Researching barns is a challenge, some times one finds documentation in newspapers and some times not. The old Fruit Growers barn near the east entrance of Susanville was a perfect example. It should be noted that the barn was destroyed by fire on June 16, 2015. At that time, I attributed it to be constructed by the Fruit Growers Supply Company who at one time owned the property, along with a large box factory and sawmill adjacent to the barn. When Fruit Growers started logging operations in 1921, they utilized horses, hence the necessity of the large barn.
New information has since surfaced, and the barn pre-dates Fruit Growers. According to Mary Eloise Sifford who was born in Susanville on November 20, 1892 and grew in the vicinity of the barn wrote in her memoir:
“The Big Barn. When I was about ten years old, our neighbor Lorenzo Winchester, started building a huge hay barn way across the field about one and one-half miles towards Richmond Road. He had a couple of men hired, and they hauled out big beams, etc for the barn. The Winchester’s daughter Maude [who married Frank Wood] was several years older that I was. They had a gentle roan named Kate. I know Maude and I rode her up to where the men were working and took lunch to them. It took several months to finish the barn. It served as a hay barn for a good man years. It loomed up and could be seen for miles. It was later sold to the Fruit Growers Supply Company. They used it for hay and grain and as a horse barn for their logging horses.”