Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on November 3, 1975.
Never Too Late To Begin A New Hobby
By JO MANNIES
WASHINGTON TWP. 一 “Just on a hunch,” retired Washington Township farmer Herman Barneko decided in 1962 to build a 3-foot high model of a stagecoach.
Three hundred and fifteen hours later he finished the project 一 and a new hobby began.
“That project brought me all this work,” Barneko says, his hand sweeping across a table full of miniature coaches, buggies, chairs and vases. “There has been plenty of joy and grief in my work.”
Early in September, while working on a new shed, Barneko fell, breaking his pelvis in four places. The injury put him out of commission for a while, he admits, as he walks with a slight limp, but his spirit is still in his hobby.
Sauntering into the living room, he points to lamps and a delicate Danish-style rocker. He made those, too. In a weather-beaten shed is an electrically-powered model of an old-time reaper, one of his current projects. Even the house Barneko and his wife have lived in for the past 25 years owes its existence to the elderly man, who explains simply “I needed something to do. After I retired, I had all this time.”
After Barneko’s first model effort, he was deluged with requests from friends asking him to build full-size ones for them. He obliged, constructing four horse-drawn coaches or buggies over the next few years. Each vehicle took about 6 months to build.
Explaining that he gets all of his ideas from pictures or books, Barneko began to build miniature models after the large vehicles were completed. His fascination with the hobby apparently runs deep 一 even the smallest coach has brakes that work, windows which open and close and doors with latches. A few western novels are scattered about the residence, revealing a more than casual interest in the “Wild West.”
Attached to one buggy is a hand-carved horse. The wooden animal took two days to complete, he says, with the mane constructed out of human hair.
One of Barneko’s miniature creations has a purple ribbon taped to the back; it won first prize in 1967 at the Porter County Fair’s senior citizen hobby show. “That’s the only year they had a show for the aged,” observed his wife.
In the early 1960s, Barneko also began experimenting with the lathe. By gluing several boards of varying woods around a wood block core, then turning the large glued-together square on the lathe, Barneko shaped beautiful lamps with as many of four different kinds of wood. “This part is cedars and this section is birch,” he explains, pointing out the colors of one lamp.
Vases were soon to follow. “I just saw pictures and thought I’d make one,” he states simply. “I’ve made at least 15 一 even a few Grecian vases with rings 一 and some have several kinds of wood.”
Noting that he has almost 40 descendents, Barneko adds, “I’ve got vases scattered from Maryland to Montana.”
Two years ago, he got really ambitious and started constructing an electrically powered model of an old reaper. Using a motor from an auto windshield wiper, part of a hand drill, and building wheels out of iron and wood, Barneko has created a lifelike machine 一 even the blades move. “Real ones were made and sold by International Harvester Corp. as late as 1920,” Barneko says, explaining that his model resembles an old reaper he rebuilt for a friend.
“It isn’t finished yet,” he continues. “It has taken so long because I couldn’t get all the parts I needed.
“There is just one thing wrong with it. The gears that work the sickle don’t go fast enough because I can’t get the right parts.”
Although he adds casually. “As a demonstrator, it’s all right,” Barneko’s expression as he examines his latest effort is more like a parent than a detached builder.
“You know,” he says, repeating an earlier comment, “I’ve had a lot of disappointments with this reaper 一 and a lot of enjoyment.” Then he closes the door to his shed.
