Keeping it in the Family

Architectural details offer clues to the history of a farmstead in Wolcottville in Noble County. Asphalt shingles on a barn roof read “Plainview Farms,” while stones in the house’s foundation spell out “Myers.” Owned and operated by the fifth, sixth, and seventh generations of the family today, Evers Plainview Farms wins the 2023 John Arnold Award for Rural Preservation from Indiana Landmarks and Indiana Farm Bureau.

In 1854, Pennsylvania brothers Sam, Jacob, and Reuben Myers purchased 80 acres in northern Indiana, establishing a farm that eventually grew to nearly 600 acres. The family harvested corn, oats, wheat, and soybeans, though today hay is the primary cash crop.

A standout example of its type, the barn continues to support the Evers’ farming operation, which includes raising Angus and Texas Longhorns and cultivating hay.

The farm owes its imposing brick house and barn to Reuben’s son, Frank. As a child, Frank Myers began gathering stones from the surrounding countryside, with a vision of using the collection someday to build a fine house with a rock foundation. After 40 years of stone-gathering, Frank, with the help of his hired hand and a stonemason, built the house and nearby barn over five years.

Frank, his wife Nellie, and their family became the first to occupy the three-story house, completed in 1923. It’s a showplace, with covered porches, oak, mahogany, birch, and birdseye maple hardwood, and, of course, the fieldstone base. The property boasted grand features as well, including an impressive staircase, sterling silver chandeliers transported by railroad from Toledo, Ohio, and a third-floor ballroom that still includes the piano lifted in through an upper window before the house was completed.

Frank’s great-grandson, Frank Evers, and his wife Evelyn raised their nine children in the farmhouse, where the couple still lives, overseeing farm operations with their oldest son, Mark Evers, his wife Christie, and his children Nathan, Emily, Andrew, and Olivia. Throughout the years, the family has preserved the original house as much as possible, maintaining the hardwood floors, plaster walls, leaded windows, and bathroom fixtures. Along with providing storage for family artifacts, the ballroom has served as a central gathering space, hosting square dances, graduations, weddings, and other family celebrations.

Nearby, the equally impressive brick barn with rock foundation dominates the landscape, spanning 60- by 120- feet across, with a 30- by 60-foot wing that incorporates a 12- by 40-foot silo. The barn first housed milk cows as Plainview Dairy in the ’20s and ’30s, supplying milk transported by horse and wagon to residents on Sylvan Lake. Frank and Evelyn resumed dairy operations in 1975. They constructed a milk parlor and added a second concrete silo, turned hog farrowing pens into calf pens, and converted horse stalls into maternity pens.