This barn is located in Gustavus, Ohio, just a short distance from the small country cemetery where Frances Maria Buell is buried and also a short distance from the area where Maria lived with her stepfather, mother, and siblings, and also the spot where she was stabbed to death. I have taken many sunset photos of this barn, and when I do, I can’t help but think back to what this area must have looked like in the early 1800s. In those days, the residents of Gustavus were busy clearing the land for farming, and it probably wasn’t as wide open as it is today, but surely there were open areas where sunsets and sunrises were visible, and surely the brilliant colors and textures awed the people of the 19th Century as much as they awe us today. The difference, of course, is that those folks of long ago didn’t possess cameras to record the loveliness.
