn lumber that was used in the house, some of the frame members are hand-hewn; for example see the photo of the sill plate (I don't know if sill plate is the correct term). The sill plates would been one of the first timber items that were installed when the house was constructed. Does the fact that at least one of them was hand-hewn possibly tell us something about the availability of sawmills at the very beginning of the construction project?

This corner post and sill plate of the structure appear to be sawn, judging from their generally smooth and square surfaces, yet also bear clear hew marks. I surmise that they were originally hand-hewn, but then were cleaned up by a sawmill. Since hand-hewing is so intensely laborious, this only makes sense if house construction began shortly before the availability of sawmills in the area. If a sawmill were available, there would be no logical reason to hand-hew a timber then send it to a sawmill to be cleaned up, because the sawmill doesn't require the shape of the timber to be roughed out before sawing. A sawmill just cuts off the bark coated "slabs", and quickly converts a log into a timber. The only way hewing marks on a sawn timber make sense is if a sawmill became available after the timber was already hewn, and one wanted to clean up the timbers so that they would have better squareness than a hewn timber. Since there were several sawmills nearby by the year 1805, one of them owned by Michael's brother Jacob Korn, the hewn corner posts and sill plate suggest that house construction began sometime before 1805.

The only other thing I can think of was that maybe the timbers were hewn than hand-planed smooth. Even if true, it doesn't say much for sawmill availability at the onset of construction, since other core lumber, including the floorboards that pass under load bearing walls (and therefore original), were clearly cut with a reciprocating saw. For other unusual findings on combined hewn-sawn timbers, and at least one hewn and then planed timber, follow the "corner post" link above. To see an example of an adz, one of the tools used to hand-hew timbers, click here. To see another tool that was used to form timbers, the broad axe, click here.

Two different types of lath and plaster were observed
Two different types of lath, and two different types of plaster appear in photographs of the house. In these enlargements of a 1998 photograph, triangular lath (possibly split) and sawn lath are both present. The triangular lath has a crude single layer plaster coating, and the sawn lath has a more modern double coating. The triangular lath appears to be installed in a faulty manner, and evidently most of it had to be replaced at a later date (circa 1883 or later). In this this enlargement of a 1999 photograph, more modern post circa 1825-1835 sawn lath is present, and retained with wire nails that were not used in the United States until circa 1883. This sawn lath, which appears to have been cut with a circular saw, is part of a remodeling job that occurred well after the house was built, evidently because of faulty installation of the original triangular lath, and its age and heavy weight.

Interior door seems to be consistent with pre-1835 style
An interior door appears to be a consistent with the pre-1835 style where the panel molding is planed into the framing; click here for photos and an explanation. A door that entered into the north-wing addition appears to have been made no earlier than 1883 based on molding that is attached to the framing with wire nails, click here for a photo and explanation.

The house has been re-sided, probably several times
Much of the siding on the rear of the house is seemingly crude overlapping clapboard, but several different types of siding are present. Some of the siding on the rear of the house would have been difficult to replace because of the addition that was attached over top of it.

The front of the house has three different types of siding on it. The lower part of the front of the house (below the porch roof ) has tongue and groove siding retained with post-circa-1883 round-headed wire nails. The siding on the front of the house, above the porch, is lapped siding. The siding on the front of the house, behind the porch roof in a difficult to re-side area, is un-lapped horizontal boards that must date back at least to the time the porch was attached.

The siding on the east end of the house is tongue and groove, at least on the lower part of the house that we have a clear photograph of. This lower east end siding may have been retained with the headless machine-cut nails that were recovered from that end of the house.

The presence of several different types and widths of siding, some of it with headless cut nails, and some of it with wire nails that were not available until circa 1883, show that the house exterior was remodeled at least once with at least a partial re-siding job, and probably several times.

The full length front porch isn't original
The 1949 photo of the house on the Michael Korns farm shows a full length, single decker, 5 bay porch that spanned the length of the house. Although the photo is fuzzy, the porch appears to lack the decorative scrollwork gingerbread that is common to porches that were built after powered machinery made such millwork inexpensive following the Civil War. (For an example of such scrollwork, on the nearby Daniel Korns, Jr. house, click here.)

