Leo Rostermundt - USA
Family and Farm History of Leo Rostermundt November 2015 Family Background Leo’s family emigrated from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany in the 1890’s. His father, Julius, born in 1880 was 13 and came with his family including 3 older teen aged siblings. He worked in the galley of the 300+foot ship as part of his fare for the trip to the U.S. His family lived in Rosthusen, Germany located near the Elbe River just a few kilometers from the English Channel. His mother, Meta Klevemann, born in 1885 was about 7 and also came with her family which lived in Bergdorf, Germany also near the Elbe River but further inland from the English Channel. We understand the family had $300 when they arrived and went directly to Leigh, Nebraska. Neither of my parents had any substantive formal education – perhaps 4th grade in Germany. They both learned to read and write German and English when they arrived in the U.S. Julius’ family initially settled near Manilla (mid western), Iowa and later moved to Lyons, Nebraska where they farmed. Julius and Meta were married in 1911 and continued farming in Nebraska until 1920 before moving to Manning, Iowa (very near Manilla). In 1922 Julius purchased and operated a dairy farm in Manning until 1944 when he retired. Meta passed away in 1939 from cancer. page 1
Leo was born in 1929, the youngest of 7 children – 3 boys and 4 girls. From an early age he worked on the dairy farm while going to school, milking cows, bottling milk, farm cleaning chores and delivering milk door-to-door before school in the morning. He also worked part time for his 2 sisters who, with their husbands, farmed in Iowa. He was in the military – in 1946-48 as part of the U.S. Occupation forces in Japan and in the Korean War during 1950-51. Although he had a farming background and initially aspired to study animal medicine, Leo attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa and graduated with a business degree in accounting. He was the only one of his siblings who attended college. As a perspective of our family history, the following page shows a picture of my parents in the early 1900’s in Nebraska with a neighbor along with their farm house.
Parents, Julius (far right) & Meta (far left) Rostermundt and Neighbors at Nebraska Farm about 1915
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The family farm house in Nebraska - about 1915 Farming History Using Iowa and the U.S. Mid-Western area as an example, in the 19th century 75% of the population lived in rural areas in and around small towns like Manning. At the turn of the century, the horse barn was the focal point of every farmstead. The first daily chore was feed and harness horses to prepare for the day. Nearly all farming power was provided by horses or manual labor. Steam power in agriculture began in 1850 but did not gain acceptance until about 1910. In the early 1900’s horse drawn binders and steam powered threshers arrived. My father was the first to have a steam powered tractor in Nebraska on his farm as well as developing an electric plant for power use. He was also early in using selected breeding for cattle and hogs to improve quality of the animals. The availability of steam and other horse powered farm equipment were great labor savers in harvesting grain using threshing machines and horse drawn grain binders. However, harvesting still required a high level of labor and farmers formed “rings” with neighbors to assist each other with these peak demands. During the first half of the 20th century, the typical sized Iowa family farm was about from ¼ to ½ section (160 to 320 acres) and required a family of 4 to 6 people to provide the needed manpower. The development of engine powered tractors soon replaced the large clumsy steam and horse powered sources. So by the mid 20th century the development of many types of equipment took place. Two notable ones are the combine for harvesting grain and mechanical corn picker for harvesting corn from it stalks. These had immense impact on labor needs and timing required so that bad weather conditions could also be reduced. Most decisions were made using estimates and past memory of planting times and harvesting conditions.
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Personal experience from my parents’ contributions at the dairy farm where I grew up further illustrates the continued creativeness of this their generation. For example, we had in the 1920’s automated milking machines for the 20-head herd of dairy cows. My father built a new house in 1927 with equipment to separate, cool and bottle milk for home delivery and even an elevator to move bottled milk from our basement outside to a delivery vehicle. I visited this nearly 90-year old house in 2015 with my son and his family to show them where I spent my youth. This great house will undoubtedly be there another 90 years – my father built it well. Following is a page with a picture of my father’s first milk delivery vehicle decorated for a local 4th of July parade showing his pioneer spirit.
Rostermundt milk delivery car decorated for 4th of July Parade – about 1923
Farming History (continued) At the same time that the new farm equipment technology came along, improvements in crop yields more than doubled or tripled the production of grain and corn per acre because of using hybrid seed developed for specific areas and soil conditions. For example using open pollinated corn normally had about 30 to 50 bushels per acre yield. With the development of hybrid seeds this yield was improved to over 100 bushels per acre by 2000. Since then many added technologies have been used so that in 2015, achieving yields of 250 bushels of corn per acre is common. Some of these new page 4
technologies include software gathering many types of data real time from the fields using self-driving tractors, aircraft, and other forms of remote sensors for yield, moisture and soil quality. Even more advanced than excel spreadsheet of decision making data. This greatly enhanced technical knowledge in 2015 makes it possible for one farmer to manage 10,000 acres on which he could raise corn, soybeans and wheat. America has more arable land than any other country on Earth, but it is being decreased annually for urban development. So in order to feed the 7 billion people on the planet and projected 2 billion more by 2050, we and the world must continue to improve its ability to produce more food and calories per acre each year. If the past century is an example, then this does seem possible but will continue to require future generations to develop more new ideas so we can efficiently use the world’s land and water resources we have available. My History Perspective I was lucky by growing up at the “tail end” of my generation and having firsthand knowledge of my parent’s generation of immigrants along with being part of my own but yet able to participate in the next “baby boomer” generation. My perception is that the millions of immigrants who came to this country around the turn of the 19th century, like my parents, laid a firm foundation for America to grow – from farms to factories. They produced another generation of like character who built upon that foundation through good times and bad – like the depression years of the 30’s. They won WWII for the world and often are referred to as the “Greatest Generation”. The baby boomers and following generations continue to build on that foundation but will require even more creativity and foresight to make the building on this foundation to go higher. Although I did not use my farming experience to pursue as a career in accounting and business, my interest in the farm never goes away. As the ole saying goes “You can take the boy out of the farm but you can’t take the farm out of the boy.”
References: Some information on Farm History was obtained from a book “We remember Manning, Iowa 1881 – 1981” and a WSJ article dated August 10, 2015, page B3.
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