Century Farms 2017 Pride

Wednesday, June 14, 2017 | B1

Democrat News

PRIDE EDITION Century Farms 2017

Supplement to Democrat newS - wednesday, June 14, 2017

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CENTURY FARMS

| WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2017

DEMOCRAT NEWS

Madison County Century Farms This is the second of three sections of the Democrat News Pride Edition.

It contains stories and

photos celebrating farming and featuring some of Madison County’s Century Farms.

At the 2016 Madison County Extension Banquet, Judith Means Foster, Otis Means Jr., Rose Means and grandchildren were present to accept the Century Farm award from DeNae Gitonga (Left) for the Means Farm established in 1914.

Dan and Donovan Tilk, and Clara “Corky” Clark are recognized for the Tilk Century Farm, at the 2016 Thank A Farmer Week event at Madison County Farm Supply.

PROVIDED BY JULI KLINE

Ben Stevens and Teagan Stevens stand next to the sign recognizing the Stevens Century Farm.

Search for Missouri Century Farms continues COLUMBIA, Mo. – If your farm has been in your family since Dec. 31, 1917, you can apply to have it recognized as a Missouri Century Farm.

To qualify, farms must meet the following guidelines. The same family must have owned the farm for 100 consecutive years.

The line of ownership from the original settler or buyer may be through children, grandchildren, siblings, and nephews or nieces, including through marriage or adoption. The farm must be at least 40 acres of the original land acquisition and make a financial contribution to the overall farm income.

“Family farms have been among our most vital partners since the founding of extension more than 100 years ago. The century farm program is one way we express our gratitude to those who have contributed so much to Missouri agriculture.”

Marshall Stewart, University of Missouri Vice Chancellor for Extension and Engagement University of Missouri Vice Chancellor for Extension and Engagement Marshall Stewart said, “Family farms have been among our most vital partners since the founding of extension more than

100 years ago. The century farm program is one way we express our gratitude to those who have contributed so much to Missouri agriculture.”

In 2008, the Missouri Farm

Bureau joined MU Extension and the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources as a program sponsor.

“Missouri Farm Bureau is a proud partner in the recognition of century farms,” said Blake Hurst, president. “We applaud the hard-working farm families that have kept us fed and clothed for generations. They represent an important part of our heritage and laid a foundation for the bounty Americans enjoy every day.”

Applicants certified as owners of a 2017 Missouri Century Farm will be recognized by the local MU Extension center in the

county where the farm is located.

Applicants are presented with a sign and a certificate.

Since Missouri began the program in 1976, more than 8,000 century farms have been recognized.

The deadline has passed for farms to be recognized in 2017, but applications for 2018 will be available beginning in February, 2018.

For application forms and information, call Extension Publications toll-free at 1-800-2920969, contact your local MU Extension office, or visit the program website at http://extension. missouri.edu/centuryfarm.

Wide array of products come from ‘farm-type’ animals

T

ypically the first thing that people think of when asked what products come from farm-type animals are meat, milk, wool, and leather.

However, most people do not realize that almost the entire animal is used when it goes to slaughter.

KENDRA Most of these GRAHAM products are used on a daily basis and some people would claim they could not live without a few of these items.

Below is a very short list of products from cattle, hogs, and sheep.

I would like to note that an-

imal products typically make up a small percentage of these products.

Products from Blood:                 

adhesives cake mixes deep-fry batters medicine whipped toppings plywood adhesives Products from Bone: pencils bone jewelry and china glass water filters high grade steel plastic surgery Products from Hair: air filters insulation material felt and rug padding

 plastering material  textiles  paint brushes

Products from Horns & Hooves:  adhesives  bandage strips  marshmallows  photographic film  plywood and paneling  shampoo and conditioner  Products from Fats:  biodiesel  candles  cement  makeup  shaving cream  tires Products from Wool:  asphalt binder

    

carpet cosmetics insulation medical ointments rouge base

Products from Hides and Skins:      

emery boards glues sheetrock wallpaper mayonnaise gelatin desserts

Products form Milk (industrial):  buttons  adhesives  cosmetics

       

pharmaceuticals specialty plastics veterinary medicines Products from Intestines: instrument strings medical sutures sausage casings tennis racquet strings

Other products from cattle:  airplane lubricants and runway foam  car polishes and waxes  hydraulic brake fluid  steel ball bearings  car upholstery  various machine oils WOW, makes you appreciate animals a lot more!!!

