Oh, if that barn could talk ....

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

Dec. 29, 2005 - Built in 1901 by  J. Riley Green, the barn served as the headquarters for the noted speaker and radio broadcaster, dairy farmer, and auctioneer. 

Green, often called Colonel as great auctioneers were at that time, traveled extensively to buy and sell farm equipment and other ag-related items, as well as give speeches. Records note he combined religion and farming in every speech.

The center of Green’s home and business was the Red Roof Stock Farm, located on the southwest side of Wolfe City. All of the structures on the farm were painted white and had a red roof. The chief component of the property was the impressive (about 75 feet by 120 feet) barn. It’s as tall as any four-story building today, yet the barn was just two levels. The ground floor contained a feed room, storage space, and livestock that was used on the farm, or was to be auctioned. The upper floor had a hay loft, Green’s office where he wrote numerous speeches and conducted business deals, and a gigantic expanse of a floor that could be cleared for community gatherings and auctions. 

One account notes Green’s auctions were “first class” and buyers came from all around the state and the Midwest for good deals. As a bit of showmanship flare, a black man, in top hat and tails, was the ringman.

The upper floor also hosts many memories from the dances that occurred on the level’s huge expanse. Accounts about the dances were noted by John W. “Dub” Duncan who said his mother and father, Oscar and Maud Duncan, and their brothers and sisters had a country and western band which played many of the dances. They were paid on an honor system, Duncan recalled. They’d have a can sitting on the bandstand, and the fee was 5 cents a couple per dance. Band members would divide the night’s collection as their pay.

�Most of the people who knew the history of this barn are now dead, but we do have a few people who remember when this barn was the showplace of this area,� reads a historical account.

Besides the big barn, there’s also a smaller barn on the property which likely served as Green’s milking parlor. Green bred and sold registered Jersey cattle; even traveling to the breed’s originating site, the Island of Jersey.

Duncan recalled Green always said if you couldn’t afford to buy registered animals, get as good a stock as possible. Green also believed in “a square deal between buyer and seller .... courtesy, good cheer, friendship, and in boosting, not knocking,” according to a printed statement on his business card.

Green and his wife May purchased the land that came be known as Red Roof Stock Farm in 1901. They built a house there, a few rooms at a time, and soon built the barns. Green died in 1927, and his wife later sold the farm to Mr. and Mrs. Jess Turner in 1942. Four years later, the Turners sold it to Hubert and Willie Azalee Henslee. They were the last to live there; and the house is no longer there. In the mid-1990s, the property was sold to the Wolfe City School District for the construction of school buildings.