The Cost of Farming – Fencing

At first farmers built fences to keep their neighbor’s free ranging livestock out of their corn fields.

Split rail fencing, constructed from local timber, was effective, but time consuming and labor intensive to build. It soon became impractical.

Largely unchanged since its initial passage in 1819, the Illinois Fence Act provided that adjoining landowners "shall make and maintain a just proportion of the division fence between them."

The law required each farmer to pay for the right half of the fence as he stood facing his neighbor from his side of the property line. Over 100 years later, the Illinois Appellate Court ruled that a landowner with no livestock does not have to reimburse a neighbor for a fence that divides their property.

Live Osage Orange hedges, a dense thorny tree pruned as a shrub hedge and effective at keeping livestock out of farmers’ fields, began to replace split rail fences in the 1850s.

Have you ever seen an Osage Orange hedge?

Look for one the next time you are driving in rural McLean County.

Planting an Osage Orange hedge, as pictured here, required less labor and cost only 25 to 50 cents for 5-1/2 yards — less than half the price of the same length constructed with split rails.

Bloomington’s Phoenix Nursery was a local source for Osage Orange hedges.

Left to grow, Osage Orange hedges become trees, like these, which can still be seen in rural McLean County.

Barbed Wire Fencing

Smooth wire for fencing became readily available around 1870, but was not a dependable deterrent for livestock because it stretched unless woven together. An effective option, barbed wire fencing first became commercially available in 1874.

The first U.S. patent for barbed wire was issued to Lucien B. Smith of Ohio in 1867. Joseph F. Glidden of DeKalb received a patent for the modern invention in 1874. Glidden partnered with Isaac Ellwood to form the Barb Fence Company of Dekalb, but soon sold his stake to C.F. Washburn. Ellwood and his new partner continued to successfully sell “Glidden Steel Barb Wire” for many years under the new company name I.L. Ellwood & Company.

With better methods of manufacturing, woven smooth wire fencing grew in popularity. McLean County’s farm suppliers included fencing options in their stock. Parker Brothers of Bloomington advertised a line of Royal Fence in the Pantagraph in 1916.

View this object in Matterport

Devices like this were used to ensure that fencing was stretched tightly between posts—a necessary step to keep fences from sagging.

Donated by: Lewellyn Jones
792.237

Concrete and Steel Fences

Wooden posts were necessary for wire fencing until 1916 when Bloomington’s Davis Ewing invented and patented steel reinforced concrete fence posts.

Davis sold these using the savvy marketing name of "100 Year Posts," all but guaranteeing a lifespan of a century or more.

Longer lasting than wooden posts, steel reinforced concrete fence posts can still be found today.

About the same time, steel fence posts were also developed.

Steel fence posts were a popular option for a number of reasons. Though not as permanent as concrete posts, they were less expensive and easier to install.

Electric Fences

Electric fences became widely used in the 1950s. But as the number of livestock raised in McLean County declined, so too did the need for fencing.

Used with steel posts, electric fences were cheaper to build because less material was required. They effectively kept animals in and, when used with steel posts, required minimal setup and teardown for seasonal grazing.

Brown Fence & Wire Company electric fence advertisement, circa 1935

Hol'Dem Electric Fencer control box, circa 1950

By the late 20th century most farmers had removed their wooden, wire, or Osage Orange hedge fences. Very few raised livestock, so property lines were tracked using satellite mapping and an occasional marker at field corners.

Many who continued to raise livestock did away with fenced pastures. Instead they invested in specialized buildings.

In 2012 Dan Koons completed construction of a new livestock confinement building on the Funk farm near Shirley. Open on its two long sides, it housed an average of 800 cattle that never left the building, except during the summer months when they went to nearby pastures for grazing.

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