Every Labor Day weekend it has been a tradition for family to stay with JD and Delores at the Aughinbaugh farm.
These reunions would last all weekend long and the festivities consist of camping by the pond, enjoying good food, playing lawn games and abandoning busy schedules for peaceful relaxation with their immediate family.
To commemorate a milestone anniversary and thank their hosts, the family decided to give a special gift. They rediscovered the history of the Aughinbaugh family farm and how it has been passed down since its purchase from Martin Van Buren in 1837.
Robert Day of N & R Woodworking of Peru, Ind., was hired to create a sign for JD and Delores. The sign uses a 100-year-old barn door as its base and has a family tree with branches that show the passing down of the farm from Samuel and Sarah Urley to its present owners.
When asked, JD claimed he had always been aware of this history and that sometimes you forget that other farms are not like this. Today, JD utilizes his farm land for growing corn and beans.
When he lived on the farm as a boy, his father was involved in dairy production. The family also had horses on the land at one time.
JD gained this property from his older brother, the late Austin Aughinbaugh. It is his five children, JD’s nephews and nieces, who are the regulars for attending the Labor Day reunion. JD and Dolores also have a son and daughters and would like for this farm to stay with one of the Aughinbaugh relatives.
If the farm stays with them another 22 years, the family will be able to celebrate the 200-year anniversary of the purchasing of the family farm.
JD and Delores already love the sign they received and are determined to preserve it for as long as they can. By next spring they hope to add a layer of varnish to protect the sign from the elements and would like to add landscaping to highlight their family heritage.
(Story By The Times Union)