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CENTURY FARMS

Democrat News

Wednesday, June 14, 2017 | B3

JACOB SCOTT PHOTOS‌

The Mouser Farm is the oldest certified century farm in Madison County.

Mouser Farm JACOB SCOTT, DEMOCRAT NEWS

‌ T he oldest certified Century Farm in Madison County sits on State Highway A just north of Marquand. Homer Mouser is the current owner of the farm, but it was originally purchased by his great-great-grandfather Michael Mouser in the early 1800s.

“He came to Cape Girardeau and went in to the land office and bought a section of land here on the Castor River,” Homer said.

“He came from North Carolina.”

After purchasing the property, Homer said

his ancestor left his boys while he returned to North Carolina and retrieved the family to bring them to Missouri.

The Mousers built a home and began farming, planting the seeds of generations of agriculture.

“After Michael Mouser, there was Daniel Mouser, my great-grandpa, and he inherited it,” Homer said. “Then the next one was John Francis, and that was my grandpa. And then Charlie Mouser is my dad. I bought this farm from him in 1956.”

Homer said his family has raised livestock and

grain on the property.

There were no buildings still standing on the farm when he bought it, but by 1958 he’d built the home he still lives in today.

“I built the house and a barn,” Homer said. “And a few outbuildings and so on.

The foundations for some of the older buildings were still here. My house now sits on about the same ground that one of the older houses did.”

Homer said the farm will stay in the family for the foreseeable future, with his two daughters inheriting it and continuing the Mouser family legacy.

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B4 | Wednesday, June 14, 2017

CENTURY FARMS

Democrat News

A bridge on the Stephens Farm bears the mark of its maker and the date of its construction.

MADISON COUNTY Stephens Farm TITLE COMPANY JACOB SCOTT

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‌The Stephens’ farm off State Hwy E in Madison County has been in the family since 1970, but has roots farther back in Gold Rush money from before the Civil War. Gerry Stephens has lived on the farm since his father bought it at auction at the Madison County Courthouse Square in 1970. He, his wife Leslie and their son live in the house that’s been on the property since the 1860s.

Gerry said the farm was originally built by the Peringers of Madison County, a fact permanently etched into a bridge on the property bearing the name of Ed Peringer, marked in May of 1915. Ed’s father was the one who originally acquired the land, leaving it to two sons after he passed.

“His dad was named Leonard,” Gerry said. “He made several trips back and forth to California during the Gold Rush days. And that’s where he got his money, they say, was from gold.”

Gerry said the farm was originally 900 acres, but when the property came up for sale in 1970, it had been reduced to 740.

“When my dad bought it, there was 740 acres,” Gerry said. “My dad and his brother bought it. There was 740 acres and they bought it at the courthouse square.”

He said the story of how the property came to be bought by his father and

JACOB SCOTT‌PHOTOS

The Stephens’ home was constructed around the time of the Civil War, still bearing most of the original materials after modern renovation. uncle was an interesting one.

“If you research the Peringer family of Fredericktown, they were the money people of the town,” he said. “They’d started to die off, and one of the daughters went to [the University of Mississippi].

She married a guy that got drafted by the Miami Dolphins, who then bought the place from the family. Well, he got hurt and couldn’t pay to keep the farm, so it came up for sale at the courthouse.”

In addition to the house, the property still holds the original springhouse and smokehouse, as well as two barns that date back before 1900, both of which are still in good enough condition to be used daily. On the wall of one barn, a note scribbled in pencil is still legible, reading “45 shocks of wheat, July 9, 1897.”

