Stories from the Round Barn

In 1911, the stalwart, deaf, one-time minister, W.J. Dougan, founded the Dougan Guernsey Farm Dairy in Wisconsin. Although his neighbors were skeptical, he kept with it until his death some 40 years later. In this memoir, rich in human warmth and rural detail, his granddaughter describes the kind, life-wise man who dominated her past. Grandpa Dougan could be pedantic but also laugh ""until his eyes disappear."" The story of how, as a young man, he asked God for some direction, is charming. Deciphering the letters ""PC"" in the clouds, he decided it meant ""Preach Christ"" but after going to college and becoming a minister, he loses his hearing and asks again. He receives the same empyreal answer, but this time he decides it means, and always meant, ""Plant Corn."" Jackson follows the Depression and WWII decades as Grandpa and Grama develop their farm and children alike. She speaks of the essentials of farm life, of detasseling corn, dehorning calves, churning butter and how to milk a cow (a perfect introduction for city folk), and includes a sweet, wholly fitting chapter on her own sexual awakening. Jackson chose to write of her past as a present-tense third-person narrative, which can be difficult to sustain, but she manages to carry it off with aplomb. When he'd founded the farm, Dougan painted his cement silo with five ""Aims of This Farm."" The last aim was ""Life as Well as a Living."" In this heartfelt memoir, Jackson makes us see just what he meant. Fifty-three photographs and line drawings. (Oct.)