Postville courthouse hosts reception for maker of new display case

 

[April 14, 2024] 

On Saturday, April 13th, Postville Courthouse in Lincoln hosted a reception honoring Mike Nicodemus of Barnwood Creations in Mason City. Nicodemus has built and donated a display cabinet to the courthouse, made from barn wood he estimates is from the 1800s.

Nicodemus said that on family farms the old, old barns are becoming less and less desirable. The result is that in many cases, they barns are torn down, or they are allowed to sit and decay until the eventually fall down. With the lack of desire to keep the barns, he is approaching the idea of preserving them through re-purposing of the wood. Thus the name Barnwood Creations. He said all the wood he is using to create items such as the cabinet at Postville are from those old barns.

He said that the reason he estimated the wood for the cabinet came from a barn built in the 1800s is because of the lack of nails in the construction. He said that this particular barn was constructed with wood peg and by a jointing method called "mortise and tenon."

Nicodemus mimicked this type of construction in the cabinet. He said that he did not use power tools to create the cabinet. Thus the hole in the piece of four-inch-by-four-inch table leg was carved out by hand using a wood chisel. He created the hole, then slid the cross bar inside and secured it using wooden pegs.

Nicodemus said he did “cheat” just a bit on the cabinet because he did use nails. He said he wanted the piece to be nice and secure for the courthouse.

Asked how he came to donate the cabinet to the courthouse, he said that he works in Mt. Pulaski at Inland Tool where Postville site manager Denise Martinek’s husband Vic works. Nicodemus had talked about his new venture with barn wood, and Vic suggested that his style of craftsmanship would fit in at the courthouse. Martinek asked Nicodemus if he would consider building a display case for the courthouse.

Nicodemus said that he was interested in giving it a try, and additionally decided that he would build it and donate it to the courthouse.

On Saturday, Denise Martinek said that she was very well pleased with the case, and felt it fit in quite well with era of the courthouse.
 

She has filled it with items that document the well across the street in front of the Kronin Brother’s VFW. That well was in place in the 1800s and it is known that when Abraham Lincoln was serving at a circuit attorney, he drank water from the well while attending court proceedings at Postville.

On Saturday, the afternoon included refreshments for guests, and the opportunity to hear from Nicodemus about the construction of the cabinet and Martinek about the well across the road.

[Nila Smith]