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Teveldal State Farm .......................................... 12
outside the bar on picnic tables. The light bulb kind of went off in my head. I just backed up to the bar, dropped the tail gate, and never even said anything.” Pretty soon, people were flocking to buy the sweet corn, sometimes giving Owen a $15 tip on $5 a dozen corn. “They would say ‘Oh, keep it for college.’ I just think small towns are so good.”
Owen bought Indian corn last fall, then shelled it all out and saved it. “We planted two rows this spring. I told him it would keep him busy all fall picking it by hand. He looked up and said, ‘Oh. I’ve got to pick all that?’” Justin will be able to give Owen some good advice since he was runner-up in the state corn husking contest one year.
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The nine-year-old’s primary enterprise is Owen’s Egg Emporium. Justin said, “The coop he’s got was my grandma’s bird house. Years ago, I moved it here. Grandma and I thought it was probably a good idea for him to have a job. By the time I got done moving it and rebuilding it, I probably should have just built a new one.”
Owen said he has 11 hens and collects about eight eggs a day (and fewer in the heat). He has several regular customers. Casey said, “Sometimes I take the eggs to people at work. When we have a lot of extra ones, we’ve donated to the food pantry in Humboldt.” Owen bragged about his biggest egg ever which “was probably a three-yolker!”
Justin said, “The joke around Humboldt is Owen’s got more businesses than I do. He’s got his little cash box for his egg money and his baling money. We’re not trying to force them into anything, but it’s good they can learn about a job and money and responsibility.”
Abel and Owen Wenzlaff on a 1951 Allis Chalmers WD tractor which originally belonged to their great grandfather who used it frequently with his grinder-mixer. Justin Wenzlaff said, “We’ve used it as long as I can remember. I use it for haying yet, and take it to threshing bee and try to win a trophy with it. We’ve got quite a bit of old Allis stuff around. That’s all Grandpa ever bought.”
Owen and Abel also spend in-the-field learning time with their mom. In the spring, she takes them hiking through the family’s 11 acres of unbroken prairie. “Every April, the boys and I go search for pasque flowers there,” Casey said. She and Owen have also recently been out hunting for leafy spurge beetles, which provide a biological approach to suppressing leafy spurge. They share the beetles with other local farmers.
Casey does conservation planning for the Natural Resource Conservation Service. “What do they say? Behind every good farmer is a wife with a job in town,” she said. Casey works with everything from urban agriculture to full farm planning and CRP. “It’s one of the jobs where you can have a background or degree, but you really have to learn on the job because there’s never a day that’s the same. It’s pretty fun.
“We protect against what can go wrong so you can enjoy the things that go right!” “We protect against what can go wrong so you can enjoy the things that go right!” “We protect against what can go wrong so you can enjoy the things that go right!”
Ty Teveldal State Farm Agency
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“Owen’s Egg Emporium” is an egg business run by Owen Wenzlaff with a little help from his brother, Abel. The Rhode Island Red hens live in a rebuilt coop which previously belonged to Justin’s grandmother. Owen is also pictured advertising his egg business at a parade at the Humboldt Threshing Show. Note the rooster hood ornament.
Peony bushes which once belonged to Justin’s great grandmother have been moved to their home and continue to bloom profusely every year. “I deal with guys who farm 600 acres and some who farm 5,000 acres,” she said. “The common denominator for all of them is to be profitable and do what’s right for the land. Everything else really doesn’t matter – the size of the machinery, the year of the machinery, or how you get the crops into the ground. Everybody has the same goals of profitability and sustainability. The principle is the same – the ‘how-to’ is the variable. Everybody does the best job they can do.”
Justin and Casey met while both were attending South Dakota State University. They lived by Parker for a few years and then moved to their current home when his mom wanted to move to something smaller. Justin said, “So I moved back home. Casey still puts the silverware in the wrong drawer, but eventually I’ll get her trained.”
While he’s training her on where the silverware goes, she’s training him on restoring species. “She won’t let me Roundup the milkweeds anymore, so we’ve got quite a few monarch butterflies around. It’s funny how that’s changed. When I was Owen’s age, Grandma’s trees were just orange with the monarchs when they’d come through. It was better than going to the Butterfly House in Sioux Falls. When we started spraying Roundup and killed the milkweed, we stopped seeing that many monarchs.”
Furthermore, the family is enjoying the return of lightning bugs. “A neighbor and I were talking about how we haven’t had many soybean aphids the last couple of years, so we haven’t had to do our mass homicide on bugs in the summer. Now I’m amazed by how many lightning bugs are back in the evening. It’s interesting how quickly that affects things.”
Around the time he took over the farm from his dad in 2006, Justin also started custom hauling grain. “I didn’t have enough money to buy the truck, so Casey invested half. She’s never got any sort of dividend from that investment,” he said. “I still do a little bit of everything. I work for neighbors in the winter in their shop. I freelance a lot.”
Justin has humble farm and trucking origins and Casey grew up on Lower Brule. She said, “A lot of people pay more for their pickup today than we paid for our first house. People talk about the crash of 2008. At the time, we didn’t know we were poor. We were like ‘What crash?’ We were $10,000-deductible-healthinsurance people.”