I do not think that the front of the house originally had a full length porch, because on a front view of the house it can clearly be seen that the sill plate had no mortises to receive the tennons of supporting beams. Since the floor joists of the house were mortised into the sill plates, one would also expect the porch joists to be supported the same way if the porch was original to the house. Instead, the porch was supported in some unknown fashion. Also, the stone foundation support for the full length front porch is not integral with the foundation of the house, which also indicates that the porch was an add-on.

The siding behind the porch roof was likely replaced or at least removed and reattached at the time the porch was added, because the porch structure tied into to the vertical supporting structure of house through holes in the siding. They couldn't have attached the porch to the house structure in this manner if the siding was in place at the time (assuming the lath was also in place on the interior of the walls).

The wide siding boards behind the porch roof are unlikely to be original siding, because they are neither overlapped or tongue and groove, and would not be rain proof in the absence of the porch roof. The only logical reason for this style of board is that it didn't matter from a weatherproofing standpoint, because the porch roof protected that portion of the wall from rain.

Some Somerset County farmhouses had full-length porches early in the 19th century, but most came later, either as as an add-on, or as an integral feature of a new home [1]. By the middle of the ninteenth century, full-length porches were a popular item that was being added to older houses, or built integrally into new construction, all over the United States [1].

At the nearby farm of my grandfather Allen and grandmother Gladys Korns, I observed as a youth how such porches were used. Aside from being an architectural visual accent, they were used for everyday work. I recall that my grandmother used her porch for storage, and for work such as clothes drying. The area under the porch provided a sheltered area for storage, and occassionally for butchering. The 1949 photo of the house on the Michael Korns farm suggests that there was no access to the porch except from inside the house; this was also true of the porch on my grandparents' farm.

Headless machine-cut nails were used
The square nails that were used on the exterior of the house were headless, and match the description of the earliest machine-cut nails that became available during Michael Korn's lifetime, yet were used for a long time afterwards for certain applications. Such nails were formed from sheet metal by a simple shearing operation. Machine-cut nails replaced much more expensive wrought nails circa 1790-1796, but the headless variety are of little value for dating because they were used for such a long time after their introduction. The same general type of headless machine-cut nails (perhaps a little larger) were driven into a basement beam to serve as hooks to hang things from.

The ground floor was made with tongue and groove boards
Not knowing much about old houses, I was surprised that the first story of the house had original tongue and groove flooring. I know that it is original flooring because it extended under the load bearing wall near the center of the house, and extended under the rock filler in the outer walls. While tongue and groove techniques have been used in some types of construction since ancient times, I am not sure how widely used it was used in the ninteenth century for flooring.

The 1865 book "Annual of Scientific Discovery" reports on the then-novel high speed tongue and groove machines, click here to see the page. What interests me most about this report is that it states "A man at a liberal estimate, could not put in a tongue and groove and plane more than four boards an hour…". Even if we cut this "liberal estimate" in half (i.e. 2 boards an hour), it still isn't unreasonable from a labor standpoint to think that a house of this size could have hand-planed tongue and groove boards during Michael Korn's lifetime. Click here for a general description of how hand-made tongue and groove flooring was prepared using special purpose hand planes, from the 1888 textbook "Bench Work in Wood".

Although not an expert, I cannot see why tongue and groove flooring, if hand planed, would preclude an pre-1824 construction date. I think the flooring was hand-planed. Click here to see if you think the flooring was hand or machine-grooved.

Michael would have needed a large house For all his possessions
One bit of circumstantial evidence that this may have indeed been the farmhouse of Michael Korns, Sr. is provided by the large estate that he left, as witnessed by the large public sale that was held after his death. This sale is recorded in Chapter II pages 48 to 56 of the book "Genealogy of Michael Korns, Sr." One could easily believe that it would have taken a large home to house so many possessions, and conversely one could easily believe that an individual with so many possessions was relatively wealthy, and could have had a large house. By way of illustration, at the public sale, there were four beds sold, along with two stoves, two tables, a desk, a dresser, a clock, six chairs, a cupboard, a dough tray, a spinning whel and six chests (not all of the chests were necessarily from the house). Clearly, they were not living in a small cabin.

