HANCOCK

Jefson Century Farm

Farm Name: Floyd and Vicky Jefson, Andy and Angela Jefson

Year established: 1896

Generation: 4

Township: Madison

Acres: 39.1

Year awarded: 2022 for many accomplishments. He became a certified teacher at age 17. He served in the Iowa state legislature and the family has the chair, given to him for his service, that he sat in when in session.

He helped bring the telephone system to that area and was active in many organizations. He had an arboretum where he planted different trees and bushes. He also sold insurance and would get on a bus to watch the girls basketball tournament from start to finish.

“He was kind of a character,” said Kirk Jefson, one of Lyle and Velma’s sons.

His wife Edith was also a teacher and memorable in her own right. The church she was attending only delivered the service in Swedish, which they believed was the only language they could use, and she did not understand Swedish so she started attending Calvary Baptist Church in Forest City.

“She was a strong woman of faith,” said Kirk Jefson. “She was a rock.”

S.B. Durant and Edith were parents to two daughters and adopted two brothers.

See JEFSON, Page 42C

By LORI BERGLUND Farm News writer

McCALLSBURG — Kurtis

Mork comes from strong Norwegian stock. That strength has seen him through plenty of hard times on the family’s Hardin County farm.

“Farming was my whole life until I fell 18 feet and broke my back,” Mork recalled. “I fell from a light post.”

That was back in 2001 and Mork essentially retired early after the injury, but still carried on as best he could. Last December, his back was injured again in an auto accident where his vehicle was struck.

“It took me a year to get over it the first time, but I think I’ll recover faster this time,” he said with a strong dose of Norwegian optimism.

Mork describes a life in which few things came easy, but, in true Norwegian fashion, he never expected an easy life.

“Farming was always a challenge,” he said. “Every year was different.”

Family ancestors first purchased the Mork Century Farm on Highway S-27 near McCallsburg in 1921. Albert Mork, Kurtis Mork’s grandfather, paid the thenhefty sum of $126.87 per acre for 320 acres of farmland.

Albert Mork was born in Norway and looked forward to making a better future for generations of his family here in Iowa. The farm would be passed on to Albert’s son Peter, known as P.J., and then to Peter’s wife Marie.

It was Kurtis Mork’s mother, Marie, who provided decades of leadership on the farm before passing it on to her son. She would become a single mother early in life and it would be son Kurtis who helped her maintain the family farm.

“I grew up on the farm and I was the youngest of five children,” Mork said. “I raised calves and did all the chores, but I didn’t have time for showing livestock at the fair or anything like that. I was doing the farming when I was a freshman in high school, so I was busy.”

Mork recalls his grandfather, Albert Mork, as a strong Norwegian influence in his life.

“Albert was the original owner of the farm; I remember him well,” Mork said. “He was a good old

See MORK, Page 40C

By DARCY DOUGHERTY MAULSBY

Farm News writer

THOR — When Carrie (Hildahl) Olson was a teenager, life held so much promise. Carrie (1841-1921) had traveled from Norway to America with her parents, sister and brothers, who settled near Lee County, Illinois, in 1859.

Carrie married Ole Olson Espe in Illinois, and the couple had three sons. Sadly, Ole died, and Carrie was left to raise their three boys: Ole, 10; Martin, 8; and Albert, 6. In 1872, Carrie and her young sons moved to southern Humboldt County, Iowa, to start a new life.

“Carrie was about 30 years old by then,” said Mary Anderson, Carrie’s great-granddaughter. “After arriving in Humboldt County, she bought 160 acres of land in Norway Township for $6 an acre.”

By 1873, Carrie married a fellow Norwegian, Halvor Larson. She and Halvor had two daughters, starting in 1874, although one of the girls died in infancy in 1875.

Then Halvor Larson died in 1876, leaving Carrie a widow for a second time. Carrie had her faith to carry her through, however. Not long after arriving in the area that would become Thor, she invited other settlers to attend Lutheran church services in her home. This laid the foundation for what would become the Ullensvang Lutheran Church, which still serves the community and celebrated its 150th anniversary in August 2022.

Carrie’s land passed to her son Ole (a bachelor farmer) and later

Humboldt

Olson Heritage Farm

Established: 1872

Township:

Norway Township

Acres: 160

Heritage Farm Award: 2022

Generation: 4th to her son Albert.

