Title

Grain Shovel

Creation Date

1780 – 1930

Description

Grain scoop - shaped in one piece from basswood block. After the paint was removed, it had the initials of the maker on it. A. H. S. and the date 1780. It was used from 1824 to 1926. Grain scoop or shovel, hand shaped from block of bass wood. Shovel is 37 1/2 inches high, the handle is 21 inches and the scoop 16 inches long and 12 inches across. A history of the shovel is in George H. Lewis file.
"Haskel Shepard left his home in New Your State in 1824 bringing this basswood shovel to Adrian, Michigan, living on a far there for 27 years. Then he and his sister with their families moved to Osseo, Minnesota in 1851. He used this shovel until 1868 when he quit farming, and gave the shovel to Mrs. G. H. Lewis' brother, A. J. Smith, who used it on his farm until 1888, when he bought a steel scoop and gave the old one to his sister, Mrs. G. H. Lewis. I [George H. Lewis] in turn used it [on our farm in Langhei Township] until 1906 when I moved to Benson, but left it on the farm for my son, Herbert. 
A.H.S cut in t handle are the initials of Axel H. Shepard, the father of Haskel Shepard. No one living knows who made it. 1780 is carved on it. It is just the right size to shovel train into two-bushel sacks, as we all used to do when we hauled grain to town."