From The American Agriculturist, 1880

A simple apparatus for holding a swinging barn door open at any point, was described to us in Livingston Co., N.Y. (We did not note down the name of the contriver - an aged farmer, who busies himself with making new devices for ordinary work.) This is a stick, 2 to 3 feet long, with an iron ring or thimble around the lower end, to prevent splitting. A sharpened iron rod of any desired length is driven in. The other end is supplied with a hook to catch into a staple driven into the door. When not in use, it is turned horizontally, and the lower end rests on a spike or wooden pin, as shown by the dotted line in the engraved sketch. A similar stick on the other side could be used, if it is desired to hold the door only partly open, instead of swinging it back against the side of the barn, or against a stay post or other object.