“Albert was born in 1866 and didn’t marry until 1906, when he was 40 years old,” Anderson noted. “His wife, Margaret, was 30 when they married.”

The couple had five children, including three girls and twin boys, Johan (Anderson’s father) and Carl, who were born in 1909. “During the winter of 1909-1910, my grandparents often kept the boys covered in blankets in a box behind the cook-stove to help keep them warm,” Anderson said.

Anderson’s father and his twin started school in 1915 in an old country schoolhouse called “Central School” in Norway Township. They later attended school in Thor. “Because farms were so self-sufficient back then, my dad didn’t learn about money until he went to town school,” Anderson said.

While Johan and Carl had to drop out of high school around

1926 to help full-time on the family’s farm, Johan did keep an essay he wrote in high school. “I was born among the old, sturdy pioneers of Iowa,” he stated. “I’ve become acquainted with farm life and have always respected it.”

In 1942, Johan married Gertrude Peter, whom he met at a dance in Fort Dodge. “While my mom came from German heritage, we grew up eating the traditional Norwegian foods like lutefisk, lefse and lingonberries,” said Anderson, who has two brothers and a sister.

The Olsons farmed with Farmall and Minneapolis-Moline equipment, since there was a Minneapolis-Moline dealer in Thor. Livestock were also part of the farm, including hogs, beef cattle, sheep and chickens. “When I was about 11, Mom wanted 100 roosters, so that became my 4-H project,” said Anderson, who was a member of the Norway Patriots 4-H Club. “I ended up with 99, so that was pretty good.”

Anderson attended school through eighth grade in Thor.

“There were about 10 or 12 students in our class, and we got to go to Treloar’s restaurant in Fort Dodge after completing eighth grade,” said Anderson, a 1961 Eagle Grove High School graduate.

Anderson and her husband, Larry, a fellow Norway Township native, and their son, Mark, continue to farm their family’s Heritage Farm, which is a mile and a half southeast of Thor. “I liked growing up on the farm,” Anderson said. “We feel blessed to have this farm heritage.”

By DOUG CLOUGH

Farm News writer

HOLSTEIN — Carl Henry Kay came from Schwartbuck, Germany, in 1911. One of the first things he may have noticed is that Americans mispronounced his last name — a lot.

As a frame of reference, it’s pronounced like “guy” not like “day.” It’s a problem that Curtis Kay has learned to live with over the years, just like his father Herbert and grandfather Carl.

“I answer to either pronunciation,” said Kay. “Some of the Kays — we figure they are distant relation — moved on to Nebraska, changing their spelling to ‘Kai’.”

Carl Kay immigrated to this area because he grew up in the Schleswig-Holstein area of Northern Germany.

“When my grandpa and my dad would talk, it was always in German,” said Kay. “My grandfather knew very little English. He was the youngest of 11 children, and he came by himself. My grandmother, Carl’s wife Paula, came with her family from Germany, in 1914.

“Grandpa started out being a hired hand. In 1922, he had enough money to buy this farm. He came to America with only $25 in his pocket; he had to work on the ship scooping coal on the way over here to pay for his trip.”

Carl and Paula Kay had seven children, four girls and three boys. Herbert, one of the three boys, with his wife Joyce had five children, three girls and two boys, Curtis being one of the two.

Curtis married his wife Lana, and they have two daughters JoAnne, 38, and Melissa, 34.

Mork

Curtis and Lana farm the 160 century farm acres and other acres acquired later, now totaling 550. They also have Black Angus cattle with certified purebred bulls.

“We have 35 cows, feeding the calves out to market weight,” said Kay. “My dad had livestock for all but three years, and my grandfather had livestock as well. When Lana and I got married, we lived at the place to the north for seven years, but otherwise I’ve been here my whole life. Even when I lived over the hill, I was here every day working with Dad.”

Curtis’ dad Herbert had cattle and a farrow-to-finish operation.

“We had 30 sows then,” said Kay, “which was a big operation when you did everything by hand. We farrowed out in the pasture, and some of the pigs would even get in with the cattle. He had 20 to 30 feeder calves, which were also Black Angus. My grandpa Carl had a similar livestock operation.

“Dad said that soybeans weren’t part of the crop rotation when he was a kid. There was corn, oats, and a lot of red clover hay because, at that time, they didn’t have alfalfa. It took a lot of feed to farm with horses. We got two cuttings a year of red clover hay and the blooms would make the entire field red.”

