Since ancent times flails had been used to knock the wheat kernels out of the stocks, so during the mid-1870s, the threshing stone was considered state-of-the-art farm equipment in Russia.  The immigrants brought with them Turkey Red (a variety of hard red winter wheat) to plant as their main cash crop.   In order to have the stones made here, they brought along a pattern from Russia.  Within only a very few years, the stones had became obsolete as more progressive threshing methods were adopted.

Find out more in the book Leave No Threshing Stone Unturned  by Glen Ediger.  Glen researched these stones, from their early history-to their sometimes current role, as lawn art.  For sale at the Museum Store.