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.

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.” 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.

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.

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.”

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 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 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.

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