The name "Mantion Place" suggests a phonetic spelling of "mansion"
Another bit of evidence that the Michael Korns house was large (for that area and time) is that in a Court inquisition recorded on page 67 of the "Genealogy of Michael Korns, Sr." book, the home place is referred to as the "Mantion Place". The various court documents related to the estate of Michael Korns, Sr. contain many mis-spellings. Apparently the people preparing the court documents were not extremely literate, and spelled many words phonetically, as best as they could. The word "Mantion" appears to be a phonetic spelling of the word "Mansion", which may imply a large house (for that time period). I have seen a few historical references that also seem to suggest that the term "mansion house" was a term sometimes used to describe the large house of a farmer that employed tennant farmers living in smaller houses, but I'm not sure if this would be applicable to Michael Korn, Sr., although he had significant land holdings.

Farm Description in the Korns Genealogy Book
This ancestral farm is pictured on page 30 of the 1949 book "The Genealogy of Michael Korns, Sr. of Somerset County Pennsylvania" by Charles Byron Korns, Sr., M.D.. The photo caption says it is the "Original Farm Home of Michael Korns, Sr.". The book also states: "The Michael Korns, Sr., farm in Southampton Township consisted of several hundred acres nestled in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. Much of the land has been cleared and in a good state of cultivation, indicative of hard and strenuous labor. This home was the pride of that community. The place was designated by the Court as a voting place in that District, and was formerly the seat of government in that township as it was here the elections were held, school boards held their meetings, tax collectors and township auditors met here. This home, once the pride of our ancestors, is now in a dilapidated state due to the ravages of time and carelessness and indifference of the various owners." The phrases "Original Farm Home of Michael Korns, Sr." and "This home, once the pride of our ancestors..." suggests that Dr. Korns believed that the house was used by his Korn ancestor Michael Korns.

From examination of the 1829 draught from the estate of Michael Korn, Sr., one can reasonably say that if the house were not owned by Michael Korn, it was at least probably owned by Daniel Korn.

The house was abandoned before many others in the area, suggesting an early construction date
The fact that the house was already "in a dilapidated state" by 1949 may lend some credence to the idea that it may have been one of the earlier local timber frame structures. A close look at the 1949 photo farm photo in Dr. Korns' book shows the house without paint, with some of the window paness broken out; i.e. apparently already uninhabited for quite some time. This abandonment is more significant when one considers that the house had at some time been remodeled inside (new plaster) and out (new siding), and the local population was generally frugal following the great depression. It is actually quite suprising that a house would be abandoned so soon after the great depression if it were in any way suitable as a residence. Other two story farmhouses in the area were certainly in use as residences at a much later date (some are still in use in 2007). For example, the lower porch on the south side of the nearby Daniel Korns, Jr. farmhouse was still reasonably sound in the 1960's when owned by Allen Korns, and the house was last used as a residence circa 2000, by which time it was dilapilated and both porches had collapsed.

The nearby Allen Korns farmhouse was adapted to electric in the 1939-1940 time-frame, according to Allen's daughter Estalene. As far back as I can remember, which is back to about 1957, the Allen Korns house also had already been converted to be heated with a coal-fired basement furnace. I have seen no evidence from personal observations or from study of photographs that indicates that the house on the Michael Korns farm had ever been updated to electric lighting or coal-fired heat. While certainly not proof-positive, the lack of such updates also suggests a potentially early abandonment date.

Local opinion
Lester Korns (born in 1909), a past owner of the Michael Korns, Sr. farm who was independently familiar with local Korns history and traditions, also believed that the house on the Michael Korns, Senior farm once belonged to Michael Korns, Senior. I asked Lester a specific question on the subject, to see if he believed if the house was actually Michael Korn's house, and he replied affirmatively.

My personal conclusion
I have long refrained from encouraging people to believe that the old house on the Korns homestead was built during the lifetime of Michael Korn, and had documented it merely because it is an interesting early Somerset County house that no one else had studied. I now believe that it is at least possible that it was built during Michael Korn's lifetime. The key factors for this belief (subject to change with further research) are: