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