The barns, outbuildings and especially the home has been modified and upgraded with time, but the rugged design and craftsmanship is clearly evident in the 150 year old buildings.

The original building of the two-story home had no indoor plumbing and contained six fireplaces for heating and was a true brick home, not just a home with bricks on it, in Gerry’s words. He said the house was set up in such a way that two families could live comfortably in the house, one on each floor.

Gerry said the farm is among the oldest in the county that is still operating. He said he’s constantly finding old mule shoes and relics from the property’s legacy, all originating with a Missourian who weighed his risks and took a chance on California gold.

A barn on the Stephen’s Farm dates back to the 1800s, even bearing a note written in pencil on one of the walls, detailing an amount of wheat and the year 1897.

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CENTURY FARMS

DEMOCRAT NEWS

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2017 |

B5

The home that has housed several generations of the Combs family is still lived in by Sheldon and his wife.

JACOB SCOTT

The Combs Farm The Combs family of Madison County dates back well into the 1800s, with the current Combs farm being acquired by Silas B. Combs in the 1850s. Silas’ great-grandson Sheldon now owns the farm, living in the same house that he and his father were both born in.

Silas and his wife Elizabeth had 11 children while living in Madison County.

They both left Madison County after the Civil War, leaving the farm to two of their remaining sons.

“He moved off and left it to two of the sons,” Sheldon said. “They were all in the Civil War. Three of them died in the Civil War. One of them with a bullet wound, one of them with the measles and one was buried in a mass grave somewhere in the south.”

“Two of the sons stayed there,” he continued. “My grandfather, who was the baby of the family, and his next-oldest brother Tom Combs stayed on the farm.

Everybody else left.”

Sheldon said there’s a photograph taken during this time in which several family members are pictured, including Tom’s wife Dicey who was visibly pregnant at the time the photo-

graph was taken.

“She died in childbirth with that baby,” Sheldon said. “So after she died, Tom told my grandfather, Ed Combs, ‘This place has bad memories for me. I need to get out of here. Buy me out.

I’m going somewhere else.’

So then my grandfather ended up with the place.”

After Tom left, Sheldon’s grandfather married and built a new house at his wife’s urging.

“He moved up the hollow,” Sheldon said. “When they moved, he went up there with the witching sticks and found water, dug a well and built the house that Cindy and I live in, that my dad was born in and that I was born in. That was in 1884.”

The home has been renovated since its construction, but Sheldon said he left as much original material as possible in the process.

The property also figures in to a local Civil War story centered on a horse that nearby Union soldiers wanted to get their hands on.

“The Yankees had heard about this horse that was there, and they wanted it,” Sheldon said. “So a bunch of them from Ironton came to get that horse. They came

riding in, but of course everyone knew they were coming, so they’d hid the horse.”

Sheldon said his family had taken the horse into a cedar thicket and tied it up while the Union soldiers demanded food from his grandmother.

“Grandma always told this story,” he said. “She was standing in the end of the house and she could see that old horse switching its tail up there in the cedars. But the soldiers never saw him.”

Sheldon said the Union soldiers left empty-handed, but posted some men on a nearby ridge to keep an eye out in case the horse was brought back. They spent the night on the ridge, then followed after their comrades, leaving behind a Civil War artifact that Sheldon still has to this day.

“Those Yankee soldiers camped there that night,” he said. “And then the next morning when they left, they left a sword laying there on the ground. A U.S. Cavalry sword, which we have.”

The legacy of Silas B. Combs still lingers in Madison County, in his descendants and in the farm he originally purchased over 150 years ago.

2016 rates for farm services

T

he University of Missouri Extension publishes custom rates for various farm services.

The rates in the guide are based on a statewide survey that was sent to farmers, agribusiness RACHEL firms, aerial HOPKINS applicators and land improvement contracts. The survey was performed in the winter of 2017 and the rates reported back were charged or payed in 2016.

Producers and land-

owners who need a service performed, but do not know the price ranges for that particular service can benefit from this guide.

It is extremely important that before entering into a contract for services your costs are calculated before charging or paying. It is also critical that the details of the service performed are discussed ahead of time with the other party.

The 2016 Custom Rates for Farm services in Missouri covers: Tillage and planting operations, Application of fertilizer and chemicals, Harvesting and

hauling grain, seed and silage, Processing grain and seed, Harvesting and hauling hay, Other field work and hauling, Fence work, Small equipment jobs and Earth moving/heavy equipment.

To access the guide on the web or download free, visit University of Missouri Extension website and search for G302. If you would like obtain more information about this guide or others or to pick up a 2016 Custom Rate Guide in person, visit your local Extension Office. http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G302

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CENTURY FARMS

B6 | Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Democrat News

JACOB SCOTT PHOTOS‌

An outbuilding from another time bears the sign designating the Sanders-Follis Farm as an official Century Farm.

The SandersFollis Farm JACOB SCOTT

‌ onita Follis is the sixth C generation in her family to run a farm that dates back to before the Civil War. The property was originally acquired by her great-great-great-grandfather John Sitzes, and was later passed down to her great-great-grandfather Edward Sanders.

Edward had come to Madison County from North Carolina around 1845 and married Artamissa Sitze, the great-granddaughter of a Revolutionary War veteran. The two raised ten children on their farm, on which they ran cattle.

Edward was killed during the Civil War, alongside his friend Ellis Kemp, for helping Confederate sympathizers get to the South.

Union soldiers came to Sanders’ farm out of uniform and asked where he could be found. Conita said

the soldiers found Sanders in a field near Twelvemile Creek where he was captured.

Sanders and Kemp were shot nearby and were buried on the farm. The place they were buried was later donated by the Sanders family to the Mt. Pisgah Church, and is now the Mt. Pisgah Cemetery.

Conita said Edward’s contribution to the family still exists today, both seen and unseen.

“The house that Edward lived in still stands,” Conita said.

“And we have some huge rocks that are around what used to be our mailbox, from an old grist mill that my two aunts ran,” she said.

Edward’s son James married Martha Anveline McKinney, who also had lost her father during the Civil War. James was an active member of the Fredericktown

40

The home which at one time housed Edward Sanders during the Civil War still stands on the Follis property. and Madison County communities, and was eventually elected to the Missouri House of Representatives.

Conita’s father, grand-

The grave of Edward Sanders in what is now the Mt. Pisgah Cemetery, and was once part of Edward’s farm.

years

father, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather and great-great-greatgrandfather were all born and raised on the farm on

which the Follis’ still run cattle today. Her house has been inhabited by several generations of her family. Her grandchildren are

the eighth generation of the family to have lived in Madison County, making them one of the area’s most well-established families.

Members of the Follis family, representing the sixth, seventh and eighth generation to live on the farm first established by Edward Sanders.

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CENTURY FARMS

Democrat News

Wednesday, June 14, 2017 | B7

SchulteSkaggs Farm PROVIDED BY RUTH ANN SKAGGS

‌This farm property has been owned by my family since my great-great grandfather, Joseph Schulte, bought it in 1870 at a sheriffs’ tax sale, for $5,000. The farm consisted of 176 acres at the time with a large brick home. The house had been built by Ezekiel Matthews in 1848 with slave labor, using bricks made on the site.

The farm house is located about half way between Mine La Motte and Fredericktown on what is now Highway “00.”

The house remains much the same as it was built in 1848 with additions of seven porches, two bedrooms and a dining room added in 1903 and some of the porches closed in or removed in the early 1960s being replaced with the columns and rooms as it appears today.

An interesting story from the Civil War was often told about this home. The son-in-law of Ezekiel Matthews, a Mr. O’Bannon, was living on the farm and did not want to fight for either side. When soldiers for either side were in the area, he would hide out in a space under the kitchen floor that had a trap door. He contracted pneumonia and became very ill and was bedridden. When he was near death, soldiers stood on each side of his sick bed and intended to kill him if he survived his illness.

