My family has developed a deep love and connection to the land we have lived on and cared for over many generations.
Now that the holidays are past and we’re settled into winter I want to take a little time to share some of the memories and stories of this farm from the early 1900s. I hope this will help you gain a sense of connection to our farm and the land, and remind you of your own family’s history.
My great great-grandfather, Gottlieb, immigrated to America from Germany and settled with his family in Rapidan Township in 1884. In 1910, my great-grandpa, Herman, purchased the land where we currently live. He and his wife, Anna, raised their family of six children here.
At that time, the drier parts of the land had already been converted from prairie to cropland. There were still sloughs and wet meadows. My grandpa (Melvin) remembers his mother telling him that there were a lot of “lakes” on this farm when they first moved here. (For drainage,) clay tile was installed to help make the land more suitable for farming. The tile was just one line that ran through the wettest part of the farm. The local tile contractor was a Russian immigrant, and he and his crew worked day after day digging by hand, in the sticky ground, to lay tile on farms around the area.
Like most farms back then, the farm was diverse with a few dairy cows, a flock of laying hens, and hogs, with oats, barley, and wheat in the fields. Some areas were kept in grass for pasture, and the wettest land was used for hay. The family also kept a team of work horses.
Cream was separated from the milk on the farm. Once a week, they would take the three-mile trip to the Rapidan Creamery where the cream was sold to be churned for butter. This once-a-week trip was also an opportunity to pick up any other supplies that were needed at home. The kids considered it a treat if they got to ride along to Rapidan.
As a child growing up here, my grandpa has many memories of life on the farm. He remembers riding on the bobsled down into the river bottom to harvest firewood in the winter time, sledding on the nearby hills, and watching meadowlarks in the fields.
Great grandpa Herman and his team of horses with a load of firewood on the bobsled.
One of the favorite stories of the farm is about the barn.
The barn was built in 1928, 18 years after great grandpa purchased the farm. In 1929, one year after it was built, a tornado came through the yard and knocked the barn off of its foundation! The barn was not torn apart completely, but it had to somehow be moved back onto the foundation. A neighbor from down the road was the local carpenter and he came to help rebuild the barn. It has been standing ever since.
Tornado Damage 1929
The barn as it stands today (2023)
Out in the pasture, as an eight-year-old, Grandpa remembers trapping gophers nearly every day in the summer. He had to learn to set the traps without getting his fingers pinched. Gophers were abundant back then, and the township paid a bounty for each pair of pocket gopher feet that were presented to the town supervisor. Grandpa would save up the feet in a quart jar with a little sprinkle of salt to help preserve them.
One time he turned in a quart jar full of gopher feet that he had been saving for quite some time. The feet were beginning to rot, and the jar smelled to high heaven.
He handed the jar over and said “You can count them if you want”.
“I’ll take your word for it,” said the supervisor, as he turned up his nose.
Grandpa Melvin and Aunt Anita with a successful trap
On weekends, the kids would hike down to the Maple River. Grandpa remembers going with his older brother (Leonard) and cousin (Edwin), and stopping to fish as the older boys went farther on. One time the older boys came back with a great big watermelon. There were a lot of watermelons grown on the land in the river bottom, at that time, and the boys must have snuck up into a field and snatched a watermelon for a treat!
It's fun to think back and imagine what life was like on the farm back then. I’m lucky to have a Grandpa around who can share his firsthand experiences.
Even as I focus on where we are and where we’re going, it’s always good to look back and remember where we came from.
I hope this gives you just a little sense of my family’s history here, and inspires you to think about your own family’s history and connection to the land. Reach out to your elders and pry on their memory a little. You never know what stories they might have to share.