Photograph of William and Mary (Messersmith) Seerley Barn and Milkhouse-Smokehouse — Photograph by JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ, M.D, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Seerley, William and Mary (Messersmith) Barn and Milkhouse-Smokehouse

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

From the record

“The William and Mary (Messersmith) Seerley Barn and Milkhouse-Smokehouse are historic buildings located on a farm southwest of Earlham, Iowa, United States. The Seerleys moved from Indiana and settled on their 200-acre (81 ha) farm in 1856, and built a log cabin the same year as their residence.”
Wikipedia article William and Mary (Messersmith) Seerley Barn and Milkhouse-Smokehouse, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 55 National Register listings published here for Madison County · listed in 2009 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 buildingss, 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Listed as. Seerley, William and Mary (Messersmith) Barn and Milkhouse--Smokehouse - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. 1840 137th La., Earlham, 50072
When was it listed? August 2009
Category. building
Township. Madison township
National Register reference number. 09000621 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

4 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Seerley, William and Mary (Messersmith) Barn and Milkhouse-Smokehouse between 2009 and 2014, burning about 8 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	3
Debris and open burning	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
3 April 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
1 April 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
21 March 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named
20 March 2014	Debris and open burning	1.5 acres	Iowa Department of Natural Resources	not named

Every fire recorded in Madison County

Mines and quarries near this property

8 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Seerley, William and Mary (Messersmith) Barn and Milkhouse-Smokehouse: 5 past producers, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Earlham Quarry	Clay, Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Earlham Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
Eyerly Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Producer
I-80 Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
North River Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unknown	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Unknown	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Madison County

Storms near this property

60 of 68 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Earlham, the town this property stands in, in 68 storm reports between 1995 and 2023: 34 hail, 19 thunderstorm wind, 9 heavy rain, 2 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$100,000	A trailer park west to southwest of Earlham with 6 to 8 units was damaged. One unit had a missing roof. Multiple trees were down throughout town.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$70,000	Roof blown off of a house.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$30,000	Trees and power lines were down west of Earham. Two to three poles were snapped. A shed was blown over with about 30 small pieces of wood spread across the field.
April 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$30,000	no account filed
July 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$25,000	Thunderstorms propagated south across Iowa during the early morning hours. Though in general they were below severe levels, one storm produced high winds in Earlham. The Winds took the roof off of a barn and caused damage to a few out buildings on one farmstead.
July 1999	Hail	Earlham	$25,000	no account filed
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$20,000	Law enforcement reported 2 foot trees down on power lines in SW Earlham and a pole leaning over on SW 3rd St south of Elm St. This is a delayed report and time estimated from radar.
June 2015	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$20,000	State Official reported power lines down.
June 2008	Hail	Earlham	$20,000	Golf ball to baseball size hail was reported, along with 30 to 40 MPH winds.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$15,000	Semi blown over by high winds.
May 2004	Hail	Earlham	$15,000	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Earlham	$15,000	no account filed
April 1998	Hail	Earlham	$15,000	no account filed
May 2017	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$10,000	Trained spotter reported tree trunks snapped.
June 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$10,000	One to two foot diameter branches blown down. A few whole trees as well.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$10,000	Trees, some up to 18 inches in diameter, were uprooted 4 miles south of Dexter.
June 2011	Hail	Earlham	$10,000	no account filed
July 1999	Hail	Earlham	$10,000	no account filed
June 1997	Hail	Earlham	$10,000	no account filed
April 2019	Hail	Earlham	$5,000	Trained spotter estimated hail between quarter and ping pong ball in size, including lots of smaller hail.
June 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$5,000	Fire department reported trees down and power outages. Time was estimated from radar.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$5,000	Power lines were down with large tree limbs broken.
March 2007	Hail	Earlham	$5,000	no account filed
March 2007	Hail	Earlham	$5,000	no account filed
March 2006	Hail	Earlham	$5,000	no account filed
May 2004	Hail	Earlham	$5,000	no account filed
April 2001	Hail	Earlham	$4,000	no account filed
August 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$3,000	A trained spotter reported 1 foot diameter limbs down on the south side of Earlham.
March 2011	Hail	Earlham	$3,000	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Earlham	$3,000	no account filed
April 2002	Hail	Earlham	$3,000	no account filed
July 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$2,000	Reported by the Earlham police department.
June 2008	Hail	Earlham	$2,000	Quarter size hail reported at 130th and Pitzer.
May 2005	Hail	Earlham	$2,000	no account filed
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	$2,000	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Earlham	$1,000	no account filed
June 1998	Hail	Earlham	$1,000	no account filed
March 2022	Hail	Earlham	-	Report from mping.
August 2022	Heavy Rain	Earlham	-	A 24 hour rainfall total of 4.09 inches.
July 2021	Heavy Rain	Earlham	-	A 24 hour rainfall report of 2.04 inches.
April 2019	Hail	Earlham	-	Trained spotter reported quarter sized hail south of Dexter.
March 2019	Flood	Earlham	-	County reported multiple secondary roads in Madison County closed due to flooding.
May 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Earlham	-	Local fired department reported 60 mph wind gusts.
May 2019	Heavy Rain	Earlham	-	CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 3.11 inches over the last 24 hours.
September 2019	Heavy Rain	Earlham	-	CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.12 inches over the last 24 hours.
May 2018	Heavy Rain	Earlham	-	CoCoRaHS observer recorded 1.55 inches of heavy rainfall over the last 24 hours.
May 2018	Funnel Cloud	Earlham	-	Trained spotter reported a brief funnel cloud.
August 2018	Heavy Rain	Earlham	-	CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.05 inches over the last 24 hours.
June 2018	Heavy Rain	Earlham	-	CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.00 inches over the last 24 hours.
June 2017	Hail	Earlham	-	Public reported lots of hail from pea to half dollar in size.
September 2014	Heavy Rain	Earlham	-	Rainfall of 3.34 inches from two rounds of storms this afternoon and evening.
August 2014	Heavy Rain	Earlham	-	Rainfall in the past 24 hours was 3.06 inches.
June 2011	Hail	Earlham	-	Heavy rain and 40 MPH winds as well.
May 2004	Tornado (F0)	Earlham	-	Tornado touched down briefly in farm fields south of Earlham.
May 2004	Tornado (F0)	Earlham	-	Brief touchdown in open field.
April 2023	Hail	Earlham	-	no account filed
June 2013	Funnel Cloud	Earlham	-	no account filed
May 2013	Hail	Earlham	-	no account filed
June 2010	Flood	Earlham	-	no account filed
June 2008	Hail	Earlham	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Madison County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
James Allen Stone Barn	1.1 miles	1987
Seth and Elizabeth Wilson House	1.8 miles	1987
W. T. Ford House	2.7 miles	1987
North River Stone Schoolhouse	3.6 miles	1977
Bricker-Price Block	3.8 miles	2017
Bricker-Price Block	3.8 miles	2017

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 09000621 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Madison County	All 55 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.