The Gale Halderman Mustang Museum is sad to announce the passing of Gale Halderman on April, 29, 2020. He will be sorely missed.
The museum remains open and everyone is welcome to visit by appointment only. Please submit your request by visiting our Contact page.
We hope you enjoy this video of Gale’s final on-camera interview.
About the Barn
The Halderman family farm was a classic slice of Americana, nestled in the rural heart of Tipp City, Ohio. For generations, the farm produced strawberries and other profitable crops that sustained the family. The centerpiece of the farm was a collection of buildings, including Gale’s grandparents’ farmhouse and the house his parents built just a few years before his birth. The grandparent’s house had a unique charm—his grandfather had helped build it himself, and the basement was dug out by hand after the house was constructed. The ceiling remained unusually low, a testament to the practicality of those early days when the only purpose of the basement was to store canned vegetables and, later, make room for a freezer after electricity reached the farm.
Gale grew up as an only child in this close-knit family, with his grandparents’ house just 100 feet away from his own. The two houses mirrored each other—both were two-story, 1,500-square-foot homes, each with a cozy basement. Gale could easily walk over to his grandparents’ place, but on days when the weather wasn’t friendly or he just felt like staying indoors, he could pick up the old hand-crank telephone that connected the two homes. With a simple crank, the phone at the other end would ring, a private line connecting the generations. This small detail of rural life added to the sense of connection and community that the farm fostered.
At the heart of the farm’s operations was the main barn, a hub of activity that served multiple purposes. It housed an office and a display area for the family’s nursery business, where plants were sold, and orders were taken. There was also a blacksmith shop, complete with a forge that was used to repair farm machinery. Mules, favored for their intelligence and reliability, were the backbone of the farm’s labor, pulling plows and heavy loads with little need for supervision. Gale’s grandfather had a saying: “A dumb mule is smarter than a smart horse.” He would watch the mules stop at the end of a row and turn around to begin the next without needing guidance, a trait he admired. A fully functioning greenhouse, heated by a stove and equipped with a sprinkler system, stood nearby, nurturing seedlings that would later fill the fields. This blend of old-world ingenuity and practical farm life shaped Gale’s upbringing, instilling in him the values of hard work, creativity, and self-reliance.