But small town life has its unique benefits. Justin said, “When Owen was just a baby, Casey was still on the ambulance crew and there was a call. No one was responding and she called me saying ‘What do I do?’ I was out in the field and couldn’t come in to watch him. I knew the Humboldt City Council was having a meeting and we knew everyone there. So she dropped him at the council meeting and went on the ambulance call. Anyway, the council secretary was kind of a smart-aleck and she put in the minutes ‘At 7:20, Owen Wenzlaff joined the meeting and, at
Justin Wenzlaff said it must have been a slow news day when the Argus Leader ran this story about his great grandfather in 1932.
8:30, Owen exited the meeting.’” His grandmother was perplexed when she read about it in the newspaper.
Justin is a volunteer for the Humboldt Fire Department and is also the ambulance director. In addition, he serves on the board of the Humboldt Farmers Elevator and the township board, plus is active with the Humboldt Threshing Bee (see sidebar story).
He was proud to share the news with the Humboldt community when each of his sons arrived. “When Owen was born, I was so proud to have a son, I took our old straight truck and put a sign on it for the parade which said “J.W. Wenzlaff & Son Trucking and Agriculture.” All the old guys thought that was so cool. When Abel came along, I had to update it to ‘Sons.’ Every year we update the sign to list everything we do: ‘Farming, Trucking, Purebred Chickens, Custom Baling, Miscellaneous Endeavors.’”
Casey half-jokingly said, “We’re living on love. We’re just a normal, average, married farm couple who cuss the heat and then complain about the rain when we get too much.” The Humboldt Threshing Show is Friday through Sunday, Aug. 13-15, at the Bahnson Farm. It will include old-time hay threshing demonstrations and antique farm equipment parades. The Bahnson farm is located three miles south of Humboldt on Highway 19 or four miles north of Highway 42 on Highway 19. The event is designed for all ages and includes free admission.
Photo credit: Eric Buermeyer / Shutterstock.com
HUMBOLDT THRESHING SHOW AUG. 13-15
Humboldt area farmer Justin Wenzlaff said, “It’s not going to be that much longer and kids won’t have access to seeing what you’ll see at our threshing bee. It’s a nice gettogether for families in the summer.”
Minneapolis-Moline machinery is the featured brand this year. The event kicks off with the 13th Annual Tractor Drive on Thursday, Aug. 12 at 5 p.m.
Friday’s activities begin at 4 p.m. with a tractor pull featuring tractors from 1960 and older. Saturday’s activities begin at 10:30 a.m. There’s an amateur horse pull at 5 p.m. and supper will be served from 5-7 p.m. Beginning at 7 p.m., “Surfin’ Safari” will play music of the ‘50s and ‘60s.
On Sunday, breakfast is at 8:30 a.m. followed by a worship service. There’s an auction on both Saturday and Sunday including many donated items. To donate, call 605-774-4414.
On Friday and Saturday, the Knights of Columbus will serve pork loin sandwiches and more.
Two views of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Marion before the explosion of April 10, 1949.
TRAGEDY AT MARION CHURCH IN 1949
One of the most tragic events in the history of Turner County occurred on April 10, 1949, when St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Marion was leveled by an explosion on Palm Sunday. Six people (and later a seventh person) died as a result of the incident, perhaps the worst death toll in an explosion in South Dakota history. Approximately 60 others were injured.
An Associated Press story on the tragedy appeared in the New York Times the next morning, as well as in other newspapers around the world. About 10 minutes before the 9 a.m. service was to begin, the janitor had gone outside to the ring the bell. Inside, church member and local car dealer Phil Wachendorf volunteered to go to the basement to turn on the bottle fuel furnace after several parishioners complained that the sanctuary was cold. Wachendorf said he threw the furnace's switch and "everything blew up." His hand was burned and he was badly hurt, but managed to crawl out of the basement through a hole in the wreckage. The explosion sent the walls outwards and caused the ceiling to collapse and rain down plaster, bricks and dust on those gathered for worship. About 75 people were in their seats at the time, but many others escaped injury because they were outside enjoying the sunshine. However, six elderly persons were killed and at least 50 persons were injured when the roof and brick walls came tumbling down upon them as they knelt in their pews. Father Joseph Zimmerman, 73, pastor of the parish of Marion and Monroe, was standing in the sacristy waiting to enter the altar. He was initially trapped by falling debris, but escaped with a broken rib and cuts. He assisted rescue operations despite his injuries. The sound of the explosion, plus the screams of injured and trapped persons, attracted the attention of nearly every person in Marion. People rushed to the scene and began to dig through the rubble. Five of the victims lived within three blocks of each other in Marion: Mr. and Mrs. John Marso, ages 61 and 59, Mrs. George Bittiner, 65, Mrs. Caroline Reding, 60, and Mrs. Phil Luke, 70. Charles McGinnis, 83, of Monroe, also died that day. John Stangle, 68, died about a month later from injuries received in the explosion.