My grandmother often told that during the Civil War many houses in the area were burned by soldiers if the residents were considered sympathizers for either side. She was told that this house survived because the lady of the house at that time, Mrs. Ezekiel Mathews, fed soldiers from both sides. She supposedly had a code of what colors or types of laundry she would hang out that would signal those fighting for each side as to whether it was safe for Union or Rebel soldiers to come to the house to be fed.

In 1884, my great grandfather, John F. Schulte married Katherine Gamma and they moved into the Schulte farm home. John F. Schulte inherited one-half of the farm in 1897 when his father, Joseph, died.

John F. Schulte increased the size of the farm from 176 acres to more than 500 when he passed away in 1910.

After Great Grandpa John F. Schulte died, my great uncle, Frank Schulte, operated the farm until 1955 when he had a stroke and could not continue to run the farm. In 1958, the Skaggs Brothers (Charley, Raymond and John Paul), bought the Schulte heirs’ portion of the farm. The farm is now owned by my father, John Paul Skaggs’, heirs – Joan Means, Donna Kline, Mary Beth Mathews, Robby Skaggs (heirs) and myself. We are part of the fifth generation to own this property.

This farm was always one of the largest and most productive farms in Madison County. For many years wheat was the principal crop, along with cattle and hogs. It was necessary to harvest large amounts of hay to winter the cattle and feed the many horses and mules that provided the power to pull the early farm machines.

There was always at least one hired man on the farm year-round and at harvest time there would be ten or more hired men. At thresh-

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY RUTH ANN SKAGGS‌

An aerial view of the Skaggs farm

The sun sets behind the silo on the Skaggs farm. ing time my grandmother, Ruth Schulte Skaggs, would feed 25 or 30 men at each meal. The thresher and crew would stay four or five days to thresh the 2,000 bushels of wheat and 300 bushels of oats and sometimes 6 or 7 hundred bushels of barley. The wheat was sold for income, the oats were to feed the horses and mules, and the barley was fed to the hogs. Only a few acres of corn were raised to fill the silo for silage to feed the cattle.

My father often told of times when the threshing machine was pulled by a steam engine.

When my grandparents, my father and his brothers moved to the farm in 1934, there were six head of mules, four or more work horses, one saddle horse, and one tractor. My dad was ten years old at the time and had been living in town where they had electric lights, running water, and indoor plumbing. On the farm, there were coal oil lamps, no running water (only a water bucket) and an outdoor toilet. A funny story was told of my dad and/or uncles going to the outhouse late one evening and setting a fire with the Sears catalogue to keep warm while taking care of their business. Sometime in the night, a passerby alerted my grandparents to the outhouse being on fire! They had to then get a replacement from a neighbor property where the house had been burned and the outhouse was unused. Years later, they got a 32-volt

generator with 16 batteries to run electric lights in the house and an electric water pump. Much later, in the 1950s, an indoor bathroom was added.

The Schulte farm was also one of the most progressive farms in the county. In 1917, it was one of the first in Madison County to have a tractor. The tractor was called a “Universal” and was something like the early garden tractors. It had two large steel wheels in front and regular horse-drawn machinery was attached to the rear. The driver sat on the horse machinery seat and drove the tractor from back there. This “Universal” was still in the machine shed at the farm in 1934. However, there was also a FarmAll F12 with steel wheels that they were using. This was the tractor that my father first drove in the late 1930s.

Today, my nephew Eli Skaggs is the sixth generation of our family to farm this ground. Many days he takes his daughter Stella or his nephew Gunner, the seventh-generation kids, in the tractor or truck with him to check and feed cows, work the poultry houses, make hay, or fertilize the fields.

Farming, like everything else in this world has seen many changes in the 147 years that this farm has been operated by my family. Farming has gone from a time when the only power a farmer had was his own muscle or animal power, to the time of electric motors and diesel

Gunner Skaggs is a seventh generation farmer on the Skaggs Farm.

