2023 Century Farms

June 2023

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June

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Crawford County

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Page 26..................

Page 47.................... Marshall County

Page 10........................ Boone County

Page 11............... Buena Vista County

Page 12..................... Calhoun County

Page 14....................... Carroll County

Page 16............... Cerro Gordo County

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Cherokee County

Page 22........................... Clay County

Dallas County

Dickinson County

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Emmet County

Franklin County

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Greene County

Page 34....................Hamilton County

Page 36.....................

Hancock County

Page 37........................Hardin County

Page 38................... Humboldt County

Page 40............................. Ida County

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Kossuth County

Page 46........................... Lyon County

Page 48...................... O’Brien County

Page 49..................... Osceola County

Page 50.................... Palo Alto County

Page 54................... Plymouth County

Page 56................Pocahontas County

Page 58........................... Polk County

Page 60............................ Sac County

Page 62......................... Sioux County

Page 66.......................... Story County

Page 68..................... Webster County

Page 72.................. Woodbury County

Page 74........................Wright County

“Our barns are chock full of technology THAT HELPS US TAKE BETTER CARE OF OUR PIGS.”

For Johnson family, farming is in their blood

By KRISTIN DANLEY-GREINER Farm News writer

BOONE — What started as an 80-acre farm bought in 1919 has blossomed into a 255-acre family operation brimming with cattle as a part of a cow-calf operation plus corn and soybeans.

Tracy Johnson’s greatgrandfather bought the century farm, which he handed down to Johnson’s grandmother who set it up as a trust for Johnson.

Tragedy brought Johnson’s parents to the family farm years ago.

“My great-grandparents died in a vehicle accident, so my parents and I moved to the family farm when I was 4 or 5 years old,” he said. “I lived in the main farmhouse until my school district consolidated with another small town and my grandparents and parents said us kids weren’t going to sit on a bus and travel that

far, so we traded houses. I was transplanted on the other family farm five miles from school and that’s where I graduated from.”

When Johnson graduated from high school, his grandfather passed away. His grandmother didn’t want to stay on the family farm, and she asked her grandson to move to the farm and she moved to an acreage across from his parents.

Once he was old enough to farm as a newly anointed adult, Johnson tore down the original farmhouse and built a new home.

“So I moved to the family farm around 1985 on my own as a young adult, and then in 2005 or 2006 I built the new house. That’s also when I got married and had an instant family with three kids,” Johnson said.

The main barn still sits on the farm ground, plus Johnson added a machine shed to complement existing outbuildings.

“Growing up, we had hogs and cattle, and row crops plus hay ground,” Johnson said. “Taking over the family farm was just something I knew I would do one day. It’s in our blood. I’m the oldest grandchild and the only one in the area farming. My siblings don’t have any interest in farming, and my cousins who farm started their operation in southern Iowa in cattle country.”

It’s an honor to have his family’s operation be declared a Century Farm, Johnson said. The property is located at 1812 100th St., Boone.

“Just this year, I recently added on to it. A farm next to it came up for sale and I acquired it,” he said. When the farm ground was bought in 1919, Johnson’s grandfather paid $138 per acre.

-Submitted photo

THE JOHNSON CENTURY FARM started as an 80-acre farm bought in 1919 and has blossomed into a 255-acre family operation, brimming with cattle as a part of a cow-calf operation plus corn and soybeans.

Storm Lake-area family cares for the land

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY Farm News writer

STORM LAKE — While there hasn’t been a building site for more than 80 years on Jennifer Peters’ Hayes Township Century Farm, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of history in these 70 acres southeast of Storm Lake.

“Dad worked so hard on this farm, and he always preached, ‘They aren’t making any more farmland, so take good care of it,’” said Peters, speaking of her late father Lawrence (Larry) Foell.

Peters’ rural roots run deep in Buena Vista County. Her great-great-grandfather Harry E. Thayer, who was born on Jan. 29, 1867, near Macon, Illinois, later moved to the Storm Lake area with his parents. In 1921, Thayer and his wife, Ida, purchased the 70 acres that now comprise Peters’ Century Farm.

The Hayes Township farm was later owned by Peters’ great-grandparents (Carl and Bernice [Thayer] Foell), followed by Peters’ grandparents, Kenneth and Bernedine Foell, who passed the farm to

BUENA VISTA

Peters

Century Farm

Established: 1921

Township: Hayes Township

Acres: 70

Century Farm Award: 2021

Generation: 5th-generation

their son Larry.

Born in 1940, Larry Foell attended grade school through first grade in Nemaha and graduated from Hayes School in 1958 with seven other students.

As a boy, he participated in 4-H and enjoyed cattle projects.

“Farming was a passion for my dad,”

Hay Rack Decks

said Peters, an instructional assistant with the Storm Lake Community School District. “He farmed several years with his dad and Grandpa Foell before running the farm himself. Until late in his life, he lived on the same farm since 1966.”

Larry, who farmed with International Harvester (IH) equipment, raised corn, soybeans and popcorn, which he sold to the JOLLY TIME popcorn company in Sioux City. He also trucked for Dekalb Seed for 54 years, traveling to Illinois, South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota.

In addition, he loved tractor rides and spending time with his family, which took him to Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Illinois.

While the farm wasn’t overly important to Peters when she was growing up, things changed after her father broke his femur in 2019.

“My husband, Matt, and daughter, Kaylee, took time off from work to help do all the planting that spring,” said Peters, who lives on a Century Farm where her great-great-grandfather lived, five miles

See

PETERS, Page 19C

-Submitted photo

JENNIFER PETERS and her daughter, Kaylee, are shown on their Century Farm near Storm Lake.

th i L

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY Farm News writer

LOHRVILLE — While the world was at war in 1918, Joe Beschorner was seeding oats that spring on his Calhoun County farm. The German immigrant had purchased a 120-acre Reading Township farm on March 19 that year. About a week later, he and his wife, Anna, welcomed a daughter, Pauline, who was born on March 27.

“I was born on the Century Farm, which is southeast of Lohrville and north of Churdan,” said Pauline (Beschorner) Boner, 105, of Lake City.

While the Great War ended in November 1918 and the Roaring 20s followed, times were tough on the farm, especially for a young family like the Beschorners (who also had a son, Frederick). “My parents sometimes had to borrow money from Grandpa and Grandma,” Pauline Boner said.

When the Beschorners wanted to send a family photo to Joe’s parents in Germany, there was no extra money to buy new clothes. “My mom disassembled her wedding dress and made a pretty dress for me, which I wore in the picture,” she recalled.

When Pauline was growing up, her family raised crops, beef cattle, dairy cows that they milked by hand, and lots of chickens. “We also had apple trees and sold apples to people in the area,” said Pauline, who enjoyed farm life.

Sometimes tramps would stop at the Beschorner farm for a bite to eat. When Pauline was about 5 or 6, she recalled one of these men eating a meal in the family’s kitchen. “My mother asked him to keep an eye on me while she went to the barn to milk the cows,” said Pauline, who added that everything worked out fine.

For eight years, Pauline attended Reading No. 8 country school, which was half a mile west of the family’s farm. When she started school, she didn’t speak English. “I’d speak German during recess with a neighbor girl,” said Pauline, who grew up

Boner Century Farm

Established: 1918

Township: Reading

Acres: 120

Century Farm Award: 2018

Generation: 3rd generation

speaking German.

In her grade level, there were only two students, including Pauline and another girl.

“For a time, our teacher boarded with us in the winter in an upstairs bedroom at our house,” added Pauline, who graduated from Lohrville High School in 1935.

Spring graduation seemed like a distant memory by the brutal winter of 1936. “We had a long lane,” she recalled. “Dad would shovel it, but the wind would blow the snow right back. We never left the farm for six weeks that winter.”

Pauline was working at a grocery store in Churdan when she started dating Lawrence (“Larry”) Boner, a former Lohrville High classmate.

The couple married in 1946 and started their married life in a one-bedroom home with no running water north of Lohrville.

“My dad, Joe, continued to live on what’s now the Century Farm until he died in 1968,” said Pauline, whose mother passed away in 1957.

As Larry and Pauline’s family grew, they moved in 1954 to a farm a mile and a half east of Lohrville along Iowa Highway 175.

The Boners had seven children, including Ann, Robert (“Bob”), Kathleen (“Kathy”), twins Eileen and Elaine, Mary and Ron. The kids had plenty of jobs on the farm.

Whether they were baling hay, shelling corn or walking beans, everyone could count on Pauline to make a big lunch, complete with her famous pies, from apple to lemon to banana cream.

Larry and his brothers all retired from

farming at the same time in 1979, when Larry was 61. Larry and Pauline moved to Lake City in 1981.

Pauline learned how to golf at age 62 and enjoyed going to the Lake City Country Club with Larry.

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

PAULINE BONER (front row, center) displays items related to their family's Century Farm Award. In back, from left, are Mary Engstrom, Ann Boner and Elaine Batz. In front, from left, are Kathy Beckman, Pauline Boner and Bob Boner.

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By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY

Farm News writer

HALBUR — When Leon Williams’ ancestors emigrated from Germany to America, their long journey took them from Wisconsin to Winneshiek County in northeast Iowa by 1870, but they looked further west to put down roots. Within a few years, they settled in Washington Township in Carroll County.

“Adam Williams bought 240 acres of land here in 1873 for $1,440,” said Williams, 66, whose farm is located four miles southwest of Halbur.

In 1882, Adam sold 120 acres of land to his brother Peter, who raised his family in Carroll County, including his son Anton, who would become Leon Williams’ grandfather.

“Anton met my Grandma Ida when she moved from Nebraska to work for her uncles, who were bachelor brothers,” said Williams, who noted the brothers lived on the section east of the Williams farm.

On one occasion as Anton and Ida were getting acquainted, Ida left one of her gloves in his old Model T. “Anton had to bring the glove back to her,” said Williams’ mother, Velma.

After Anton and Ida married, they bought the 120 acres of Washington Township land from Anton’s parents, Peter and Katherine, in 1915. A new house also graced the farm around this time.

“The old farmhouse became the granary,” said Williams, who lives in the home that was built circa 1910. “We kept oats in that granary and used it as a feed shed when I was growing up.”

Anton and Ida Williams’ youngest son Raymond (who was one of 10 children) became the next generation of the family to own the farm. After Raymond married his wife, Velma, in 1954, the couple raised their four sons and four daughters on the farm.

“We loved raising our kids here,” said Velma Williams, who had grown up on a farm near Roselle.

In 1971, Ray and Velma Williams purchased the farm from Ray’s parents, Anton and Ida. The Williams family raised corn and managed a farrow-to-finish swine operation and bought cattle to finish.

“After we got hailed out in June 1969, the corn was stripped, so Ray used the corn for silage that year,” Velma Williams said. “It worked out well, so we kept making silage.”

Those were the days when a 100-bushelper-acre corn crop was impressive, added Leon Williams, who enjoyed working with his father. “I watched and learned how Dad did things,” he said.

CARROLL Williams Heritage Farm

Established: 1873

Township: Washington

Acres: 240

Often the two would work together taking care of the pigs in the barn, which had been built in the mid-1920s. While the barn was designed to house horses and dairy cows, the Williams family modified it so they could farrow a dozen sows at a time in wooden farrowing crates. They also modernized their swine operation in the 1970s, when they built two new 20-head farrowing barns.

The Williams family continued to find ways to blend pieces of the past with their grain and livestock operation.

“In the early 1960s, when steel grain bins started becoming more common, some of the neighbors went together and each bought a 4,000-bushel steel bin with a dryer,” said Leon Williams, who raises corn and soybeans and custom feeds hogs.

After graduating from Kuemper High School in Carroll in 1974, he farmed with his father and worked for MJM Enterprises in Manning, which made grain augers and grain gates. Williams stayed with MJM for 13 years before farming full-time in 1985.

His wife, Cathy, also graduated from Kuemper and worked in Carroll for several years. “We married in 1978 and lived in Halbur for a few years, but we were glad to have the chance to move to the farm to raise our two daughters,” said Cathy Williams, who grew up on a farm near Roselle.

From Halbur, the young family moved to a neighboring farm.

“Then we moved to the home place in 1996,” Leon Williams said. “In June 2006, we bought the farm from my parents, Ray and Velma, and we continue to live and farm here.”

-Farm News photos by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

TOP LEFT: Leon and Cathy Williams and Leon's mother, Velma, (left), stand in front of the home on the family's Heritage Farm southwest of Halbur.

BOTTOM LEFT: This aerial photo of the Williams farm was taken in 1978.

By CLAYTON RYE crye@wctatel.net

NORA SPRINGS — Samuel and Margaret Spotts drove a team of oxen from Plainfield, Ill., to the 185 acres of land they purchased in Cerro Gordo County in 1871. The same yoke used by that team of oxen hangs on a wall in the home of Marcus and Cathy Spotts.

CERRO GORDO

Marcus & Cathy Spotts Heritage Farm

Established: 1871

Year awarded: 2021

Heritage Farm Award

Generation: 5th

Township: Portland

Acres: 185

In 1895, their son Abraham and his wife Emma Spotts became the second owners. The ownership passed to their son Paul Spotts and his wife Alma in 1944. They passed the farm to their son Lester Spotts and his wife Lorraine in 1973. The farm has been operated by their son Marcus Spotts and his wife Cathy since 2016, raising corn and soybeans.

Marcus and Cathy Spotts are parents of Blake, age 28, who works with his father on the farm, son Mac who farms in Fayette and Buchanan counties, and a daughter Reggi, age 16, a junior in high school.

To celebrate their Heritage Farm Award after receiving it at the 2021 Iowa State Fair, the Spotts family held a celebration Labor Day weekend. Marcus Spotts estimated there were 250 people in attendance.

“We ran out of food,” he said. Airplane rides were part of the celebration, with 18 takeoffs and landings that day, each trip carrying three people and the pilot, who was Marcus Spotts.

The Spotts Heritage Farm looks like a typical Iowa farm from the road with bins, barn, and the usual

-Submitted photos

ABOVE: This undated photo (note the wooden wagon wheels) shows Lester Spotts sitting on a large boar while his father Paul stands by the boar's head and a man named Chris looks on.

assorted outbuildings. However, if a passerby is observant, it is possible to see a broad grassy strip with a wind sock in the distance. Yes, it is a landing strip for the plane owned by the Spotts family and kept on the farm in its own hangar.

“We’ve always done a lot of flying,” said Marcus Spotts.

He has been flying since 1983 when he received his pilot’s license at age 17. His son Blake is the fourth-generation pilot.

It was grandfather Paul Spotts, a soldier in World War I, who decided he wanted to fly and took lessons.

In 1946 he built a hangar on the farm to keep his plane handy.

Over the next few years, the Spotts’ farm became a gathering place for the Flying Farmers organization.

During a gathering of the Flying Farmers, the Spotts farm had planes parked there much like cars in a parking lot at any gathering.

Marcus and Cathy Spotts use their plane in the same way anyone

LEFT: In an updated version of the American Gothic, this photo has Marcus Spotts holding a tool from farming's past and wife Cathy holding a tool from farming's present. Behind them are the plaques they received at the Iowa State Fair and the actual yoke used by the oxen that pulled Samuel Spotts' covered wagon from Illinois to Iowa in 1871.

would a car. It is just the distances are farther. Besides flying to see people in Florida, Texas, or anywhere they decide to go, their plane is used to look for stray cattle and check field conditions. They even flew over the Field of Dreams baseball field during the Major League Baseball game that was held near Dyersville in recent years.

Marcus’ grandfather Paul and his father Lester hunted fox from a plane and have the home movie showing them climbing out of the plane with two foxes from that day’s hunt.

In the span of 150 years, Sam Spotts drove a team of oxen from Illinois to his new farm in northern Iowa where his great-greatgrandson Marcus keeps a plane that allows him to travel to any part of the country easily, quickly, and comfortably.

-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye

MARCUS SPOTTS, seated, and his son Blake pose with the Heritage Farm award they received at the Iowa State Fair.

-Submitted photo

AN AERIAL VIEW of the Spotts farm and plane are shown.

Peters

Continued from Page 11C

south of the Century Farm that received that honor in 2021. After her father died of cancer in 2020, well-meaning friends asked if Peters planned to sell the farm. She knew she didn’t want to sell the land that had been in her family for generations and where she had spread her father’s cremains.

Finding the right tenant was important to Peters and her family. “I’m not interested in renting to someone just because they’re the biggest farmer, or because they’ll pay the most cash rent,” Peters said. “I want someone who cares about the land.”

Peters appreciates her family’s current tenant. It’s a plus that he uses IH equipment, just like her dad did.

“I’m proud of this farm,” she said. “I’m grateful my great-great-grandparents bought the land all those years ago, and I think of the tremendous effort it took generations of my family to keep the farm going. I want to maintain this tradition.”

IDA AND HARRY THAYER

KENNETH AND BERNEDINE FOELL

LARRY FOELL

“Dad worked so hard on this farm, and he always preached, ‘They aren’t making any more farmland, so take good care of it.’”

JENNIFER PETERS Century Farm owner

By DOUG CLOUGH

Farm News writer

MARCUS — Ron Schmillen

couldn’t attend the Iowa State Fair’s Century Farm Award celebration for his Cherokee County farm in 2022. A neck injury kept him in the nursing home while his grateful family did the accepting. The clan brought a cut-out version of his likeness to the event attended by Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig.

“It was the next best thing to him being there,” said Darlene Schmillen, his wife of 65 years.

“We’re a strong family, one with 14 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.” Ron’s spirit and likeness included a photo of him in an iconic Chicago Cubs sweatshirt, a team he was able to see win the pennant in 2016.

“Ron’s last four years were spent at the nursing home after he fell and broke his neck in three places,” said Darlene Schmillen. Ron recently passed on April 11 after 86 years of good farm living.

Arley and Ethel Schmillen were Ron’s adoptive parents and second-generation owners of the farm; at 70, Ron gratefully came to know his biological mother Alma Hendrickson and his siblings, enjoying the rest of his years with them involved in his life.

His grandparents were firstgeneration owners William and Alvina Schmillen, who purchased the farm June 2, 1909. For the first 64 years, the 160-acre farm was operated like most traditional barn-centric farms, with corn and soybean rotation and livestock that included dairy cows, cattle, pigs, chickens, rabbits, and Ron’s favorite — sheep.

Ron and Darlene married in

CHEROKEE

1956, residing on their Tilden Township farm where they raised their five children: Becky, Kevin, Bobbi, Roxanne, and 12 years later, Kyle.

“We wanted our children to show livestock, so we started with calves,” said Darlene Schmillen.

“We started with the older kids, Becky, and Kevin. When Ron saw them fly through the yard with a 1,000-pound calf, he said, ‘That’s enough of that,’ so we decided to show something different.”

This is where sheep, Ron’s favorite livestock, come back into play.

“Ron was a 4-H leader, and we wanted to have our children involved,” she said. “All of our children showed lambs through their 4-H days and saw success on a local and regional level. When Kyle was little, he said he was going to win more trophies than the other four kids combined. I said, ‘Oh, that’s not going to happen,’ but it did.”

“Yes, it did,” said Kyle Schmillen, “but — to be fair — I showed at more shows than they did.”

Kyle’s affinity for showing lambs has become a Century Farm business, right down to using the barn that has stood on the property since William and Alvina purchased it in 1909.

“We have raised and sold showlambs all throughout the United States,” said Kyle Schmillen. “Dad started out raising Purebred Suffolks; when I was in high school, we started converting over to more of a Hampshire-based club lamb type, so we could compete in

the market side of the show ring.”

Since Kyle Schmillen has a full-time job at Cherokee State Bank, his wife Jill does most of the lambing during the day, and the family uses the barn as the facility where it happens. The Schmillens stock 100 ewes, which is manageable for Jill, and for December lambing in the heated barn.

“With laparoscopic artificial insemination (AI), we get a 60 to 70% conception rate, which is very good for sheep,” said Kyle Schmillen. “It allows us to have 60 ewes come in within a week. If we average 1.5 lambs per ewe, we’re looking at 90 babies on the ground which are all uniform in

size. We have sold lambs in almost every state from coast to coast.”

The Schmillen’s customers are 4-H and FFA kids who participate in shows at their local county fairs, state fairs, and national shows.

Kyle and Jill have raised and sold state champions in Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Kansas and Texas, just to name a few. So far, they are also the only breeder to raise the Grand Champion Market Lamb at the Iowa State Fair in both the 4-H and FFA shows in the same year.

“When Sam began his success in showing lambs,” said Kyle, “customers were nervous about how many we’d keep back for him to show. We decided prior to Sam

starting 4-H that everything we raise, we will offer for sale, so we make it a practice to offer all the males we raise to the public.”

At least half of Darlene’s grandchildren have also shown lambs, continuing the family tradition, and Kyle and Jill’s son Sam, 16, is one of them. He has exhibited the Grand Champion Market Lamb at the Iowa State Fair in 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022. In 2021 he made history being the first 4-H exhibitor to win both Grand and Reserve at the Iowa State Fair in any species, a feat that had never been accomplished until then. Sam Schmillen has also had success on the national level, winning Arizona Nationals in Phoenix and being Reserve Champion at the NAILE show in Louisville, Kentucky.

This year their daughter, Brittney, will enter the show ring at the State Fair for the first time and next year their son Archer will as well.

“The neatest thing about this is how involved the whole family has stayed,” said Kyle Schmillen. “Once I was done showing lambs, my nieces and nephews were old enough to compete; now that they have aged out, they are all watching my kids in the show ring. It’s fun to have everyone come down to the Iowa State Fair to cheer us on. It usually winds up with everyone reminiscing about old times spent in the sheep barn.”

“Our grandkids are doing better at this than what we were when we first started,” said Darlene Schmillen. “It’s exciting. That’s when we have lots

of hugs.”

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough

SAM SCHMILLEN, left, holds a photo of his grandfather Ron Schmillen, allowing him to be present at the family's Century Farm recognition in 2022. To Sam's right is his grandmother Darlene Schmillen and his father Kyle Schmillen. "It was important for us to have Ron there not only in spirit but as part of the group photo," said Darlene.

Simington Heritage Farm dates back to 1870

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY Farm News writer

When David and Sharon Simington reflect on how their farm — the only Heritage Farm in Clay County — was established more than 150 years ago, the story almost sounds too unlikely to be true. Yet it’s a true story of grit, perseverance and success.

It all started with David Simington’s great-grandfather Joseph O’Brien, who was born in 1837 in Pennsylvania and was orphaned by age 9.

“From that young age until he enlisted in the Union Army in 1861, Joseph and his brother operated a canal boat,” Simington said.

The brothers worked on the Susquehanna Canal, transporting anthracite coal from Scranton, Pennsylvania, south to Baltimore, Maryland — a distance of about 200 miles.

In the fall of 1864, O’Brien’s Army regiment was ordered to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for guard duty. They were stationed there in April 1865 when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Armed with a gun and bayonet, O’Brien stood near the casket and helped control the crowds when Lincoln’s body lay in state in Independence Hall. He also served as a guard of honor when Lincoln’s remains were moved to the railway station, so Lincoln’s body could be returned to Illinois.

Following the Civil War, O’Brien, like many of his fellow veterans, also headed west. He farmed in Dane County, Wisconsin, near Madison. Here he met and married a local school teacher, Emily Ames.

By 1870, his thoughts turned again to the west.

Simington Heritage Farm

Established: 1870 Township: Summit Acres: 160

Heritage Farm Award: 2021

Generation: 5th

“Iowa was open for homesteading, and Civil War veterans were eligible to claim 160 acres,” Simington said.

“Joseph took the train to the end of the line in Algona and walked to Emmetsburg, where he hired a ‘locator’ who knew what land was available in the area.”

After taking a buggy ride with the locator to inspect the land and make his selection, O’Brien walked to the patent office in Sioux City to apply for his patent, Simington said. “The patent was the document that transferred ownership of the land from the United States to the homesteader.”

From 1870 and into the spring of 1871, O’Brien stayed with one of the other three men living in Summit Township and built a sod barn and a frame house.

“This was the first frame house built in Summit Township,” said Simington, who noted the lumber was hauled from Sibley, about 50 miles away.

No trees grew on the prairie, so the house was heated with a hayburning stove.

“The only fuel was the prairie

grass, and it had to be twisted into a rope-like shape to make it anywhere near suitable for fuel,” Simington said.

By June 1871, O’Brien returned to Wisconsin to bring his wife and their young son to northwest Iowa.

“When Emily saw her new home, she cried,” Simington said. “There was nothing else as far as she could see, no trees, no

neighbors, only miles of unbroken, uncompromising prairie.”

Homesteading in the 1870s was a matter of growing enough food to sustain the family and livestock through the winter. Until the railroad came to Spencer in 1878, there was no way to market any sizable quantities of farm produce. Mother Nature didn’t make it easy on the homesteaders. In

June 1873, massive grasshopper plagues destroyed the crops, including the potatoes.

Through it all, the homesteaders who stuck it out needed a way to educate their children.

From 1872 to 1879, Emily O’Brien taught classes in her home. The prairie grass grew so tall that in the fall, furrows were plowed from the homes with school-aged children to the O’Brien house so the students could find their way.

The O’Briens raised three children, all of whom graduated from Spencer High School (SHS), including their youngest daughter Gertrude (SHS Class of 1903), who would become Simington’s maternal grandmother.

“My dad, Wayne, graduated in 1933. I graduated in 1963, and all our kids graduated from Spencer High,” said Simington, who spent kindergarten through seventh grade at Summit No. 6, the country school one mile southwest of the family’s farm.

Not only did Simington always want to be a farmer, but he married a farm girl from the Milford area, Sharon Knudtson, in 1965. The couple can remember when 100 bushels of corn per acre was a good yield in the 1960s.

The story of the Simington family’s Heritage Farm is currently part of an exhibit of Clay County Century and Heritage Farms at the Clay County Heritage Center in Spencer. “We’re blessed to have a Heritage Farm, and it has been a blessing to spend time with our kids and grandkids on the farm,” said Sharon Simington. The couple’s children are also involved in agriculture, including their youngest son, Joseph, who is farming. “We have so many great memories here.”

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

DAVID AND SHARON SIMINGTON display their Heritage Farm Award, along with some mementoes from their family farm’s past.

By DOUG CLOUGH Farm News writer

SCHLESWIG — The Clausens of Morgan Township surely have something to celebrate with a 240-acre farm purchased by Andrew Clausen in 1920.

Andrew’s grandson Delbert Clausen, at 85, has been around for more than eight decades of its operation. Delbert farms the land with a corn and soybean rotation with his son Trent, 58, and grandson Hunter, 24.

In 1892, Andrew Clausen came to America from the Island of Fehmarn, Germany, eventually settling in Crawford County. In 1920, he purchased 240 acres of land for $340 per acre — a grand total of $81,600. Andrew and his wife Catherine had two daughters and five sons. One of their sons was Delbert’s father Paul; Paul with his wife Irene had two children, Delbert and Arlis.

Delbert Clausen with his late wife Frances (Hollander) has

CRAWFORD

owned this farm since 1999; they had three children, a son Trent and daughters Kim and Stephanie.

More than the price of the land has changed since Delbert’s grandfather purchased it in 1920.

The paperwork filled out on their Century Farm application states that the farm’s products are “corn and soybeans,” but the Clausens have a history rich in cattle production.

“Great-Grandpa Andrew fed cattle to go to Chicago,” said Trent Clausen. “The big deal was to go on the Blue-Ribbon Special before Thanksgiving weekend.”

Feeding cattle was the prestigeend of the farming and livestock business; the Schleswig Cattle Train became known as the BlueRibbon Special and had grown to 97 carloads on a regular basis, forming two trains.

“The train pulled into Schleswig

THE CLAUSENS are celebrating 102 years of ownership. From left to right are Hunter, Trent and Delbert Clausen. Delbert Clausen has spent more than eight decades on this farm.

on Monday,” said Delbert Clausen.

“Only the cattle train would come in, and they’d pull out that afternoon and be on the Wednesday market

in Chicago. It was all Schleswig cattle-feeders on that train.

“There was one time when they made 100 carloads of cattle, and

they brought more than the caboose in. The Pullman came also, so they were going first class.”

The first train to come into the area did so in 1899 — effectively creating the town of Schleswig — and the last train departed in 1957.

The Schleswig Calf Show Days celebration has also been a large part of the Clausen farm Experience.

The town festival originated in 1949, corresponding with the 50th anniversary of Schleswig.

“As a kid, we were assigned five calves in October,” said Trent Clausen. “You fed the five random calves. In September, we took the calves to town. You could kick the worst out of the five, and the other four would be judged by cattle buyers.”

On Saturday, there would be an auction to allow the participants to sell their stock; it was an event that Delbert Clausen participated in as

See CLAUSEN, Page 32C

HOME OF THE ORIGINAL

STOCK TANK

One Tough Animal

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough

By KRISTIN DANLEY-GREINER

Farm News writer

WOODWARD — For the longest time, Jenna McCarthy’s grandparents wanted to file the paperwork for their farm operation in Dallas County to be declared a century farm by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

So the 26-year-old Ames resident decided to help out her beloved grandparents, Alvin and Nancy Barclay, and start the process. Last summer, the family farm finally received its special designation.

“It was so exciting for us. It’s something my grandparents have wanted to do for a really long time, so I finally took the initiative to get the abstract and everything prepared and submitted. It was so cool to make it official, to signify that my family has been here for this many generations and we plan to stay here for several more,”

DALLAS

McCarthy said. Her great-great-greatgrandfather originally bought the farmland located at 15096 Bittersweet Road in Woodward. The farm started with 204 acres bought by the family in 1903 at a price of $3.75 without mineral rights per acre. Today it has 71 acres.

McCarthy’s great-greatgrandfather was the one who began farming it and built the homestead on the land. In fact, her grandparents still live in the family’s farmhouse today.

“They have hay ground that’s farmed, but not much else,” McCarthy said. “They rent the ground out now.

“My mom is the only living child of my grandparents, then it’s my brother and myself. It will come down to one of us to keep

MEMBERS OF THE MCCARTHY FAMILY receive the Century Farm Award at the 2022 Iowa State Fair. From left to right are Mike Naig, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture; Brian McCarthy, Jenna McCarthy, Joni (Barclay) McCarthy, and Brent Johnson, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation president. Not pictured are family members Al and Nancy Barclay, and Aaron McCarthy.

the farm going, but we don’t know which one of us will step up and

take over just yet.”

Up until 10 years ago, the

family raised black Angus cattle in addition to corn and soybeans. They had a hog operation there, too, before McCarthy was born. The farm’s main barn was built in the 1930s and other structures are from the 1980s.

“My parents also have a house on the same chunk of family farmland, so I grew up in the thick of the farming operation. It’s obviously not a large farm now and wasn’t a primary source of income, but we had so much fun growing up on the farm,” McCarthy said. “I had bottle lambs and bottle calves.”

One of her fondest memories happens to be popping by her grandparents’ farm to tackle her chores before school, mixing up the bottles for the lambs and calves.

“My grandpa taught me everything I needed to know. I think about that a lot,” she said.

See BARCLAY, Page 30C

-Submitted photo

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY Farm News writer

Like many kids who grew up in rural Iowa during the 1980s Farm Crisis, Cory Knudtson looked for career opportunities far from the Midwest, yet his family’s Dickinson County farm eventually drew him back to his northwest Iowa roots.

“All our family lives in this area, so my wife and I knew we wanted to come back to the Midwest someday,” said Knudtson, a 1991 Okoboji High School (OHS) graduate who earned his mechanical engineering degree at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. “We figured we’d probably end up in a city like Minneapolis.”

That made sense, since Knudtson worked in the spacecraft and engineering department of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where he designed satellites. After that, he

DICKINSON

Knudtson Heritage Farm

Established: 1872

Township: Okoboji

Township Acres: 80

Century Farm Award: Given in 2022

Generation: 7th

worked from 1996-97 at a startup company that designed electric cars. His wife, Karess (Eichman) Knudtson, who graduated from Okoboji High School in 1993, also began her career on the East Coast. After earning her degree

Knudtson family honors their Heritage Farm, restores native prairie

in environmental science at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia, she taught science at a private school in Virginia.

Things changed, however, when Polaris opened up a manufacturing plant in Spirit Lake, complete with a small design/engineering firm. The company hired Cory, and the Knudtsons moved to Milford in 2001. “We knew we wanted to raise our kids in the Midwest, so it was an easy decision to come home to Iowa,” Knudtson said.

A few years after they moved back, Knudtson’s Grandma Geneva was ready to move off the farm, so the young family had the opportunity to move there.

This farm had a lot to offer, from its unique location to its rich history. Knudtson’s great-greatgreat grandparents, Halver and Guro Knudtson, both Norwegian immigrants, purchased the 80-acre Okoboji Township farm in 1872 when Halver was 52 years old. “This is a beautiful place in the

-Submitted photo

WHEN THE KNUDTSON FAMILY hosted a party to honor the 150th anniversary of their Heritage Farm in Dickinson County’s Okoboji Township, more than 200 family members and friends showed up to help them celebrate on June 25, 2022.

Little Sioux River valley,” Knudtson said. “This area was always known for good fishing.”

Vintage photographs of the farm in the late 1800s show the farm

near the river, complete with a wooden-frame house, a white barn and a sod-roof shed. “My dad grew

See KNUDTSON, Page 28C

By DOUG CLOUGH

Farm News writer

ESTHERVILLE — For the late Marlys (Quastad) Landmesser, few things meant more to her growing up than her horses on her folks’ farm in the 1940s.

“Mom loved being in the barn with her horses, whether winter, spring, summer, fall — it didn’t matter,” said Marty (Landmesser) Brooks, the eldest of Dave and Marlys Landmesser’s six children.

“She wanted to be out with the horses and her dad, doing all the things that men were supposed to be doing. Girls were not supposed to be in the barn, in the field, or on horses; she was at odds with her mom quite a bit at that time. She was always in trouble because she would escape from the house and work beside her dad. She was very close to her dad and loved him a lot.”

Marlys, when old enough, left the farm, eventually dating Dave Landmesser, a young man from another farm family in the area.

EMMET

“Our dad went to Florida to join the Navy,” said Brooks, “so she followed him there. It took her eight years to convince him to marry her. He wanted to be a fighter pilot, and that was all he could think about.

Dad’s father wanted him to farm, and he was so angry when Dave left that he sold the farm, becoming a real estate agent in Estherville.”

Marty and her siblings, therefore, lived in Florida and California.

Marlys’ parents — John and Belle Quastad — were secondgeneration owners of the farm and a large part of Marty’s growing up.

“Every summer we’d spend two to three weeks in Iowa,” said Brooks.

“My mother loved Iowa best, so she made sure that we got to know our cousins and have time to play with them; there were over 20 of us, so we had a ball.

“We played in the corn cribs

and in the fields. We got in trouble for knocking down corn stalks. I thought a dredge ditch was a perfect river to go swimming in, and my aunt told me, ‘No, you can’t swim in that, it’s toxic!’

Ole and Martha Quastad, who came from Norway, established the farm in 1900. Their son John built the house, barn, and hog house and married his wife, Belle; these were Marlys’ parents and Marty’s grandparents.

“My Grandma Belle said that my mom would shimmy up the legs of their horses and hop on their back,” said Brooks. “She would grab hold of the mane and hoist herself up when she was 3 or 4 years old.”

John and Belle had an active farm where Marlys and her siblings thrived and, eventually, Marlys’ children would also play there during their summer visits.

“My grandparents had cows and two prized bulls,” said Brooks. “I

See QUASTAD, Page 30C

Marlys (Quastad)

Landmesser stands in front of the grain silo on the farm. The barn where her horses once resided is to the left. Marlys passed away on June 4, 2022, when she was 88.

-Submitted photo

Moore has fond memories of Heritage Farm

By CLAYTON RYE

Farm News writer

FRANKLIN COUNTY — Margaret Moore grew up as Margaret Kroll. Her parents were Jake Kroll and Esther Menning, who met in a most unconventional way.

As a young woman, Esther Menning was out on a tractor pulling a disc across the field. Her grandfather, Glen Menning, had a hired man named Jake Kroll. Esther Menning ran over her grandfather’s hired man, Jake Kroll, with the disc. Apparently, it was not too serious of an injury as they got married and became parents to two daughters, Margaret and Kathy.

Margaret Moore’s memories of life on the Heritage Farm ended at age 6 when her parents moved to another farm. Her grandparents lived there for another year or two and then moved to Hansel in Franklin County where they retired in the early 1950s.

Margaret Moore has a few memories prior to moving off the Heritage Farm. She remembers beef, hogs and chickens, along with a dairy cow for the family.

Knudtson

FRANKLIN

Moore Family Trust Farm

Year established: 1867

Year awarded: 2022

Township: Geneva

Acres: 168

Generation: 6

“I remember riding to the creamery,” said Margaret Moore. “That was a big deal.”

Canning the garden produce was important. “They had a big garden as long as they could,” said Margaret’s husband Bill.

Margaret Moore remembers her mother as being very frugal.

“I doubt if she threw anything away in her life,” she said.

The Heritage Farm had its beginnings in 1867 when John Jacob Marty, Margaret Moore’s

Continued from Page 26C

up in that old house, which never had indoor plumbing,” said Knudtson. He said the sidewalk that once connected the old house to the outhouse is still part of the property.

You can’t see a cornfield or soybean field today from the Knudtson’s house. Part of this is due to the land’s topography, and part of it is due to the way the Knudtson family manages their land. They’ve restored 40 acres to native prairie, plus their property includes timber, as well as pastures to supply hay for their four horses.

“My grandma started restoring the prairie in the early 2000s, and we did more

restoration work starting around 2005,” Knudtson said.

The family enjoys harvesting black walnuts each year from the trees on their land. The Knudtsons also like to hunt deer, turkeys and pheasants.

About four years ago, their kids (Liam, 19, and Aubry, 17) started an annual sledding party for their friends. Bonfires are a beloved tradition in the summer.

“It’s fun to see how the kids who live in town get so excited to stargaze when they’re out here,” Karess Knudtson said. “It's a privilege to be caretakers of these 80 acres.”

great-great-grandfather, purchased 168 acres in Franklin County.

When the Knudtson family hosted a party on June 25, 2022, to honor their Heritage Farm, more than 200 family members and friends showed up to help them celebrate. “We’re proud to carry on this legacy, and we continue to work to make this farm better,” Knudtson said.

PICTURED, FROM LEFT, are: Ken (born 1923), Freeman (1919), and Orville (1921) Knudtson on the family’s Dickinson County farm in the late 1920s or early 1930s.

Ownership then passed to his son, Henry Marty, followed by George Menning and then to his son, Glen Menning, Margaret Moore’s father. All 168 acres were owned by her grandfathers and father and remained in the family from the initial purchase in 1867.

Bill and Margaret Moore have been married 55 years and reside northwest of Mason City in the town of Plymouth where they raised their five children.

Margaret Moore ran a day care out of their home for over 30 years. In her last years, she was taking care of children whose parents were her charges years before.

Bill Moore spent many years employed by various railroads, starting with the Milwaukee Road for 12½ years, Chicago and Northwestern for 12 years, the Union Pacific, and finally for Iowa Northern Railroad for 12 years.

The Heritage Farm was farmed by Margaret Moore’s grandparents and parents until Margaret's parents moved to a nursing home. Today, it is farmed by her sister Kathy Oldenburger’s son-in-law, Kaleb Kloetzer.

-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye

BILL AND MARGARET MOORE are the owners of a Heritage Farm. Margaret Moore is holding the photo of her parents, Jake and Esther Kroll, who received the Century Farm Award in 1977.

Barclay

Continued from Page 25C

Now 86, McCarthy’s grandpa retired slowly as he didn’t want to give up farming. He loves to sit outside and fondly watch the animals that graze on the land they rent to neighbors, which includes horses, cows and sheep.

“He misses the good ol’ days. We all really like having the animals there,” McCarthy said. “My parents both worked off the farm and grandpa even had a fulltime job off the farm. I’m actually a graphic designer, but I believe living on the farm helped foster my love of art by giving me room to use my imagination.”

Part of the family’s farmland was sold to the government to become Cedarville and the timber that surrounds Saylorville Lake has been converted to government hunting ground and for use by the Saylorville project. “We haven’t figured out what the future looks like, but we know we want to keep it in the family as long as we possibly can,” McCarthy said.

was 5 and playing outside while my grandmother was napping,” said Brooks. “The cattle gate got left open and cows came and cornered me. I was frozen, screaming in a corner. Grandfather came and rescued me.” Brooks also recalls fetching brown eggs from the hen house.

Marlys’ parents were both gone in 1979, with John passing a decade before Belle. Donald and Omer — two of Marlys’ siblings — became the next generation farmers. Donald’s nickname was “Skip.” Skip’s home and farm was also a place where Marlys and her siblings would visit when back in Iowa.

“At Skip’s house, we had a corn chopper,” said Brooks, “and he asked us if we wanted to push corn in down from the sides with our bare feet. We got out of there fast, and I asked him, ‘What does it do?’

“‘Oh, it chops up the corn,’ said Uncle Skip.

“‘Well,’ I asked, ‘What would it do if my foot got in there?’

“’It would chop up your foot, too!’ he said.”

“For California kids, we didn’t know a lot,” said Brooks, “but we learned quite a bit.”

Marty’s mom Marlys continued to visit the farmhouse while Skip and Omer and then, eventually, her mom’s nephew Boyd Quastad

would farm; Boyd cash-rented the 154 acres.

Marlys, along with her siblings, had separate ownership of different farms later, with Marlys acquiring the barn as it was her connection to her horses and her dad. “Mom

always insisted that a Quastad farmed our land,” said Brooks. “Boyd’s son Jett Quastad was the last of our family to farm here. She would have been very pleased to know that it was a Quastad.” Marlys passed away in June of 2022.

“The farm always felt like home,” said Brooks. “The hen house is the only outbuilding left now.

The grain bin and large garage burned down, the latter by lightning. The house still stands though. There are five bedrooms and only one bathroom. We kids liked to stay upstairs with all the windows open to let the cool air in. There was no air conditioning of course. Jeff Quastad — my cousin — owns the house, and I’m very grateful that a Quastad still owns it.

“I remember capturing lightning bugs in canning jars. I would let mine go before they died. The sound of the corn popping when the tasseling happens. And the rainstorms when the lightning makes daylight at night; there has been no other place like it in my life.”

-Submitted photo

HERE IS A 1960 DECADE PHOTO of Marty's mother Marlys along with her siblings and their parents. In front, from left, is John and Belle Quastad. In back, from left, is Janet, Donald (Skip), Joan, Donna, Omer, and Marlys Quastad.

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY

Farm News writer

Sometimes little twists of fate open the door to big opportunities. Just ask Brad Wilson, who experienced this almost 20 years ago when he wanted to buy a 40.5-acre farm in Greene County that had been in his family since 1920.

“I purchased the farm in 2004 from my Grandmother Naomi Squibb’s estate after she passed in May 2003,” said Brad Wilson, president and general manager of Western Iowa Energy and Agron Bioenergy in Watsonville, Calif., both headquartered in Wall Lake. “Her estate wanted to sell that parcel, so I wrote the attorney and asked if I could purchase it at the appraised value. All of the beneficiaries agreed, and I felt lucky when the appraised value came back at $1,400 per acre for the timber and tillable ground.”

Wilson saw great potential for the property, which had long offered a prime location for hunting, fishing and mushroom gathering. He built a spacious house overlooking the river valley in 2008. While the tillable land had produced corn and soybeans for decades, Wilson incorporated more conservation practices.

“The tillable ground is seeded to cover crops for the next nine years. We used some pollinator-friendly plants, including various forms of milkweed, to help boost the monarch butterfly population,” said Wilson, who installed his Century Farm sign near his Monarch Refueling Station sign near the driveway.

Wilson’s land came into the family when his maternal great-great-grandparents, Robert and Jennie Squibb, purchased the farm on March 1, 1920. The land later passed to Harold and Naomi Squibb, Wilson’s greatgrandparents, before he purchased the farm.

“The land essentially skipped two

Clausen

-Submitted photo

THE WILSON FAMILY FARM received its Century Farm designation at the Iowa State Fair in 2022. In back, from left, are Mike Naig, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Kaleb Stier, Rex Wilson, Bradley Wilson and Caden Wilson. In front, from left, are Allyssa Vibbard, Viviana Stier, Virginia (Squibb) Wilson, Brandy Wilson, Tanner Tilley and Brent Johnson, president of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.

generations when I purchased the farm, since Naomi’s only living child did not wish to keep this 40-acre parcel on the west side of the highway,” Wilson said.

The chance to live in the country appealed to Wilson.

Although he had grown up in Paton, agriculture was always part of his life. When he was about 14, he custom-fed hogs for Murphy of Iowa, through his Uncle Roger at two different farms outside of Paton.

“I also worked for Howard and Harold Peterson of Dana, Iowa,” he said, “and would

Continued from Page 24C

well when he was in high school.

In 1979, Trent Clausen won grand champion with Black Baldies and, in 1976, his sister Kim won grand champion as well with Black Angus. “You drew a number which corresponded to the pen of five you were going to get,” said Trent Clausen. “One year, there we so many participants that there were 60 pens.”

During their high school years, the kids had to work their way up to the Black Angus and Black Baldies, starting with Herefords. The pen of five competition came to an end in the late 1980s.

“We quit feeding cattle hard in the early 1990s,” said Delbert Clausen. “There was a

GREENE

Iowa Energy.”

After completing his military service, Wilson moved back to Iowa and worked for Gardiner + Company, which specializes in auditing and accounting services for agribusiness and cooperatives. He later served as an internal auditor for West Central Cooperative before accepting the chief financial officer role at Western Iowa Energy. While at West Central, he completed the MBA program at Iowa State University.

“I was excited to move back to the Paton area and raise my four sons close to their grandparents,” said Wilson, whose parents are Rex and Virginia (Squibb) Wilson. “I also like living close to where my ancestors lived.”

That farmstead is located just east of Wilson’s property and is a Heritage Farm.

Wilson proposed to and married his wife, Brandy, on their Century Farm property in 2022. They have seven children between them and two grandchildren. They both look forward to spending quality time at the farm during holidays and special occasions with their children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren for decades to come.

ride my moped to do chores for them.”

After graduating from Paton-Churdan High School in 1989, Wilson served in the U.S. Air Force for 11 years. While stationed at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma, he completed an undergraduate degree in accounting at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) in 1998.

Wilson also wanted to study agriculture, but UCO didn’t have an ag program.

“My advisor told me to take the oil and gas minor,” Wilson said. “That turned out to be a good fit for my career with Western

time when we had up to 700 head of cattle. We had yearlings in September and fat cattle where Dad lived and then we had 500 light weights that came in from Montana in October.

“It was a lot of work putting feed in the silos and getting it back out. Dad would run the chopper, and I’d take the load home. My wife would be there, and she and I would rake it off into the blower into the silos, and then pick up another load. Frances worked hard, and we all did. I enjoyed all of it.”

Delbert’s daughter Kim resides on five acres of the original 240. Trent farms with his father, and his son Hunter also contributes to their farming efforts.

“Hopefully, someday one of them will want to continue the tradition here with owning this family property,” Wilson said. Honoring Iowa’s rural heritage and helping rural Iowa thrive are important to Wilson, who serves on the boards of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, the Iowa Biodiesel Board and California Advanced Biofuel Association. “I’m heavily involved in agriculture through renewable fuels, and having a Century Farm is huge to me. My family and I are proud to carry on this legacy.”

-Submitted photo ANDREW CLAUSEN, far left, stands with two of his brothers to his left and a group of cattlemen from the Schleswig area. This is in Chicago after a train ride on the Blue Ribbon Special out of Schleswig.

By LORI BERGLUND Farm News writer

There are farmers who have more acres, or bigger equipment, but the Carlsons that are so plentiful between Stratford and Stanhope are a family to be reckoned with when it comes to longevity and the family farming tradition.

Christian and Maria Carlson could never have imagined what they were starting back in 1867 when they purchased 40 acres of farmland in Marion Township near Stratford. Christian and Maria left Sweden to build a better life on the rich prairie sod of Iowa.

Their descendants must have liked it here, because so many of them are still here — and still farming.

The Carlson name appears on more century and heritage farms than almost any other name in Hamilton County. While the Johnson name appears the most, with 11 century or heritage farms, it’s not known how many of the different Johnson families are related.

With the Carlsons, it’s easier to trace.

If there is a family patriarch for the Christian Carlson family today, it is Keith Carlson of Stratford. He verified that all of the Hamilton County Carlson farms that have received either the century or heritage farm status can trace lineage back to Christian and Maria.

They include:

Wendell and Ruth Carlson, Stratford, Century Farm, 1977.

Roger and Vera Carlson, Stanhope, Century Farm, 1996.

Brad and Karleen Carlson, Jewell, Century Farm, 2013.

David Carlson, Stanhope, including siblings Ronda Nass, Steve Carlson, and Lori Hanson, Century Farm, 2015, and Heritage Farm, also 2015.

Doug and Sheila Carlson, Stratford; two tracts, one Century Farm in 2022, and a separate tract, Heritage Farm, also in 2022.

To clarify, not all of the Carlson farmland originated with Christian and Maria Carlson. Wives and mothers may have brought land into the different family branches, or it was acquired later by following generations, even through aunts and uncles.

One thing seems certain — descendants

HAMILTON

Maria Carlson was $7.50 per acre. Selling prices for Hamilton County farmland in 2022 ranged from $10,900 to $16,700 with an average of $13,949.

While that’s an impressive capital gain, the investment made by Christian and Maria did not just grow capital, it grew children, sent them to college, and brought many of them back to be a part of their community, their church, and the local schools. Locally owned farms contribute locally, and the Carlsons have always sought to be a part of their community.

Doug Carlson recalled Wendell Carlson as a good businessman, a kind farmer, and a person who cared about his neighbors.

“They were a very Christian-oriented family,” Doug Carlson said.

of Christian and Maria Carlson know how to keep a farm in the family. As awarded by the Iowa Farm Bureau and the Iowa Department of Agriculture, century farms have been in one family for at least 100 years. Heritage farms have been in one family for at least 150 years.

For the Carlsons, it has not always been easy, but they offer little doubt that it was always worth the effort.

“Sometimes I wish they (Christian and Maria) had come to better land because this land needs to be tiled so much to make it work,” said Keith Carlson.

Now retired, Keith Carlson has been a longtime and very active community organizer in Stratford. He not only farmed, he founded his own business, Agri-Education. Carlson was instrumental in the establishment of the popular Athens Woods Estate in Stratford. He started his career as a voc-ag teacher and later became a journalist, serving as the first editor of Monthly Farm News in the 1970s, the predecessor of today’s Farm News.

“I always did a lot of other things besides farming, because I learned that I couldn’t just farm; I also had to depend on myself,” he said.

Carlson’s son and daughter-in-law, Doug and Sheila Carlson, today own and operate the family farm near Stratford. They collected both Heritage and Century designations on two different tracts of land at the 2022 Iowa State Fair. The couple lives on the heritage farm, purchased in 1867 by Christian and Maria Carlson.

The work ethic the couple brought with them from Sweden more than a century and a half ago has been handed down through the generations. “My parents taught us to work hard, to try to be good neighbors, and give a helping hand when needed,” Doug Carlson said.

Doug’s parents, Keith and the late Martha Carlson, had one other son besides Doug, Michael Carlson, who passed away last summer. While Michael farmed for awhile, in later years his health did not allow him to work the farm.

This Heritage Farm tract was owned by Wendell and Ruth Carlson when it gained Century Farm status in 1977. At that time, Wendell Carlson noted on the application that the original price paid by Christian and

The Century Farm awarded to Doug and Sheila Carlson in 2022 actually came, not from the Carlson side, but from his mother’s side of the family, the late Martha Carlson.

Martha Carlson was the daughter of Clifford and Helen Carlstedt. This Century Farm originated from the maternal side, as Martha’s mother had been an Angstrom before marriage. Olof Angstrom, Doug Carlson’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, also came from Sweden and purchased 80 acres in Webster Township near Stratford in 1884.

The Carlsons, Doug noted, always had more family reunions than the Carlstedt/ Angstrom family, so he was able to get to know more of them a little bit better.

Keith Carlson looks back to previous generations and appreciates all that they taught him. “My grandfather (Theodore Carlson) taught me how to drive a tractor, even though my dad told me explicitly not to ever drive that tractor,” Keith Carlson recalled. “It was a Farmall B. Grandpa said, ‘Get up there, you’re old enough.’ I was about 9 years old.”

Today, things are a little different, but lasting lessons remain.

-Submitted photo

DOUG AND SHEILA CARLSON, along with Doug’s father Keith Carlson, are joined by many more family members for the presentation of Century and Heritage farm awards at the 2022 Iowa State Fair. At far left is Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, and at far right is Brent Johnson, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation president.

By CLAYTON RYE

Farm News writer

FOREST CITY — Lyle and Velma Jefson were parents of 14 children, eight girls and six boys, that spanned 19 years from oldest to youngest. Lyle Jefson passed away in 1994 and Velma in 2005.

The Jefson family enjoys storytelling, and family gatherings result in the making of new stories and the telling of old stories. The stories can be from long ago when John and Matilda Durant, who had 10 children, first bought the Century Farm in 1896.

John Durant, a soldier in the Civil War, was mustered out of the Army in 1865. In 1870, he moved to Iowa and lived on a farm, trading land until 1896 when he bought the Century Farm in Hancock County, just south of Forest City.

One of the Durant’s children was Seth Benjamin, also known as S.B. Over the course of his life, S.B. Durant was known

HANCOCK

Jefson Century Farm

Farm Name: Floyd and Vicky Jefson, Andy and Angela Jefson

Year established: 1896

Generation: 4

Township: Madison

Acres: 39.1

Year awarded: 2022

for many accomplishments. He became a certified teacher at age 17. He served in the Iowa state legislature and the family has the chair, given to him for his service, that he sat in when in session.

He helped bring the telephone system to that area and was active in many organizations. He had an arboretum where he planted different trees and bushes. He also sold insurance and would get on a bus to watch the girls basketball tournament from start to finish.

“He was kind of a character,” said Kirk Jefson, one of Lyle and Velma’s sons.

His wife Edith was also a teacher and memorable in her own right. The church she was attending only delivered the service in Swedish, which they believed was the only language they could use, and she did not understand Swedish so she started attending Calvary Baptist Church in Forest City.

“She was a strong woman of faith,” said Kirk Jefson. “She was a rock.”

S.B. Durant and Edith were parents to two daughters and adopted two brothers.

See JEFSON, Page 42C

-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye

FIVE OF LYLE AND VELMA JEFSON'S 14 CHILDREN are shown in this photo. In back, from left to right, are Paul Jefson, Floyd Jefson, and Kirk Jefson. In front, from left, are Judy Kuns and Elaine Meyer.

By LORI BERGLUND Farm News writer

McCALLSBURG — Kurtis

Mork comes from strong Norwegian stock. That strength has seen him through plenty of hard times on the family’s Hardin County farm.

“Farming was my whole life until I fell 18 feet and broke my back,” Mork recalled. “I fell from a light post.”

That was back in 2001 and Mork essentially retired early after the injury, but still carried on as best he could. Last December, his back was injured again in an auto accident where his vehicle was struck.

“It took me a year to get over it the first time, but I think I’ll recover faster this time,” he said with a strong dose of Norwegian optimism.

Mork describes a life in which few things came easy, but, in true Norwegian fashion, he never expected an easy life.

“Farming was always a challenge,” he said. “Every year was different.”

Family ancestors first purchased the Mork Century Farm on Highway S-27 near McCallsburg in 1921. Albert Mork, Kurtis Mork’s grandfather, paid the thenhefty sum of $126.87 per acre for 320 acres of farmland.

Albert Mork was born in Norway and looked forward to making a better future for generations of

his family here in Iowa. The farm would be passed on to Albert’s son Peter, known as P.J., and then to Peter’s wife Marie.

It was Kurtis Mork’s mother, Marie, who provided decades of leadership on the farm before passing it on to her son. She would become a single mother early in life and it would be son Kurtis who helped her maintain the family farm.

“I grew up on the farm and I was the youngest of five children,” Mork said. “I raised calves and did all the chores, but I didn’t have time for showing livestock at the fair or anything like that. I was doing the farming when I was a freshman in high school, so I was busy.”

Mork recalls his grandfather, Albert Mork, as a strong Norwegian influence in his life.

“Albert was the original owner of the farm; I remember him well,” Mork said. “He was a good old

See MORK, Page 40C

-Submitted photo

THE KURTIS MORK FAMILY accepts their Century Farm Award at the presentation ceremony at the 2022 Iowa State Fair.

KURTIS MORK Hardin County Century Farm owner

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY

Farm News writer

THOR — When Carrie (Hildahl) Olson was a teenager, life held so much promise. Carrie (1841-1921) had traveled from Norway to America with her parents, sister and brothers, who settled near Lee County, Illinois, in 1859.

Carrie married Ole Olson Espe in Illinois, and the couple had three sons. Sadly, Ole died, and Carrie was left to raise their three boys: Ole, 10; Martin, 8; and Albert, 6. In 1872, Carrie and her young sons moved to southern Humboldt County, Iowa, to start a new life.

“Carrie was about 30 years old by then,” said Mary Anderson, Carrie’s great-granddaughter. “After arriving in Humboldt County, she bought 160 acres of land in Norway Township for $6 an acre.”

By 1873, Carrie married a fellow Norwegian, Halvor Larson. She and Halvor had two daughters, starting in 1874, although one of the girls died in infancy in 1875.

Then Halvor Larson died in 1876, leaving Carrie a widow for a second time. Carrie had her faith to carry her through, however. Not long after arriving in the area that would become Thor, she invited other settlers to attend Lutheran church services in her home. This laid the foundation for what would become the Ullensvang Lutheran Church, which still serves the community and celebrated its 150th anniversary in August 2022.

Carrie’s land passed to her son Ole (a bachelor farmer) and later

HUMBOLDT

Olson Heritage Farm

Established: 1872

Township:

Norway Township

Acres: 160

Heritage Farm Award: 2022

Generation: 4th

to her son Albert.

“Albert was born in 1866 and didn’t marry until 1906, when he was 40 years old,” Anderson noted. “His wife, Margaret, was 30 when they married.”

The couple had five children, including three girls and twin boys, Johan (Anderson’s father) and Carl, who were born in 1909. “During the winter of 1909-1910, my grandparents often kept the boys covered in blankets in a box behind the cook-stove to help keep them warm,” Anderson said.

Anderson’s father and his twin started school in 1915 in an old country schoolhouse called “Central School” in Norway Township. They later attended school in Thor. “Because farms were so self-sufficient back then, my dad didn’t learn about money until he went to town school,” Anderson said.

While Johan and Carl had to drop out of high school around

1926 to help full-time on the family’s farm, Johan did keep an essay he wrote in high school. “I was born among the old, sturdy pioneers of Iowa,” he stated. “I’ve become acquainted with farm life and have always respected it.”

In 1942, Johan married Gertrude Peter, whom he met at a dance in Fort Dodge. “While my mom came from German heritage, we grew up eating the traditional Norwegian foods like lutefisk, lefse and lingonberries,” said Anderson, who has two brothers and a sister.

The Olsons farmed with Farmall and Minneapolis-Moline equipment, since there was a Minneapolis-Moline dealer in Thor. Livestock were also part of the farm, including hogs, beef cattle, sheep and chickens. “When I was about 11, Mom wanted 100 roosters, so that became my 4-H project,” said Anderson, who was a member of the Norway Patriots 4-H Club. “I ended up with 99, so that was pretty good.”

Anderson attended school through eighth grade in Thor.

“There were about 10 or 12 students in our class, and we got to go to Treloar’s restaurant in Fort Dodge after completing eighth grade,” said Anderson, a 1961 Eagle Grove High School graduate.

Anderson and her husband, Larry, a fellow Norway Township native, and their son, Mark, continue to farm their family’s Heritage Farm, which is a mile and a half southeast of Thor. “I liked growing up on the farm,” Anderson said. “We feel blessed to have this farm heritage.”

Laramie

Jeep Wrangler

Jeep Gladiator

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

MARY ANDERSON AND HER HUSBAND, LARRY, who both grew up in Norway Township near Thor, continue to farm in the Thor area. BELOW: The Olson Heritage Farm southeast of Thor has been in Mary Anderson’s family since 1872.

-Submitted photo

By DOUG CLOUGH

Farm News writer

HOLSTEIN — Carl Henry Kay came from Schwartbuck, Germany, in 1911. One of the first things he may have noticed is that Americans mispronounced his last name — a lot.

As a frame of reference, it’s pronounced like “guy” not like “day.” It’s a problem that Curtis Kay has learned to live with over the years, just like his father Herbert and grandfather Carl.

“I answer to either pronunciation,” said Kay. “Some of the Kays — we figure they are distant relation — moved on to Nebraska, changing their spelling to ‘Kai’.”

Carl Kay immigrated to this area because he grew up in the Schleswig-Holstein area of Northern Germany.

“When my grandpa and my dad would talk, it was always in German,” said Kay. “My grandfather knew very little English. He was the youngest of 11 children, and he came by himself. My grandmother, Carl’s wife Paula, came with her family from Germany, in 1914.

“Grandpa started out being a hired hand. In 1922, he had enough money to buy this farm. He came to America with only $25 in his pocket; he had to work on the ship scooping coal on the way over here to pay for his trip.”

Carl and Paula Kay had seven children, four girls and three boys. Herbert, one of the three boys, with his wife Joyce had five children, three girls and two boys, Curtis being one of the two.

Curtis married his wife Lana, and they have two daughters JoAnne, 38, and Melissa, 34.

Mork

Curtis and Lana farm the 160 century farm acres and other acres acquired later, now totaling 550. They also have Black Angus cattle with certified purebred bulls.

“We have 35 cows, feeding the calves out to market weight,” said Kay. “My dad had livestock for all but three years, and my grandfather had livestock as well. When Lana and I got married, we lived at the place to the north for seven years, but otherwise I’ve been here my whole life. Even when I lived over the hill, I was here every day working with Dad.”

Curtis’ dad Herbert had cattle and a farrow-to-finish operation.

“We had 30 sows then,” said Kay, “which was a big operation when you did everything by hand. We farrowed out in the pasture, and some of the pigs would even get in with the cattle. He had 20 to 30 feeder calves, which were also Black Angus. My grandpa Carl had a similar livestock operation.

“Dad said that soybeans weren’t part of the crop rotation when he was a kid. There was corn, oats, and a lot of red clover hay because, at that time, they didn’t have alfalfa. It took a lot of feed to farm with horses. We got two cuttings a year of red clover hay and the blooms would make the entire field red.”

Kay now grows corn, soybeans, and alfalfa for his cattle, selling alfalfa to area farmers.

By way of Curtis’ thinking, his father Herbert was a “lucky boy.”

“Dad was conservative, and he always saved everything,” said Kay. “He didn’t throw anything

Continued from Page 37C

Norwegian. He was a carpenter by trade and came to the United States back when there was a king of Norway. He fled there to come to the United States.”

Many fond memories were made when Mork’s mother would take him to visit his grandfather at the grandfather’s home near Garden City. “I would sit and listen to his stories,” Mork recalled. “He had a ’57 Chevy, but he never had a driver’s license.”

Mork credits his mother, Marie, with being strong enough to raise a family on her own.

away. When the 1980s came and others were going broke due to incredibly high interest rates, he had the money to buy land that came up for sale. Dad had a custom cornshelling business, which only made $45 to $80 a day, but he would always save that income.”

Herbert Kay passed away four years ago with nearly 700 acres of land. “Much of who I am came from my dad and grandpa,” said Kay. “They taught me how to work hard and save for a rainy day — those days always come.”

“Mom was the rock of the family,” he said. “My dad left in the 1960s and I kind of took over the farm for her. I was farming 240 acres, she had a couple thousand chickens, a garden, and we pretty much held the family together. It was right before my freshman year in high school.”

Over the decades to come, there would be better times, and still some hard times along the way.

“I raised corn, beans, cattle and hogs in the early years,” he recalled. “In 1976, a

-Submitted photos

ABOVE: “Up until Dad passed, we baled hay together,” said Curtis Kay. Herbert Kay is shown here driving the tractor while his son Curtis stacks the square bales.

LEFT: Curtis Kay was only 5 when this photo was taken during the 1960s with his dog Peanuts.

BELOW: First-generation land owner Carl Kay hand-picked this wagon of corn in the late 1920s. “My grandfather came from Germany to get away from its aggression to other parts of the world,” said Curtis Kay.

tornado took the barn, cattle shed, a few bins, and the machine shed. I rebuilt the machine shed and built a hog confinement.”

Mork said he stayed in the hog business until the Carter administration, and that was the end of the hogs.

A family member on his dad’s side is now farming the land for Mork. They raise corn, soybeans, and sometimes sweet corn. The last few years, the soybean ground has also been double-cropped to produce peas.

Like many farmers his age, he is looking

for ways to deed the land to his two children. His son, Doug, lives on the Century Farm. A daughter, Shari, lives in Wisconsin.

Mork’s significant other, Delaine, rounds out the family. She attended the Century Farm presentation at the Iowa State Fair with the entire family and celebrated the accomplishment of maintaining a family farm for 100 years.

It has not been an easy life on the farm, but strong Norwegians are always up for a challenge.

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With such a large family, they learned how to get the most out of a dollar. Floyd Jefson said when they went to McDonald’s they each got a hamburger, but had to share the package of french fries.

“We didn’t have everything, but had everything we wanted,” said Floyd Jefson.

The Jefsons are a close-knit family and as COVID began, they started keeping in touch using Zoom to keep in contact as a group. While COVID has subsided, the Zoom calls are held every two weeks. “We’re even closer now,” said Floyd Jefson.

The Jefsons hold a large family reunion every four years with attendance as high as 160 showing up out of a possible 180 scattered from Maryland to California. Thanksgiving is another favorite time when the family gathers.

“You always hear a story you never heard before,” said Lyle and Velma’s daughter Elaine Meyer.

The original house on the farm burned down in 1988. Velma Jefson saved everything from Cool Whip containers to egg cartons, according to the family. The fire started in the basement, accidentally, in three garbage bags of paper she had saved.

A new house was then built on the farm

and it is the home of Floyd’s son Andy Jefson and his family. Andy is the farmer and dairy man, milking up to 44 head in the barn. The barn has never been without livestock in its lifetime. The milk is sold to Prairie Farms of Davenport.

Floyd Jefson remembers as a boy when his dad would fill the hay mow with chopped hay that the boys would pitch down to the cattle. The boys would open an area in the

hay mow first so they would have access to the basketball hoop that hung there.

The Jefson kids remember their parents fondly and respectfully.

“He was a great dad and Mom was selfless,” said Kirk Jefson. “He was just in his punishment. We had it coming.”

“When Dad said, ‘No, sir,’ you knew you were done,” said Elaine Meyer.

“We all had chores to do before school,”

said Floyd Jefson.

“We didn’t miss much school,” added Paul Jefson.

Floyd remembered when there were five boys in one bedroom and a football got kicked out of the window, breaking the glass in both windows. When Lyle Jefson saw what happened, he did not get upset. He closed the heat register and as he closed the door in the unheated room with a broken window, said, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Saturday night bath time presented a dilemma for the Jefson kids. There was only one bathtub.

“We knew if we watched both ‘Gunsmoke’ and ‘Paladin,’ we’d get a cold bath,” said Kirk Jefson.

The Jefson kids remember that their friends wanted to visit them on the farm because there was always something going on. Playing hide-and-seek was a favorite game with the laundry chute being a great place to hide, although much caution was needed.

“Our guardian angels worked overtime,” said Paul Jefson. “We worked hard and played harder.”

“We learned to love and fight at the same time,” said Kyle Jefson who lives in Maryland.

-Submitted photo

THIS AERIAL VIEW of the Jefson Century Farm shows the original house that was destroyed in an accidental fire in 1988.

By CLAYTON RYE

Farn News writer

CORWITH — Rudolph Glawe

(pronounced with the German pronunciation, Glay-vee) arrived in the United States as a child from north of Berlin, Germany.

He lived near Appleton, Wis., where he was a wheelwright. He later moved to Illinois, and then to Corwith where there was a German population.

He purchased the farm that would become the Century Farm in 1919 for $143.75 an acre. The land around Corwith is flat and black.

“This was all swamp,” said George and Janice Guenther’s daughter, Sara.

Rudolph Glawe loaded tile from the tile plant in Corwith and hauled it to his farm where it was laid.

Sara Guenther said Rudolph Glawe hunted and trapped in the winter.

Rudolph Glawe was father to six children. His son Elmer was his second child, born in 1897. In 1929, Elmer bought another farm located across the road, north of the land his father bought. Janice Guenther is his daughter. It is on this second farm where his granddaughter Janice and her husband George Guenther live today.

Sara Guenther told that when Elmer would walk to country school, Elmer and Rudolph would pick corn by hand on the way to school with Rudolph picking on the return trip home. At the end of the school day, Rudolph would have picked corn on the way to the country school and Rudolph and Elmer would hand pick corn on the walk back home.

Rudolph Glawe worked hard and

KOSSUTH

Glawe/Guenther Century Farm

Farm Name: Guenther Farms Corp., George and Janice Guenther

Year established: 1919

Generation: 3

Township: Prairie

Acres: 160

Year awarded: 2022

expected his children to also work hard.

“Everyday he checked his kids to make sure they were working hard,” said Janice Guenther.

A census from that time identified Rudolph Glawe as having a fifthgrade education and Elmer Glawe having an eighth-grade education. His family says Elmer read the Bible from cover to cover several times.

“He wore out a Bible,” said Greg Guenther, George and Janice’s son.

“You couldn’t beat him at Chinese checkers,” said Sara Guenther.

Rudolph Glawe died suddenly at age 84 at home when his wife called him for supper and he didn’t come.

Elmer Glawe married Florence, who was working at the bank in Wesley when they met. Their daughter Janice has many memories of growing up on the farm.

“I was the son my dad never had,” she said. “I followed my dad around and took care of the animals. I liked the animals and wandered all over the whole place. I vaguely remember horses.”

George Guenther was a student at Iowa State and Janice Glawe was a student at Drake when they met at an Iowa State-Drake football game. They were married in 1959. They are parents to four daughters and a son.

The five Guenther kids remember the farm as a wonderful place to grow up.

“Us kids were like Mom. We were all over this place,” said Sara Guenther.

There were two houses on the farm. The George Guenther family lived in one and across the driveway lived the grandparents, Elmer and Florence Glawe.

Sara Guenther said the grandparents’ home was a place for the kids as they grew up.

But it was not all play for the kids. Walking beans was a family event, with Janice Guenther as crew chief.

When the kids were grown and gone, Janice Guenther walked the beans by herself and said she didn’t mind it because she didn’t have to listen to the complaining.

Elmer Glawe died at age 99. George and Janice Guenther continue to live in the home on the farm where they raised their family.

-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye

JANICE AND GEORGE GUENTHER sit on the large rock in the yard on their home place with the field behind them, which is the Century Farm. Behind them, from left to right, are their son-in-law Bob Christian, daughter Sara Guenther and son Greg Guenther.

-Submitted photo

LEFT: George Guenther paired a Case DC with a MinneapolisMoline UB to make a fourwheel drive tractor.

KNOBLOCH’S GREENHOUSE is the dream of Myron and his late wife Beth, a partner whose shoes seem impossible to fill. “In 2015, we lost Beth to a battle with brain cancer,” said Knobloch. “Our store’s setup and design were all started by Beth, and we still follow her principles of great store signage and visibility.”

By DOUG CLOUGH Farm News writer

ALVORD — Walt Disney said, “Progress is not possible without change.”

Myron Knobloch embodies that spirit, as well as the heart of his kids, wife Beth, uncle, grandfather, and great-grandfather.

“My wife and I have five kids,” said Knobloch. “Laura, Brett, Clark, Amy, and Darin. All three boys are in the business. Amy helps on weekends. Laura is in Michigan and very involved with advertising, signage, online presence ... all that kind of stuff.”

And where there is advertising, there must be an enterprise.

In this case, the enterprise is Knobloch’s Greenhouse. It’s the dream of Myron and his late wife Beth, a partner whose shoes seem impossible to fill; the family does their best to honor her legacy, and

her fingerprints are all over the greenhouse.

“In 2015, we lost Beth to a battle with brain cancer,” said Knobloch. “Our store’s setup and design were all started by Beth, and we still follow her principles of great store signage and visibility.”

Walking through the spacious greenhouse, you get a sense of her organization and marketing prowess.

There were many years when the farmer on this land grew traditional crops.

“My Uncle Carl was a bachelor with no children, so he wanted one of his brother’s kids to have this farm,” said Knobloch. “I was just 20 years old at the time and wasn’t sure if I wanted that kind of

obligation. I was born and raised on my father’s farm, so it wasn’t entirely new to me; my folks, Ezra and Marie, had cattle, hogs, chickens, corn, and beans.”

Myron’s Grandpa Ernst and Grandmother Caroline built their house on the land that Myron owns now and where the greenhouse resides. “I was only 18 when Grandpa died,” said Knobloch, “and history wasn’t such a big deal to me then. Now, of course, I’d like to ask him all kinds of questions about our farm’s history.

“I didn’t realize the similarities we had in life. Grandpa had a strong interest in horticulture. Uncle Carl had an interest as well. Grandpa lost his first wife when he was 47. I wish I had known him better.”

Knobloch’s great-grandfather

See KNOBLOCH, Page 65C

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough

‘Grandpa wouldn’t be surprised by what we’re doing here today’

THE DETERMAN FAMILY had T-shirts made for the occasion when their two farms received the Century and Heritage Farm Awards, respectively, at the 2022 Iowa State Fair. Pictured, from left, are Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, Rafe McClain, Desiree Determan McClain, Gordon Determan, Tammy Determan, Charles Determan, Adrienne Determan, Nora Determan Burkgren, Denise Determan, Duane Determan and Brent Johnson, president of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.

By KRISTIN DANLEY-GREINER

Farm News writer

HAVERHILL — As the fifth generation to live on his family’s Marshall County farm, producer Duane Determan was thrilled to have their two separate farms be recognized in the same year as both Century and Heritage Farms.

Determan’s family farm at 2849 Newby Ave. in Haverhill was honored as a Heritage Farm in 2022 at the Iowa State Fair while the family farm at 2776 Newby Ave. in Haverhill was recognized in 2022 as a Century Farm.

“It was a pretty big deal. The families all got together, we had T-shirts made and people I didn’t think would be interested were really excited, especially about the heritage farm honor,” Determan said.

His paternal great-grandparents on his grandfather’s side bought the Heritage Farm in 1871, which is where Determan lives now. The

MARSHALL

farm owned first by John Vernard Determan and Mary Spiker Determan originally had 120 acres; it currently has 168 acres.

“My great-grandfather came first and then brought his family with him, including his own father and mother. They came when they were in their 60s,” Determan said.

Determan’s great-grandparents on his dad’s mother’s side bought the century farm in 1890. It started with 160 acres originally owned by John Stalzer and Anna Westendorf, then grew to its current size of 233.98 acres. His great-grandparents hailed from Vienna, Austria, and Dubuque County, Iowa.

“The Determans came to the Haverhill area 10 years before the railroad came through, which plotted the town of Haverhill as a train stop,” Determan said.

Growing up, Determan helped feed the family’s chickens and gathered the eggs as a youngster.

As he got older, he advanced to cleaning hog sheds and feeding cattle. Eventually he transitioned to planting and harvesting row crops.

“I worked off the farm and am the first generation in our family that didn’t receive primary income off the farm like my parents, grandparents and greatgrandparents did. I always had a job in town,” Determan said.

Currently, the farm ground is rented out, but Determan still tends to the CRP land that was established during the 1980s during the farm crisis.

“It was tough in the ’80s,” he said. “But we still hung on to the family farm. My dad passed away in ’86 and that was a really tough time.”

Although he’s retired now,

See DETERMAN, Page 76C

-Submitted photo

By DOUG CLOUGH

Farm News writer

HARTLEY — Across from the Covey Church of Grant Township in O’Brien County is the land settled and farmed by Alexander McCreath, originally from Ireland.

“Alex was born in 1857,” said Jon McCreath, son of current owner — his mother, Sharon McCreath (pronounced like “breath”).

“He was born in Ballymoney, Ireland, County Wexford, south of Dublin. Alex, my great-grandfather, had two brothers and five sisters. The family moved to Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1861 and then moved to America — Cook County in Illinois, the Chicago area. Alex was 7 years old when the family settled in the Chicago area in 1864.”

Eventually, Alex McCreath found himself just west of Cedar Rapids in the Traer area, marrying Agnes Brown in April of 1884 when he was 27 years old. “Two months prior to that is when he

O'BRIEN

purchased his 160 acres, a quarter section of land, from Rowena Edwards,” said McCreath.

“Alex paid $26.87 an acre for this land that’s across from the 1874-constructed church, which is still there today.”

The Covey Church had only been built 10 years when the firstgeneration McCreath purchased the land. Several Civil War veterans are buried at the cemetery there, and there is even a veteran of the Spanish-American War resting at the site. The first post office in the area was located just a mile west; established in August of 1875, it was served by a stagecoach that carried mail, freight, and passengers from Primghar to Spencer once a week.

See

McCREATH, Page 76C

HANDING DOWN A LEGACY

ALEX MCCREATH was first generation owner of the 139-year-old McCreath farm. He's pictured here around 1915.

JIM MCCREATH, pictured here, is the secondgeneration owner of the land with his sister Agnes.

JAMES MCCREATH, pictured here with his wife Sharon, the current land owner, went by his middle name George.

By DOUG CLOUGH Farm News writer

ASHTON — When John Streit was in his teens during the 1970s, he began his day by feeding the farm family’s heifers silage.

“By that time, we didn’t have cows, so I would be the one — after Dad woke me up — to feed the heifers while he took care of the pigs,” said Streit. “I was usually done before he was, so I would make breakfast.

“By the time I was 14, Dad would trust me to cultivate corn or run the rotary hoe through the fields. If it was bean-walking time, the family would go out and make a few rounds in the morning. In the afternoon, we'd return to the bean fields until it was time to do chores. Not too many times did we have to work after supper, but we all understood if that happened, it was part of the deal.”

Streit lived on the farm from 1964 until he graduated from high school in 1976; prior to 1964,

OSCEOLA

the family lived on a farm east of Ashton that his father was renting. Streit, however, considered the century farm his home until 1980 when he graduated from Iowa State University. After graduating, he moved to Kansas City, but his roots remained on the farm.

“I applied for a Heritage Farm as I have a lot of respect for my dad and the whole farming life,” said Streit. “So much seems to have changed in farming. Dad maintained the whole concept. There's a lot of family connections that make it special to all of us. It’s the family anchor.”

First-generation landowner, John Streit — “Johann” his given name in Prussia — was son of Michael and Helena Streit, and he was 13 years old when he immigrated with his family to the United States from Prussia. When

he was 27 years old, John came to Osceola County. In 1871, he broke up 30 acres of raw prairie land northwest of Ashton and planted his first crop on the homestead parcel that is still owned by the Streit family today.

In 1876, John married Anna Marie Becker, who had also

immigrated from Prussia. John and Anna Marie Streit had seven children: Mike, Lena, Anna, Nicholas, Mary, George, and Tony. Over the years, John plowed the rest of the 93 original acres and purchased other adjacent farmland until he owned and farmed 346 acres.

-Submitted photo

"FOR THE KIDS, it was hard for us to buy gifts for Mom and Dad," said John Streit. "This monument to the farm was an easy choice because they had such pride in the farm. The rock sets on the northeast corner of the parcel that we still own." The Streit Century Farm sign has now been replaced with the Heritage Farm sign.

When John Streit retired, his sons Mike and Tony took over the farming operation. Tony married Mary Staudacher in 1918. They had nine children: Marian, Donald, Robert, Anthony, Leonard, Paul, James, Kathleen and Betty. Mike never married but lived with Tony and Mary’s family.

John’s original homestead

See STREIT, Page 78C

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY Farm News writer

When you gaze out the window in David and Ruth (Nolan) Rouse’s home overlooking Five Island Lake, you can almost imagine the Native Americans who frequently passed through this area in the 1850s. The land, which is part of the Nolan-Rouse family’s Heritage Farm, reflects the unique history that defines this part of Emmetsburg and northwest Iowa.

“John and Bridget Nolan moved here in 1856 and intended to own property through the Homestead Act,” said David Rouse, referring to his wife, Ruth’s, greatgrandparents.

The lake (which was known as Medium Lake long before it was renamed Five Island Lake) was appealing to the Nolans, since it provided abundant fish and wildlife to help supplement the family’s diet.

Thanks to the many oak and walnut trees in the area, timber was readily available for cooking, heating and constructing buildings.

Although the Nolans lived on the property and improved it, as required by the Homestead Act of 1862, delays caused by the Civil War, the assassination of President Lincoln and their aftermath meant the Nolans didn’t receive the deed (signed by President Ulysses S. Grant) until 1871.

Like many early settlers who came to this area (which would become Emmetsburg by the mid1870s), the Nolans were Irish.

“The Nolan farmstead and family home were always a warm, welcoming place to the large, extended Nolan family in the area, as well as the entire Emmetsburg

PALO ALTO

Nolan-Rouse Heritage Farm

Established: 1871 Township: Freedom Township Acres: 146 acres originally; now 81.69 acres

Heritage Farm Award: 2022

community,” according to a written family history.

Native Americans would stop at the farm for food. Other settlers also frequented the Nolan’s home. “The first post office in Emmetsburg consisted of a milk can located on the Nolan farm,” David Rouse said. “Local residents would come by from time to time, sort through the letters, and take the ones addressed to them.”

John and Bridget Nolan passed the land onto their son, P.C. (Charles) Nolan and his wife, Alice. Then the land went to their son, John F. Nolan and his wife, Ellen. Their daughter Ruth was born on the farm in 1933.

“My grandpa was the farmer,” said Ruth (Nolan) Rouse, who remembers him planting corn with horses. “My dad ran a clothing store in Emmetsburg, although he sold that during the Great Depression to help pay off debt on the farm. Then he started

farming.”

Ruth’s mother was a teacher, and she wanted all seven of her children to go to college.

Ruth, a 1951 Emmetsburg High School graduate, took advantage of this opportunity and also became an educator. During her career, she taught various grade-

school classes in Pocahontas, Algona, Emmetsburg, as well as Wilburton, Oklahoma (where her husband, David Rouse, was a bank president).

In 1966, Ruth had married David, who had grown up on a Palo Alto County farm near Ayrshire. David’s banking career took them from Iowa to Oklahoma in 1987, where they lived for 15 years.

They knew they wanted to return to Iowa someday, however. They

purchased the majority of Ruth’s family’s original farm in 1995.

“We wanted to build our retirement home on the west shore of Five Island Lake,” David Rouse said. The balance of the shoreline was transformed into a housing development where the primary street is named Nolan Drive. “Our family, including our daughter, Anita, wanted to keep Ruth’s family’s name as part of Emmetsburg’s history and honor her ancestors,” David Rouse said.

-Submitted photo

ABOVE: The Heritage Farm is important to David and Ruth Rouse's family.

LEFT: A large, engraved stone at Nolan-Rouse Park notes that the area was originally part of the farm that John and Bridget Nolan homesteaded near Emmetsburg.

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

WHEEL LOADERS / BACKHOES / SKID-LOADERS / COMPACT LOADERS / TRACTOR / TELEHANDLERS

By DOUG CLOUGH Farm News writer

HINTON — To appreciate immigrants’ contribution to American farming, you don’t have to look any further than Mark and Kaye Held’s Plymouth County Century Farm. The Held brothers, six in all, whose father Philip came from Darmstadt, Germany, raised shorthorn cattle, Poland China hogs, German coach horses, Shropshire sheep, and Barred Plymouth Rock chickens.

They also farmed 2,200 Plymouth County acres of land with horses, which was most likely one of the largest farms in the area.

In the 1930s, the brothers agreed to operate independently, and one of the six — Benjamin Franklin (B.F.) — moved south of Hinton to the farm where his grandson Mark, 68, lives today with his wife Kaye, 66. B.F. Held continued raising shorthorns, but his son Howard, Mark’s father, had other ideas. One day Howard brought home a few Angus cows, which were much smaller animals in the 1940s.

“His dad said, 'What are you going to do with those little black cows?" Mark Held said.

Howard's “little black cows” are a tale of big things starting off small. He experimented with his Angus herd, which grew larger, as well as more sale and show worthy. “Dad said he was married to his cattle first and his wife

PLYMOUTH

second,” said Mark Held. “He was at the Chicago International Stock Show exhibiting his shorthorn steers from 1940 into the ‘60s; in 1964, he showed the top Angus — and was never home for Thanksgiving turkey for those 20-plus years. During the winter, he went to the Houston and Ft. Worth shows. In the summertime, he hit all the county and state fairs.”

Howard, Mark, and his brother, Dick, sold their breeding bulls and replacement females from their farm and sale barns from 19792017. At one time, Mark was selling 30 bulls each year, which were the best of the 130 cows and five bulls in his Angus herd.

“Angus, with each generation, grade faster,” said Held. “We liked them for their easy calving ability. Our first sale was at Sioux Center at the sale barn, and then we went to the Stockyards for a couple years, and then Bleil & Chapmans Livestock Auction between Kingsley and Moville.

“The final three sales we had on the farm. I decided to end our cattle business in 2020 after 80 years, since the profit for the cost of raising a 2-year-old bull just wasn’t there. My brother had passed away, and our son Ben went to college. Everything gets harder as you get older, so

kneeling to pick up a calf, or to help with calving just got to be too much for one person.”

B.F., Howard, and Mark also sold Chester White boars under the name of B.F. Held & Sons; Chester Whites are a breed of pig that originated in Pennsylvania.

“The strengths of the Chester

White breed are mothering ability, durability, and muscle quality,” said Held.

B.F. Held exhibited his sows also, winning a champion sow award in 1954 at the Spencer Fair.

The Helds also have 800 acres of crops — a corn and soybean rotation, 640 acres since 1922

and another 160 acres purchased when an uncle passed away. There were also 130 acres of pasture.

“With 200 head of cattle, it didn’t take long for that to get eaten up,” said Held, “so we had to supplement.”

Before B.F. Held & Sons’ Angus, and Chester Whites, came the early 1900s Held Brothers’ Coach Horses when they were still operating the Mondamin Stock Farm. The brothers imported German Coach horses. Mark has a “German Hanoverian and Oldenburg Coach Horse Association of America” document framed that certifies a horse foaled in 1914. These horses, as the name suggests, are bred to be strong and heavily built, so they can draw a coach — a very important breed prior to the popularization of the automobile. It’s the humble beginnings of a German immigrant family that matched the needs of the times.

Mark and Kaye’s son, Ben, 36, is a track coach at Minnesota State University in Mankato, and their daughter Danica, 39, is a

the Hinton

“I was honest with Ben about the pros and cons of farming,” said Held. “Although farmers are their own bosses, they can't quit early or take off on weekends when cows are calving, and fieldwork waits. The financial incentives aren't there anymore.”

counselor in

Community School District.

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough

MARK AND KAYE HELD are the fourth-generation owners of the Plymouth Century Farm just south of Hinton on U.S. Highway 75. The Helds have many photos and artifacts from the time Mark's grandfather Benjamin Franklin Held bought land and livestock.

-Submitted photos

LEFT: Mark's father Howard Held, far right, is presented with his trophy for Champion Shorthorn and Reserve Champion of Show at the Sioux Falls Farm Show sometime during the 1950s. "I used to joke with my dad that he was leaning in for a kiss from the fair queen," said Mark Held.

RIGHT: Before Mark Held's Century Farm was purchased, it was part of the larger Held Brother's Mondamin Stock Farm. The six brothers are pictured in this advertisement; from left to right are Fred, Walter, Ben, Albert, Ed, Elmer, and Phil Held. Phil was the firstgeneration owner of Mark's Century Farm, buying 640 of the 2,200 acres the six brothers had accumulated.

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY Farm News writer

Imagine walking from Des Moines to Pocahontas County. That’s how Dianne (Lundeen) Oswald’s great-grandfather John O. Johnson began his journey to own farmland in northwest Iowa more than 130 years ago.

“In the late 1800s, my greatgrandfather John O. Johnson came from Sweden, arrived in New York City and traveled to Des Moines,” said Oswald, whose family owns a Century Farm in Bellville Township in Pocahontas County. “He walked all the way from Des Moines to Pocahontas County with a couple other fellas.”

One of Oswald’s oldest cousins visited with Johnson’s daughter Jennie (Johnson) Lundeen and documented this history about the John O. and Christina Johnson family.

“They walked from Des Moines to Pocahontas County carrying all they owned to the land office, there being offered the parcels of land to purchase, clear and someday be able to farm,” Oswald said. “The notes were sketchy and brief but quite emotional for me.”

Johnson and his companions proceeded to cut timber to clear a spot where they could build a sod house on each man’s property.

“Great-Grandpa Johnson cut trees to build make-shift tables and chairs and a place to sleep,” Oswald said.

Johnson’s sod home in Pocahontas County served its purpose until he could generate enough income by working as a carpenter building homes for others until he could build his own frame house when he married Oswald’s Great-Grandma Christina.

Upon their death, the Johnsons passed down their land, including the 80 acres that would eventually become the Century Farm, to their daughter, Jennie (Johnson) Lundeen and additional land to her sibling brothers and sisters. Through the years, various family members sold the other parcels.

“My father, Laurence Lundeen, farmed the bare 80-acre Century Farm,” said Oswald, who noted

POCAHONTAS Oswald Century Farm

Established: 1890

Township: Bellville Township

Acres: 170.8 (originally); 80 acres today

Century Farm Award: Given in 2022

Generation: 5th generation farm

that the farm had never had a farmstead. “When Grandma Jennie passed away in 1959, my father purchased the 80 acres from his siblings and began improving the land by tiling and fencing the property.”

In 1985, Oswald, her husband, Dan, and their family moved to Osceola to partner with their family on land purchased in the mid-1970s. This land was a grass and pasture farm, which was much more conducive to cow-calf operations.

“We’ve lived here for 38 years now and raised our four children here, our daughter Lisa Oswald Lueders and our sons Brian Oswald, Jon Oswald and James (Jamie) Oswald.”

The Oswald sons are die-hard cow-calf producers who have separate operations in Clarke County. Brian and Mindy Oswald own High Point Genetics and hold an annual auction at the Oswald farm in an historic barn built in the 1930s by an Osceola doctor, C.R. Harken, who was also a cattleman and friend of J.C. Penney, the famous retailer.

Jon and Amanda Oswald own Split Creek Cattle and sell stock year-round through private treaty sales and online. Jamie and Tiffany Oswald own Oswald Family Farm and hold an annual private treaty bull sale.

“Combined, their sales

are well over 200 head of Angus, Simmental-Angus, and Simmental bulls annually,” Oswald said. “Also, the twins, Jon and Jamie, sell delicious Angus grill-ready beef processed by the best processing locker companies

ABOVE: Pictured, left to right, are: Iowa Secretary of Ag Mike Naig, Brian Oswald, Seth Oswald, Tiffany Oswald, Jamie Oswald, Dianne Oswald, Jim Lueders and Iowa Farm Bureau Federation President Brent Johnson. In the front row is Lisa Oswald Lueders.

LEFT: Jennie (Johnson) Lundeen (front row, center), is shown here with her family, including her son Laurence (front row, left). Laurence passed the Century Farm land to his daughter, Dianne (Lundeen) Oswald, whose family raises cattle in southern Iowa.

around.”

Though the family’s farming operations are based in southern Iowa, Oswald’s Century Farm in Pocahontas County still holds deep meaning for her. “I’ve done nothing to deserve inheriting these

80 acres, so it's very humbling to be the only blood relative of my great-grandfather John O. Johnson to still own this parcel,” Oswald said. “It makes me teary, to say the least.”

-Submitted photo

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

By KRISTIN DANLEY-GREINER Farm News writer

After Robyn Snyder Engstrom’s great-great-grandfather fought in the Civil War, he bought farm ground in the Cambridge area that has remained in the family since 1871.

Located at 16120 N.W. 29th St., the farm has been recognized as both a Century Farm and a Heritage Farm.

“My grandfather had applied for the Century Farm status, and I wanted to make sure we received Heritage Farm status, too,” Snyder Engstrom said. “It’s been an honor, especially for my mom, who was able to be present at the ceremony during the Iowa State Fair. My dad used to hire a lot of Iowa State students to help work on the farm and they’d stay on the farm. A couple of those guys came and stood in for my brother who had COVID and had to miss the ceremony.”

Growing up on the family farm with her parents and siblings, Snyder Engstrom shared that part of the 320-acre farm was lost during the Depression, but her maternal grandfather bought the 75 acres of land back. The family farmhouse was built in the early 1870s and multiple generations lived there.

“When I was little, my greatgrandparents lived in the big farmhouse and we lived in a smaller farmhouse on the same land. Then later on we moved into the big farmhouse.

“We had lots of horses and my great-grandfather imported Percherons from France that he showed at the Iowa State Fair. He

POLK

had several champions,” Snyder Engstrom said. “Lore is that he sold one to JC Penney.”

The farmhouse didn’t have electricity or indoor plumbing until after World War II in 1946.

Snyder Engstrom’s mom, who is 92, still lives there and spring cleans every year.

“The farm had cattle and hogs plus crops, but right now there’s no livestock on the farm. One brother bought land a quartermile from the main family farm

and he lives there while my other brother is a mile down the road on his own acreage. I’m 2.5 miles away. One brother still farms the land while my nephew moved onto the farm a couple years ago and lives in a third house on the farm. He’ll follow the tradition and farm,” Snyder Engstrom said. “We have 500 acres now with 435 tillable.”

Tradition is strong for the Snyder family — they’ve hosted a Norwegian lutefisk and lefse

dinner every year since 1971, although the meal was modified during the 2020 global pandemic.

“I remember walking beans as a child. Dad would get us up early, like 5 a.m., to drive the hogs and walk the beans. I never had to detassel the corn though,” Snyder Engstrom said.

“My brothers had the brunt of baling hay and driving tractors. They’d plant six rows or whatever on the side of the road of sweet corn and I remember my great-

grandfather, my dad and my brothers would go out and pick up loads of sweet corn. They’d sit outside and shuck it while the women would stay in the hot kitchen and can it.”

She also recollects her relatives’ huge gardens and canning with her great-grandmother using zinc lids.

“We have so many incredible memories growing up on the farm,” Snyder Engstrom said.

“The summer after she graduated from high school, my granddaughter Jade Engstrom from North Carolina came to work on the farm and pollinated corn for Monsanto. That makes seven generations that have lived and worked on the farm.”

-Submitted photo

ROBYN SNYDER ENGSTROM, Shirley Nelson Snyder, Lee Snyder and Mike Snyder stand with their Heritage Farm Award, which they received at the 2022 Iowa State Fair. The family farm has achieved both Century and Heritage Farm status.

“It’s been an honor (to receive Heritage Farm status), especially for my mom, who was able to be present at the ceremony during the Iowa State Fair.”

ROBYN SNYDER ENGSTROM Heritage Farm owner

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY Farm News writer

WALL LAKE — When Jack and Carol Nuetzman’s ancestors purchased land in Sac County, this region was the frontier of western Iowa.

One of these farms came into the family in 1879, when Carol’s great-grandfather, George H. Wade, purchased 80 acres of land from the Iowa Railroad Land Company for $528. “This was wild, untilled land,” said Carol Nuetzman, 87, who noted that her great-grandfather lived in Clinton County, Iowa. His son Charles Wade moved to the Clinton Township farm in the late 1800s.

When Charles built a new barn on the farm in 1900, the north third was designed for horses, the middle area accommodated hay storage, and the south side housed dairy cows. There were many new beginnings for the family at this time, said Nuetzman, whose father, Ralph, was born on the farm in 1898.

When Ralph was a young man, he married a fellow Sac County native, Iola Jemima Paul (19031997) from Odebolt. Ralph and Iola raised their two sons and youngest child, Carol, on the farm. “I was my daddy’s buddy,” she said. “I loved horses and drove the team that we used to put loose hay in the haymow.”

There were plenty of chores to keep Nuetzman busy, from caring for the chickens to feeding the calves to helping milk 10 to 12 dairy cows. Carol loved the barn cats and her St. Bernard dog, Princess. “Whenever I did chores, Princess was right there with me,” Nuetzman said.

Nuetzman remembers her dad butchering hogs and pulling up the

carcasses with a block and tackle in the corn crib so he could cut the meat. She also recalls how students from the nearby country school, would come to her family’s farm to pump water from the well, since the school had no running water.

Music was another key part of daily life for Nuetzman. “I still have the 1912 piano I learned to play as a girl,” said Nuetzman, who accompanied vocal soloists at Wall Lake High School, where she graduated in 1953.

Carol’s husband, Jack, grew up on a farm near the Wade family’s farm. After he and Carol started dating, they married in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1956, when Jack was serving in the U.S. Air Force. The young couple moved back to Sac County to the Nuetzman farm in January 1958. They managed a 25-head dairy herd and stayed in the dairy business for 20 years. The couple also raised their four children on the farm, including Steve, Randy, Danny and Debbie.

The Nuetzmans purchased their south 80-acre farm in the 1980s. “Interest rates soared to 24% and 25% during the 1980s Farm Crisis,” said Jack Nuetzman, who continued to farm and also took a second job at Cookies Food Products in Wall Lake, where he worked for 31 years. The Nuetzmans converted their barn for hog production, said Carol Nuetzman, who handled the hog chores and an off-farm job at Twilight Acres (the nursing home in Wall Lake), where she worked for 52 years. “There were many sleepless nights back then, but we made it through,” she said.

The Nuetzmans were able to keep both of their Century Farms, including their Century Farm in Clinton Township from Jack

SAC

Nuetzman Century Farm 1

Established: 1879

Township: Clinton Township Acres: 160 Century Farm Award: 1985

Generation: 5th

Nuetzman Century Farm 2

ABOVE: Jack and Carol Nuetzman, who live on their farm near Wall Lake, have two Century Farms in their family.

-Submitted photo

LEFT: Four generations of the Nuetzman family are shown in this 1933 photograph, including Carl (who purchased the Century Farm), his son Albert; Albert's son LeRoy (in the back row); and LeRoy's son, Jack, whom Albert is holding.

Established: 1883

Township: Clinton Township Acres: 160 Century Farm Award: 1995

Generation: 5th

Nuetzman’s side of the family. His great-grandfather, Carl Nuetzman, purchased the 160-acre farm in Section 26 in 1883. The land was passed down to Carl’s son Albert

and to Albert’s son LeRoy (Jack’s father). “That farm is just north of where we live, and you can see it from our kitchen window,” said Jack, 89, a 1951 Odebolt High School graduate.

Today, the Nuetzmans rent out some of their farmland, and their son Steve also farms and raises cattle and hay. The Nuetzman family is very active at Peace Lutheran Church in Wall Lake, where Jack has held several offices and Carol is the organist and choir director.

“Our family has a lot of good memories connected with the local community and our Century Farms,” Carol said. “We are so blessed.”

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

By DOUG CLOUGH Farm News writer

ROCK VALLEY — Leroy

Vink is 70 but neither he nor his bride of 40 years, Florence, seem old enough to retire from the profession.

“Our son Justin is moving onto the place now with his family,” said Vink. “Florence and I are moving to town, but I always wanted to make that decision when I was still able to help. He’s farmed with me for the past several years, and I’d like to farm with him as long as I can.

“In 1985, Florence and I bought additional land, so it’s a quarter section now, and originally it was an 80.”

On March 11, 1911, Leroy’s grandfather, Klaas Verberg, bought 80 acres of land in Rock Township, Southwest Section 33, 1¾ miles south of Rock Valley. Six years prior, Verberg, at the age of 21, left his homeland, the Netherlands, and came to Rock Valley.

On March 4, 1911, he married Hendrika Beek, and they lived on the farm until 1917 when they left to live in Rock Valley. They had five children — Bill, Nellie, Henry, Rich, and Marie. Klaas sold the farm two or three times, each time having ownership returned to him because of the inability of the buyer to make payments. In the spring of 1925, the Verbergs returned to the farm where they lived until Hendrika’s death in 1939 and Klaas’ passing in 1942.

Upon Hendrika’s passing, Marie — Leroy’s mother — dropped out of school to help take care of her family. Marie married Albert Vink in 1943, and the couple purchased the 80-acre farm the same year, paying off the $8,000 note within a year of ownership. Albert and Marie Vink made their home on the farm and had three sons: Gerald, Rodney, and Leroy. They worked hard that first year to pay off the farm.

“The stock house originated with Leroy’s dad Albert,” said Florence Vink, “who milked shorthorns. He quit milking and built the stock house. Albert Vink always had cattle and chickens. His mom would take a case of eggs to town, get money for them, and then go to the grocery store to buy groceries for the week.

SIOUX

next week,” said Florence Vink.

“We also have heifers with calves that calved early; once we open the pasture up, they’ll go with their moms. There are also smaller calves that we separated from the bigger calves.” The Vinks had an Angus bull, but went back to a Hereford bull as they like the Hereford-Angus cross due to its docility; lately, they’ve gotten straight Herefords that they will hold back for breeding.

Leroy’s father Albert preferred the Shorthorn breed for milking, and Leroy still has the sign that hung at the end of the lane when he was growing up on the farm.

The farm’s barn was built in 1948 and includes a milkhouse. Inside the barn, an award still hangs from the Milking Shorthorn Society Parish Show of 1959, awarding Albert Vink First Prize. There is also a membership certificate to the same society dated 1961.

Klaas Verberg, Leroy’s grandpa, built the grain bin — which has three overhead bins and still stands — during his tenure. The beams that secure the building extend into the concrete and square-headed nails secure the joints; all the work done by hand. The Vinks use one side of the crib for corn storage,

“We grind our corn yet on the ear,” said Leroy, “as feed for our calves.”

The Vinks built a large equipment shed in 1993. A Farmall 656 and four-row planter are in the building. Among the equipment is a Farmall Super H that Albert bought brand new on Sept. 5, 1954, and the Vinks passed it on to their son Justin. Leroy has the original paperwork given to his father.

“I enjoy the chickens, and I try to get colorful ones. We also have Guineas, and they’re good watchdogs; if a stranger comes on the place, they make lots of noise.”

Florence Vink knows people in Texas who eat the bird; these Guineas, however, will only die of old age, she said. Cattle and calves — crossed

with a Hereford and an Angus — inhabit three different pens. “We have last year’s calves — feeder cattle — which are going to market

While Leroy and Florence Vink are moving to town, Justin Vink and his wife Candi are transitioning to the farm with their daughter Brooklyn, 8, and son Leevi, 5. “Leevi already wants to be a farmer,” said Florence Vink. “He’s only in preschool, and he knows he wants to keep the farm in the family.”

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough

LEROY AND FLORENCE VINK stand in front of their 1945-vintage barn. Cattle and calves — crossed with a Hereford and an Angus — inhabit three different pens. “We have last year’s calves — feeder cattle — which are going to market next week,” said Florence Vink.

-Submitted photo

LEROY VINK, left, is showing off twin calves with his father Albert in the 1960s.

-Farm News photo by Doug Clough LEROY VINK holds a sign that graced the entrance to the farm's lane during his father's tenure with milking shorthorns.

Wilhelm G. Knobloch and his wife Friederika came from Germany and purchased 320 acres of land at $75 per acre or $20,000. Friederika had a brother in Lyon County, and moving here gave Wilhelm an opportunity to farm.

Knobloch’s grandfather Ernst sold a quarter section to his brother Will.

“Grandpa Ernst passed away in 1978,” said Knobloch, “so the farm was split between Carl and my dad Ezra by inheritance. The south 80 was Carl’s, and he sold that to me in 1982. My brother has the other 80 now, which was our dad’s.”

From the time that Myron purchased the farm to today’s greenhouse footprint, the driveway location is the only piece that’s close to the same, and the driveway is about three times as wide.

“There was a full set of farm buildings,” said Knobloch. “My

uncle moved to Alvord about 10 years before I bought the place. He had the house torn down before I bought it, but he had a barn, hog house, machine shed, and cattle shed.”

At first, Myron and Beth approached farming this land the same as his lineage had done since 1907.

“We farrowed here,” said Knobloch, “and sold feeder pigs as well as farmed crops until 1987.

“We started officially as Knobloch’s in 1987 as a strawberry and apple operation because we knew our location was not good for retail. We did have a small greenhouse that was left from my high school FFA days, but we only used it to raise plants for ourselves, family, and friends.”

When the Knoblochs got out of hogs altogether, they decided to cash-rent their 80 acres and go full-tilt into other endeavors.

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more than fruit to survive.

“We planted vegetables to sell at the Sioux Falls Farmers Market,” stated Knobloch. “We decided to put all of our effort into the greenhouse after the strawberries (were) winter-killed in 1996.”

Knobloch’s Greenhouse has grown to a full-time undertaking, and the scheduling of care for the fruit hasn’t coordinated well with the greenhouse schedule.

-Submitted photo

CARL KNOBLOCH owned and operated the 80 acres prior to selling the farm to his nephew Myron Knobloch in 1982; this is a photo of Carl, most likely taken in the 1930s. “The farm was split between Carl and my dad Ezra by inheritance," said Knobloch. "The south 80 was Carl’s, and he sold that to me in 1982. My brother has the other 80 now, which was our dad’s.”

After the first strawberry crop was a total loss to June temps that reached 106 degrees, the couple realized they were going to need

“We’ve added numerous greenhouses over the years as our business has grown,” said Knobloch. “We constructed a new retail area in 2008 and an additional area in 2022.

“Before Grandpa Ernst moved from the farm, he had a lot of fruit trees; even when he moved to town, he had a huge garden and that was his life until he died at 91. Grandpa wouldn’t be surprised by what we’re doing here today.”

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By KRISTIN DANLEY-GREINER Farm News writer

MAXWELL — As the fourth generation to care for his family’s century farm, 78-year-old John Beal still helps out his son on their farm when he can.

“Farming was in my blood. My great-grandfather bought the farm in 1920 with 240 acres but he lost 160 during the Depression. He knew the individual who bought the land and we continued farming it,” Beal said. “When my planter wore out and it would cost more than what I wanted to give for a used planter, I hired my good friend, who is farming the neighbor’s farm across the road, to come plant my corn and beans. We have a good combine, so my son does the harvesting.”

Beal farmed with his dad after graduating from high school until he enlisted in the Army Reserves.

“The draft board said being a farmer wasn’t enough to get out of the draft, so I continued farming with my dad and spent 24 years in the Army Reserves. We came close to being called up a couple of times but I never did have to go,” Beal said.

The farm is located at 66357 305th St. in Maxwell, while Beal and his wife Carol live in town.

“When my dad passed away, I tried my best to get her to move to the farm but she told me she is a city girl. We rented out the house on the farm for a few years, then our middle daughter got married and she and her husband moved to the farmhouse,” Beal said. “It makes me feel great that we have family living on the farm and my son still does the harvesting. My daughter learned a long time ago

how to drive a tractor, so she gets the crop from my son in the combine.”

Ever since his stroke, Beal hasn’t been able to farm as much as he’s wanted to, but still helps as he can.

“I’ll sit on the chair as she brings the wagon up to the auger and I open the gate and watch her unload it into the bin,” Beal said. “I deeply appreciate being able to do what I can do. I really want to do more, but I’m happy to do what I can.”

The family farm features the

original barn and chicken house. They raise corn, soybeans, hay and have a 1.5-acre vineyard.

“The chicken house is about 40 feet away from the house and at one time we had cattle, hogs and sheep,” Beal said. “I remember when I was in eighth grade, my dad told me if I walked the beans and got out all the weeds, he’d buy me a brand new bicycle. I did, and he bought me a Schwinn bicycle that I still have today.”

Beal also fondly recalls picking corn with his brothers that involved

a few friendly games of football with ears of corn.

“My oldest brother would run the tractors and I helped with the unloading. When we waited on our dad to fill a wagon with picked corn, we would find an ear that had dropped off and us boys would play football in the middle of the corn field,” Beal said. “We had a hay day doing that. It was also a good way to stay warm, by keeping moving in the fall when it got cold. My oldest brother was always the quarterback and he could throw

with

the

that ear of corn a long ways.”

After their father passed away and the family farm was handed down to the three brothers, Beal bought out his brothers’ share and owned the farm outright.

“It was very exciting to know that I would be keeping the farm going and to know that my son is willing to keep the farm going, too. It was so exciting to be named a Century Farm as the fourth generation to own it. I have two grandchildren — one lives in Oklahoma and is studying to become a doctor. My other grandson works for General Fire and Safety, and when I had my stroke, he sold his condo in Ankeny and moved back home to help out,” Beal said. “We just love having him here with us.”

-Submitted photo

THE BEAL FAMILY FARM features the original barn and chicken house. The Beals raise corn, soybeans, hay and have a 1.5-acre vineyard. John Beal is the fourth generation to care for his family’s Century Farm.

“My great-grandfather bought the farm in 1920

240 acres but he lost 160 during

Depression. He knew the individual who bought the land and we continued farming it.”

JOHN BEAL Century Farm owner

Daily Auction Company

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Bob Daily

P.O. Box 256, Colo, Iowa 50056

Office: (641) 377-2355

Cell: (515) 231-4440

Fax: (641) 377-2822

email: bobdaily@netins.net

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Ryan Luke

P.O. Box 256, Colo, Iowa 50056

Office: (641) 377-2355

Cell: (515) 231-7102

Fax: (641) 377-2822

email: bobdaily@netins.net

Hard work is way of life

By LORI BERGLUND Farm News writer

In the mid- to late-19th century, the rich soil of Webster County attracted immigrants by the hundreds who had a love of the land. A large share of them came from Ireland, hoping not to know famine again.

Here, they found freedom and some of the best soil on earth. Around Moorland, Barnum, and Clare, Irish names quickly started to dominate the early plat books.

Near midway between Moorland and Barnum, on what is now Furrow Avenue, brothers John and Edmund Walsh scraped together enough money to purchase some 226 acres of farmland in September 1870. They must have hoped and prayed that it would be worth the worrisome price tag of $14.36 per acre.

Back then, $14 was a lot tougher to come by — perhaps as hard as $14,000 today.

Several generations and more than 150 years later, the farm remains in the Walsh family. Kevin Walsh is now the owner and the Walsh family turned out in force when the farm earned Heritage Farm status from the Iowa Farm Bureau and Iowa Department of Agriculture at the 2021 Iowa State Fair.

Kevin Walsh and his late wife, Mary Ellen, raised six children on the farm: Pat, Karen, Bob, Tom, Dee and Anne.

“I grew up on that farm and so did my dad,” recalled daughter Anne Condon. “My brother Bob and his wife Andrea farm that farm now.”

She and her siblings, Condon said, learned wonderful values helping on the farm and from watching the way their parents

Walsh family

WEBSTER

Bob Walsh said. “Back in the day, you didn’t have spray so you pulled them.”

When Bob Walsh and his wife Andrea, who had grown up in town in Boone, joined the farm, Bob’s mother, Mary Ellen Walsh, had some sage advice for her new daughter-in-law.

“She would tell me not to do too much work on the farm because I would be stuck doing it,” Andrea Walsh said with a smile in her voice. “I wish I would have taken her advice, because every year I seem to learn to do more and more.”

-Submitted photo

Iowa

Hallie, Hannah, Kadie and Kyle Cech. Kneeling, from left, are MacKenzie Condon, Haley Free, Kelsie Bahlmann, Briley Condon, Anne Condon, Bailey Walsh, Jody Walsh, Kasie Seil. Standing, from left, are, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, Bob Walsh, Zachary Walsh, Andrea Walsh, Lucas Walsh, Karen Free, Kari Walsh, (partially hidden) Tom Walsh, Matthew Condon, Pat Walsh, (partially hidden) Logan Jepsen, Paige Condon, Jacob Seil, Connor Hackman, Kevin “Poppie” Walsh, Kevin Walsh, Mike Free, Dee Cech, A.J. Free, Dan Condon, Alyssa Walsh, Nathan Walsh, (partially hidden) Corey Cech, Alyssa Brown, Mark Condon, Jaidyn Rowley, Lee Walsh, Morgan Walsh and a Farm Bureau representative.

Fair. Sitting in

lived their lives.

“Mom and Dad taught us that you have to work hard,” Condon said. “There’s no free hand-outs. If you want something, you have to work hard for it.”

Of course, with Irish families, they are always there to help one another.

Bob Walsh and wife Andrea are working to pass on those values to their son, who has joined the family farm operation this year.

“It gets hard with all the big farmers around, but we’re trying to help our son, the same way Bob’s dad helped us,” Andrea Walsh said.

It’s been that way from the

beginning, with Walsh members taking an active role in their community.

Anne Condon recalls her grandparents, Leo and Catherine Walsh, as always wanting to be a part of whatever was going on with the family and community.

“When they moved off the farm, they moved into Barnum, and I believe my grandfather was mayor of Barnum for awhile,” Condon said. “He went to all of the sporting events. I don’t think it mattered if his grandkids were playing or not. He used to just go down and watch basketball, or whatever was going on.”

Condon’s brother Bob Walsh has great memories of his grandfather working on the farm, despite the fact that he had just one arm.

“He lost his arm in a corn picker accident, but he was still a hard worker, he was a trooper,” Bob Walsh said. “My dad had just gotten back from the service — he served in the Korean War — and it was after that my grandfather lost his arm.”

No matter that a hoe is harder to use with just one arm, clean fields were a big priority for his grandfather, according to Bob Walsh.

“He was always a weed man,”

Fortunately, there’s another generation coming along to join the effort.

Bob and Andrea have two children. Daughter Morgan is studying agriculture at Iowa Central Community College and enjoys working with the cow-calf operation that is part of the Walsh farm. Son Nathan graduated from Iowa Central and works in precision agriculture for K.C. Nielsen. In addition to his full-time job, Nathan has now joined the family farm operation and is cash renting a portion of the farm for the first time this year.

“He is just kind of getting his feet wet this year, using our equipment,” mom Andrea Walsh said.

They know it’s not easy for the younger generation to get established in farming, but by working together, they hope to keep family farm tradition going strong.

The brothers John and Edmund Walsh who started it all in 1870 would surely approve.

THE KEVIN WALSH FAMILY turns out to accept the Heritage Farm designation at the 2021

State

front, from left, are

By DOUG CLOUGH

Farm News writer

ANTHON — Cecelia “Cec” Karhoff knows if there is one thing in life that is constant, it’s change.

“Where the fence is behind my house is where the road was when my grandfather bought this farm,” said Karhoff. “In 1926, he sold three and a quarter acres to the county for a road, which is the one that now runs in front of the house — and that’s how my acreage came to be.”

Karl Forch was Karhoff’s grandfather, and he and wife Mary began their first-generation ownership in September of 1916, purchasing 117 acres from W.F. and Mary J. Walling. Cecelia’s father Albert was one of three children adopted by Karl and Mary Forch. Albert was 11 when he was adopted.

In 1926 Karl passed away, so Mary was sole owner until her passing in 1949; Albert with his wife Margaret purchased the farm in 1950, which at that time had 109 acres of land.

In 1969, Albert Forch sold 5.4 acres of land to his daughter Cecelia and son-in-law James Karhoff to build the couple’s home.

In 1984, Albert Forch sold the remainder of the farm to Cecelia; the current farm ground has 105.6 acres.

The original house no longer stands but, when it did, it was at a different location than where Karhoff’s home is today. “When my grandfather became ill in 1926,” said Karhoff, “he was living at the house and passed away soon after. My dad was farming in Danbury and came here in 1927 with my mom. He had two kids and another on the way when he came back, so Mom and Dad moved into the big house. Another house was built on the hill where my grandmother

WOODBURY

lived.”

Albert and Margaret Forch had seven children and Cecelia was number five. During Cec’s formative years on the farm, her dad farmed with horses.

“We had two horses, Jim and Prince,” said Karhoff. “We were not allowed near those horses. They were work horses. We eventually got an old John Deere B tractor.

“I followed my dad around a lot. I had an older sister who helped in the house, so that gave me the leeway to be outside. I started milking cows when I was 6 years old, only in the evenings during the weekdays. On Saturday morning, Dad would holler, ‘I’ll give you a nickel if you help me milk cows!’

I don’t know if I ever got that nickel or not, but I jumped out of bed and went outside and started milking cows!”

Karhoff also remembers having sheep and feeding bottle lambs. Her father also

had calves, cows, and pigs, and she was always around those animals. “My dad and I had a garden,” said Karhoff. “Like I said, my older sisters were in the house; I still don’t know how to cook! I had to clean the house, but I didn’t have to cook.”

It wasn’t all work for Karhoff, although she didn’t shy away from work either.

“Sometimes, I’d just find nails and pound them into an old tree for fun,” she said. “I went down to the creek to fish. The creek had pilings, and I had to crawl down them to get to a spot under the bridge where the bullheads would be. If I wanted to get away from people, that’s where I’d go, or I’d go climb a tree with a book.”

Karhoff also played basketball at Anthon Community School and was a majorette.

“I think I was Dad’s favorite; I never knew it at the time,” Karhoff said. “When my mom died, my dad took me to the bank to put me

on the accounts. When he had his stroke, it affected his speech, and I was the only one of us kids who knew what he was saying; we were just around each other that much. When he died, the only picture that was in his billfold was a photo of me when I was about 6 years old.”

Cecelia with her husband James had three children: Rhonda, Danny (deceased), and Patty, a six-year span from oldest to youngest. Karhoff’s daughter Patty remembers, when she lived at the farm, having bottle calves and hogs aside from the acres of corn. Patty was born in 1966, and it was 1976 when her mother began working at the veterinarian clinic where she remained employed until 2001.

Even with the changes that have occurred through the years, Karhoff’s farm is still being worked on by her family. “My dad farmed this land, and my husband Kenny farmed it when Dad got sick,” said Patty Kollbaum. “My husband farmed it, and now my 28-year-old son Derek farms it.”

And it’s a real certainty that Cec Karhoff feels blessed to know that her land continues to be in good hands.

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-Submitted photos

CECELIA KARHOFF'S GRANDCHILDREN, Derek, left, and Dalton Kollbaum have worked on her farm in recent years. FAR LEFT: When Albert Forch passed away, his daughter found this photo of her in his wallet.

THE ORIGINAL FORCH FARM HOME is shown as it stood in the 1950s.

By CLAYTON RYE Farm News writer

ROWAN — Mary-Louise Burt is the fifth generation to live on the Burt Heritage Farm that had its beginnings in 1872. She wrote a five-page manuscript, detailing the history of the family and the farm, that was used to write this story.

Henry Burt, her great-greatgrandfather, was born in 1850 near Bristol, England, where his father William farmed. He was one of 12 children. In 1879, at age 22, Henry Burt left his family for America.

Crossing the Atlantic Ocean then required 25 to 30 days by steamship under perilous conditions and a poor environment of cramped, dirty, poorly ventilated quarters, infested with rats and lice. Meals consisted of “rice pudding, sea pie, pea soup, and oatmeal porridge.” More affluent passengers would bring along extra jam, sugar, biscuits, eggs, cheese, and ham.

The manuscript describes the ship’s toilet, located at the head of the ship where the spray from the water would help clean it. Toilet paper was a rope that, when not in use, hung in the water for cleaning.

Upon arriving in America, travel was by covered wagon or buggy, covering eight to 20 miles a day.

Henry Burt first traveled to Ohio, where he lived for three years. Mary Ann Franklin left England in 1874 and the two of them were married in America, eventually moving to Galesburg, Ill., then to Franklin County, Iowa, for a year before moving to Wright County.

After seven years of renting, the Burts bought 80 acres of land east of Clarion for $6.25 an acre, where they built their home. Closets were

WRIGHT

Burt Heritage Farm

Year established: 1872

Generation: 5

Township: Blaine

Acres: 157

Year awarded: 2022

not included in those early homes as people only had two changes of clothing, either for farm or town.

The Burt’s farm land was “prairie and unimproved.” Henry Burt spent $6,000 to break the sod and drain the land. He added to his land ownership and eventually owned over 400 acres in one tract.

In addition to farming, Henry Burt helped to build the Rock Island Railroad.

Henry Burt also raised cattle and hogs, feeding two carloads of cattle and one carload of hogs in a season. He was both a buyer and seller of cattle.

Crops were corn and small grain. Corn yields were 50 bushels per acre and small grain that mostly went for livestock yielded 40 bushels per acre.

A family story told by their grandson James Burt tells how Henry Burt “had to chase the cranes out of the corn field to keep them from destroying the crops, as much of the land was slough and bog until the tile was added.”

Henry and Mary Ann Burt lived

on the farm for 40 years and were parents to five children.

Henry Burt retired from the farm in 1901 and moved to Clarion. Then he and Mary Ann, along with their daughter Hattie returned to England for a six-month visit, traveling by ship that only required four or five days.

Henry Burt passed away in February 1932. Each of his children inherited a farm.

Henry and Mary Ann’s son, John D. Burt, became the next owner, along with his wife Rose.

John D. Burt died suddenly at age 55, two years into the Great Depression, from a heart attack while threshing. They had four children, one being Mary-Louise’s grandfather, James Burt.

James and his wife Laura worked hard to keep the farm

during the Depression. One of the family stories tells of Laura out picking corn by hand with her husband. She raised chickens and sold the eggs in town.

They were parents to three sons, Jack (Mary Louise's father), Don, and Paul.

Jack and Don Burt took over the farming after leaving the military in the late 1940s as their father Jim retired.

Mary Louise Burt described them as “industrious and energetic.” They were featured in Successful Farming magazine and the May 1966 issue of U.S. News and World Report.

Mary-Louise Burt remembers the farm as “full of activity” and a “hub of holiday feasts” prepared by grandmother Laura.

Don Burt passed away at age

69 and Jack died at age 92. Don’s son Randy became the operator of the farm when they retired. Upon Randy’s retirement, the farm was operated by tenant Andy Coombs, who according to some old papers, showed the Coombs and Burts had the same relatives going back to England.

The land that Henry Burt purchased in 1872 remains in the Burt family.

Jack and Bea Burt were the parents to four daughters: Pam, Cindy, and Sarah, along with Mary Louise, who lives on the acreage “with all the friendly ghosts of the past to keep me company.”

-Submitted photos

THIS AERIAL VIEW OF THE BURT FARM appears to be from around the 1970s.

MARY-LOUISE BURT received the Burt family Heritage Farm Award at the 2022 Iowa State Fair.

Determan

Continued from Page 47C

Determan enjoys working every day that he can.

“I bought the Milwaukee railroad track that runs along the heritage farm, so my dad and I bought 1.5 miles of that,” Determan said. “We’re converting it back to farm ground. The railroad ties were salvaged and we’ve been working to level the land, pull out the trees and shrubs so that it can be farmed again.”

One of Determan’s fondest memories from growing up on the farm happens to be the day he came home from school in the fourth grade and discovered his dad had bought a new tractor. His father was out plowing and when Determan sprinted out to see him in the fields, his dad allowed him to hop on and plow with him.

“We did one round and I was excited. I even beat my older brother to the new tractor. But then he came home and he got to plow for two hours. I only made it one round,” Determan said. “I had to go back and do chores. I was so happy to plow and beat him to it, but then he did for longer. I still remember that vividly.”

McCreath

Continued from Page 48C

Alex and Agnes had three boys and one girl; one of those boys was Jon’s grandfather, James John (Jim) McCreath. Agnes died in 1894, just four days after giving birth to their fourth child, Margarite Agnes, who survived. Alex passed away in 1931, but turned the land over to Jon’s grandfather Jim and greataunt Agnes in 1928.

“Grandpa Jim was the one who farmed it,” said Jon McCreath. “Jim and Harriet (Williams) were married in 1921 and had four children, three girls and my dad James ‘George’ being the youngest; their oldest daughter Dorothy died at childbirth, and Martha — second oldest — died at 10 years old. My Aunt Margaret, born in 1932, will turn 91 this July.”

Jon’s Dad passed away in June of 2019.

“Dad grew up in a house on that land, farming the land while growing up there,” said McCreath. “My grandfather died in 1957 when Dad was in college, and Grandma Harriet moved to Primghar. Dad didn’t come back to the farm after college. He married my mother Sharon in 1959, going into the Army for two years, serving in Germany where I was born. My brothers Todd and Scott were born stateside.”

Since 1979, the McCreath family has been

leasing their land out for agricultural purposes, specifically corn and soybean production.

James, who went by his middle name George, had different aspirations from his predecessors. “Dad returned from active service in Germany, and my parents eventually bought the Standard Oil Station on Interstate 80 in Ogallala, Neb., in 1969,” said McCreath. “They owned that station for 25 years, selling it in 1994. Dad semi-retired and mom, who was a librarian, raised three rowdy

boys. Mom will be 89 in December.”

Ogallala will always be home to Jon and his brothers Todd and Scott, but there is also something endearing about the family farm history.

“Traditions are in place, and Dad was one of those who felt strongly about passing the land down as many generations as possible,” said McCreath.

“Eventually, the farm will be handed down to my brothers and me. My brothers and I all have a bit of attachment to the land,” he continued. “I would not be surprised that if we sold it, that we would hold back some acres for each of us. It would be sad for us to sell all of it, especially now that we are closing in on 150 years, essentially ending this piece in McCreath history.”

Their father’s only instructions were for the land to be continued to be used for agriculture.

“I get the sense of how my grandfather may have felt when Dad chose not to farm,” said Jon McCreath.

“Our father wanted us to take over the Standard station, but we all had moved on to other things. Life’s transitions aren’t always easy, but the land by the Covey Church will always be special to our family.”

-Submitted photo

ALEXANDER MCCREATH purchased 160 acres of land in 1884 for $26.87 an acre, as shown on this warranty deed.

parcel of 93 acres was handed down to Mike when John died in 1918 and then to Tony when Mike passed away in 1953. After Tony retired, his son Paul lived on the homestead and farmed the land. Paul married Shirley Gettier in 1952 and had four children: Sam, Sally, Tim and Tom.

When Paul and his family moved to California in 1964, Leonard and his family moved to the homestead. Leonard married Luella McGrath in 1949, and they had five children: Gary, Craig, Mary, John and Nancy. Leonard farmed and eventually purchased the entire 346 acres.

Leonard retired in 1994 and sold the acreage with buildings to Douglas and Cindy Roth.

After Leonard passed away in 2013 and Luella in 2014, their son John purchased the remainder of the original 93-acre homestead. John married Jennifer Peterson in 1984 and they had three sons, Michael, Will and Stuart.

Even though the years progressed from generation to generation, many things remained the same from Streit’s father’s

time on the farm.

“For my dad, neighboring was a verb,” said Streit. “We had three other farm neighbors who we

Rick Titus in His 48th Year of

and Installing More

would share help with. If we were going to bale hay on Thursday afternoon, they'd send over whoever they could. It wasn’t just a big project, but a real social time to interact with the neighbors.”

Streit also remembers the lessons his father provided.

“It was the 4th of July, and I was home from college,” said Streit, “and I stayed out pretty late that night. Dad never said anything to me about it, but the next morning, for some reason, we had a load of hay in the yard that needed to be unloaded before breakfast. He told me to get up in the barn, and he had those bales back-to-back-to-back. I was having a real tough time keeping up. Message received.”

All the members of Leonard and Luella Streit's family understood the importance of farm work.

“Compared to the work my dad would do, I wasn't working that hard,” said Streit. “My mom was very involved, milking the cows

and hauling corn to town. When dad quit milking, he got more involved in pigs, and I think he had 500 feeder pigs and would fill them out to 240 pounds,” said Streit. “Dad was still buying young heifers, breeding them, and selling them. We had 346 acres plus he rented an 80 from a neighbor for 426 acres.”

When Streit’s mother passed, he told his siblings he wanted to buy one of the parcels and keep it in the family for another generation.

“The farm meant enough to them that this parcel remains part of the family,” said Streit. “My oldest brother said, ‘What would Dad do?’ and then it became obvious that we would keep it in the family.

“Stuart is the sentimental one of our family. He took soil from the farm and gave it in tubes to his siblings as gifts. It’s moments like this that give us hope that the farm will live on in the Streit name.”

- photo by Les Houser, Wright County Monitor

-Submitted photo

JOHN STREIT'S COLLEGE FRIEND JEFF PODLESAK created this pen-and-ink drawing of the Streit family farmstead for a special celebration. "What tickled Dad the most about this artwork," said Streit, "is how accurate it is of the farm as it was in the 1980s."

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