Tonns say pandemic gave them time to apply for Century Farm status

Tina and David Tonn on their farm west of Waterville, with older aerial views of the farmland. (Tom Nelson photo)

By TOM NELSON editor@apgsomn.com

The COVID pandemic has impacted everyone’s lives for more than a year now, but it has also played a role in getting Century Farm status for the land owned by David and Tina Tonn of Waterville. COVID this past year and everyone being at home, I just decided that we would try for it. We looked up the paperwork, everything was there and we could apply for it and that was great.

“When you stop and think that my relatives have been walking around on this ground for over 100 years, then it really starts to sink in that you are part of something special.” to 1907, when Max and Emma Lorenz purchased the original 110 acres just west of Waterville on Ridge Road. The maternal great grandparents of David Tonn, Max and Emma Lorenz, both immigrated to the area from Germany.

“I am not sure where they were from in Germany or why they came over here, but they were both here a few years before

they purchased the farm,” David Tonn said.

“From the start, the farm was diversified. They had a few dairy cows, raised a lot of chickens, some hogs and even grew seed corn for Northrup King for a few years.”

The Lorenz’s added another 80 acres to the farm three years later, and lived on the property with their seven children. The oldest son, Herman Lorenz (David Tonn’s grandfather), also took up farming and purchased land adjacent to his father’s property in Waterville.

Herman and his wife Louise were married in 1931.

“They were married right in the middle of the (Great) Depression … and they survived,” David Tonn said.

The couple went on to have four girls, with the oldest daughter, Darlene, continuing the family’s farming tradition. Darlene later married Lawrence Tonn and the couple went on to purchase the original farm from Max and Emma Lorenz.

“My father (Lawrence Tonn) was originally from Connecticut and he was going to ag (agriculture) school out there, and between his first and second year of college one of the requirements was that he had to find work on a farm,” David Tonn said.

“Well, he knew the minister at his church and that minister turned out to be Max’s (Lorenz) son. He then asked Max’s son ‘Can you find me a job on a farm?’ The minister asked his Dad (Max Lorenz), and he said that Herman could use some help. So my dad came out here, he met the farmer’s daughter and stayed.”

The next generation

The farm, which Lawrence and Darlene Tonn took over from Max and Emma Lorenz, included the family’s home.

“The original house was there when they purchased the farm,” David Tonn said. “They (Max and Emma Lorenz) added on to it, they then built another house next to it, which is where I was born after my parents took over the farm.”

Previous home of David and Tina Tonn on their farm property in Waterville. This was the house that David Tonn grew up in and later moved into with his wife Tina before moving to their current home which is located next door on the family farm. (Tom Nelson photo)

That second house was built in the 1930s and David Tonn’s parents moved into the house after they got married. The couple went on to remodel and update the house to make it livable for their family.

“The second house was initially built to house a hired man, and the upstairs was used for grain storage. They harvested phalaris seed, and it needed to be spread thin to be dried and it took a long time, so they spread it on the floor upstairs in the house. I remember as a kid, my parents would always be mad if I would go upstairs and run around through that stuff.”

Lawrence and Darlene Tonn had three children. David Tonn was the only one to stay in the farming business, while his brother opened a successful auto repair business in Waterville and his sister lives in Prior Lake. David Tonn went on to work the farm with his dad while growing up.

“Early in the 1970s, when I was high school, Dad had medical issues,” David Tonn said. “He needed to change the farming operation since his knees were bad. When you are milking cows and squatting to milk the cows, the doctors told him in six months he would be done. “Instead, he built a milking parlor where he could stand to do the work. We tripled the size of the herd and that’s when I started into it. We milked 80 cows for a number of years.”

The Tonns milked cows for several years before getting out of that business in 1995.

“In the 1970s and 1980s, the cows made a living for us but it got to be too much work,” David Tonn said. “Dad was looking at retirement and I said I was not going to do this by myself.”

In 1981, David Tonn purchased his grandfather Herman’s property and later combined that with the original farm owned by Max and Emma Lorenz. At present, the Tonn farm has 565 acres.

After the family stopped milking cows in the mid 1990s, they fed cattle and at one time had a peak of 400 head of cattle. Currently, the Tonns grow corn and soybeans on their property.

“I still have 11 head of cattle right now just to say I have a few, but it is more of a hobby right now,” Tonn said.

Century Farm near Gibbon in northwest Nicollet County. The Tweit farm there is currently owned by Tina’s parents and farmed with help from her brother.

The couple have been married for 31 years and have three daughters - Leslie (27), Megan (26) and Nicole (24). They lived for many years in the house on the original farm property. David Tonn’s parents built a new house on the property originally owned by Herman Lorenz in 2000, and this is the house that David and Tina Tonn currently reside in today. They moved into the new house six years ago. He is not sure if a family member will be farming the land in the future, but David and Tina Tonn are certain that the land will remain in the family.

“The family will keep it, it just a question who will farm the acres.” Tina Tonn said. “We will retire right here, when you have the views that you have here on the farm, we have no desire to move anywhere else.” black. You didn’t want to see any trash on the surface. Now, the more trash you can leave on the surface the better you like it for erosion purposes and so on.

The original house on the property owned by Herman and Louise Lorenz was a log cabin, and it proved to be a well-built structure.

Previous home of David and Tina Tonn on their farm property in Waterville. This was the house that “The current house we live in now was David Tonn grew up in and later moved into with his wife Tina before moving to their current home built in 2000, but the original house built here was a log cabin. They (Herman and Louise Lorenz) had added onto it at least three times. I remember when the contractor came in to take the house down, to build this one, he hit it with his bulldozer and it didn’t move,” David Tonn said. “The log cabin was so solid, he had to bring in the excavator and take the logs apart, piece by piece to get it out of here.” David Tonn has several vintage International Harvester tractors on his farm, which he collects. (Tom Nelson photo) The land’s Century Farm status also gave David Tonn a chance to reflect on the evolution of farming over the past 100 years and how the business has changed with the times.

“I can remember as a kid the first time that Dad had a field of corn that yielded 100 bushels an acre, and he thought this was the most you could ever possibly raise,” David Tonn said. “Now 100 bushels an acre is a crop failure and if you don’t do 200 bushels something is wrong. David Tonn added, “In the old days, they raised a lot of small grain, alfalfa and a lot other crops. They did not just raise corn and beans. Today, corn and beans is about all there is. Farmers today are more specialized. The old farmers had a dozen cows, 20 pigs, 50 chickens, geese and ducks, etc. Something always got them by, now a days it’s all or nothing.”

In addition to changes in the industry, the land itself has changed immensely since the original purchase a century ago. David Tonn noted that the original deed listed 60 acres of swamp land. Ditches, drainage tiles and hard work by the family turned it all into quality farm land.

“I know if my great grandfather Max would see what this farm is today he would shake his head,” said David Tonn.

At this point, David and Tina’s daughter Megan helps out on the farm but she doesn’t not have a current interest in taking over operations. At 64, David Tonn is looking ahead to retirement but still “The size of tractors has also changed. Back in the day, you had a two bottom plow and that was all you could handle. Nowadays, you don’t even have a plow .. you use a ripper or what not. When it came to the field, it used to be everything had to be completely

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