The Skaggs Farm has been in the family since 1870. power or solar energy. The early farms raised their own food and food for the animals that provided power to till the soil. Every farm today has electric power, telephones, running water and all the conveniences of city people. The farmer doesn’t have to work from sun up to sun down anymore. He knows as much about the world as his city cousins do and he can do most of his work from the seat of the tractor, his laptop or his pick-up truck.

There are far fewer farmers than there used to be and it takes a lot more money to keep a farm going than in the past.

But some things have not changed. Farmers are just different — for whatever reason. If you live outdoors, watching things grow, taking care of animals, you acquire a different outlook on the world. Farmers are still the best people on earth. I feel privileged to know so many farmers.

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B8 | Wednesday, June 14, 2017

CENTURY FARMS

Keith, Clay and Freddy Lerche represent the three most recent generations to farm the land originally acquired by ancestor Frederick Lerche in the 1860’s.

The remains of a home on the Lerche property, built and lived in by previous generations of Lerches.

Democrat News

JACOB SCOTT PHOTOS‌

Lerche Family Farm ‌The first Lerches to come to Madison County were Frederick and Sofia Lerche, who came from Prussia in 1853 with their son Otto.

After getting a start in the area, Otto eventually married Lillie Rhodes and had four children, Estella, Mayme, Fred and Otto, Jr. In 1901, Otto, Sr. died and left Lillie with four young children and lumber cut for a new home.

As the oldest boy, Fred Lerche became the man of the house and started farming at age 9. Fred rode throughout the area, buying cattle as he could, eventually shipping his first carload to St. Louis in his early teens.

“He’d drive them into town and then put them on the train,” said Keith Lerche, Fred’s grandson.

Fred’s son Freddy tells about a time that cattle got loose in town and trampled the grounds around a church before they were loaded on a train.

“The train got there early or the cattle got there late or something, and they blew the whistle on the train and they spooked the cattle,” Keith said.

The Lerche’s obtained property over time, buying the piece that Freddy now lives on in 1942.

“They bought this in about 1942,” Freddy said. “[My dad] would tell a story, he went down to Schulte’s to get something worked on, and somebody said,

‘Well, I guess you come to town to buy the Sinclair place?’ And he’d forgot about it, but he went right up to the courthouse and bought it.”

The Lerche’s herd grew, with Fred managing the herd and Otto, Jr. handling the books. When World War I broke out, the Lerche’s were notified that one of the two brothers would have to enlist.

Being older, Fred volunteered and was sent to Texas for training but was never sent abroad.

Otto, Jr. died of pneumonia in 1927 at the age of 31 after becoming overheated while stacking wheat in the barn, costing Fred both a brother and a business partner.

Fred built up the farm and became a prominent community figure, becoming involved with banking and education. Freddy said he remembers buying cattle and hogs on the street, before there were stock laws.

When he passed away in 1967 at the age of 75, Fredericktown’s stores closed for the funeral service.

Fred had four children, Freddy, Bobby, Otto and Mildred. Freddy still lives on the Lerche farm, which is worked by the late Bobby Lerche’s son Keith and grandson Clay.

From 1967 to the mid 80s, Freddy and Bobby operated a feed store in Fredericktown, specializ-

A barn bearing relics of past eras of farming equipment stands on the Lerche property. Beneath the opening of the hay loft is a chain, meant to tie a horse to while waiting to be used to load hay into the loft.

RIGHT: An outhouse stills stands near the remains of a home on the Lerche property. ing in fertilizer and lime from Ste. Genevieve.

“It’d cost us a dollar and a half for a ton over there at Ste. Genevieve, and we’d haul it into this country for four and a half,” Freddy said. “We got $3 a ton, going fifty miles. And we thought we were making money! Everything was cheap back then—an altogether different world.”

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141 Commercial Dr. Fredericktown

w 2017 F-350 neKing Ranch Crew Cab, 6.7L Loade

d!

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–

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– financing

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Stk#F0632

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quality

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All offers with approved credit. Offers may include $1,000 Auto Plaza Trade assistance, and on New vehicles all applicable factory rebates and other incentives. See dealer for complete details and available financing offers. Offers end June 30, 2017.

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