Kay now grows corn, soybeans, and alfalfa for his cattle, selling alfalfa to area farmers.

By way of Curtis’ thinking, his father Herbert was a “lucky boy.”

“Dad was conservative, and he always saved everything,” said Kay. “He didn’t throw anything

Continued from Page 37C

Norwegian. He was a carpenter by trade and came to the United States back when there was a king of Norway. He fled there to come to the United States.”

Many fond memories were made when Mork’s mother would take him to visit his grandfather at the grandfather’s home near Garden City. “I would sit and listen to his stories,” Mork recalled. “He had a ’57 Chevy, but he never had a driver’s license.” away. When the 1980s came and others were going broke due to incredibly high interest rates, he had the money to buy land that came up for sale. Dad had a custom cornshelling business, which only made $45 to $80 a day, but he would always save that income.”

Mork credits his mother, Marie, with being strong enough to raise a family on her own.

Herbert Kay passed away four years ago with nearly 700 acres of land. “Much of who I am came from my dad and grandpa,” said Kay. “They taught me how to work hard and save for a rainy day — those days always come.”

“Mom was the rock of the family,” he said. “My dad left in the 1960s and I kind of took over the farm for her. I was farming 240 acres, she had a couple thousand chickens, a garden, and we pretty much held the family together. It was right before my freshman year in high school.”

Over the decades to come, there would be better times, and still some hard times along the way.

“I raised corn, beans, cattle and hogs in the early years,” he recalled. “In 1976, a

-Submitted photos tornado took the barn, cattle shed, a few bins, and the machine shed. I rebuilt the machine shed and built a hog confinement.”

ABOVE: “Up until Dad passed, we baled hay together,” said Curtis Kay. Herbert Kay is shown here driving the tractor while his son Curtis stacks the square bales.

LEFT: Curtis Kay was only 5 when this photo was taken during the 1960s with his dog Peanuts.

BELOW: First-generation land owner Carl Kay hand-picked this wagon of corn in the late 1920s. “My grandfather came from Germany to get away from its aggression to other parts of the world,” said Curtis Kay.

Mork said he stayed in the hog business until the Carter administration, and that was the end of the hogs.

A family member on his dad’s side is now farming the land for Mork. They raise corn, soybeans, and sometimes sweet corn. The last few years, the soybean ground has also been double-cropped to produce peas.

Like many farmers his age, he is looking for ways to deed the land to his two children. His son, Doug, lives on the Century Farm. A daughter, Shari, lives in Wisconsin.

Mork’s significant other, Delaine, rounds out the family. She attended the Century Farm presentation at the Iowa State Fair with the entire family and celebrated the accomplishment of maintaining a family farm for 100 years.

It has not been an easy life on the farm, but strong Norwegians are always up for a challenge.

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With such a large family, they learned how to get the most out of a dollar. Floyd Jefson said when they went to McDonald’s they each got a hamburger, but had to share the package of french fries.

“We didn’t have everything, but had everything we wanted,” said Floyd Jefson.

The Jefsons are a close-knit family and as COVID began, they started keeping in touch using Zoom to keep in contact as a group. While COVID has subsided, the Zoom calls are held every two weeks. “We’re even closer now,” said Floyd Jefson.

The Jefsons hold a large family reunion every four years with attendance as high as 160 showing up out of a possible 180 scattered from Maryland to California. Thanksgiving is another favorite time when the family gathers.

“You always hear a story you never heard before,” said Lyle and Velma’s daughter Elaine Meyer.

The original house on the farm burned down in 1988. Velma Jefson saved everything from Cool Whip containers to egg cartons, according to the family. The fire started in the basement, accidentally, in three garbage bags of paper she had saved.

A new house was then built on the farm and it is the home of Floyd’s son Andy Jefson and his family. Andy is the farmer and dairy man, milking up to 44 head in the barn. The barn has never been without livestock in its lifetime. The milk is sold to Prairie Farms of Davenport.

Floyd Jefson remembers as a boy when his dad would fill the hay mow with chopped hay that the boys would pitch down to the cattle. The boys would open an area in the hay mow first so they would have access to the basketball hoop that hung there.

The Jefson kids remember their parents fondly and respectfully.

“He was a great dad and Mom was selfless,” said Kirk Jefson. “He was just in his punishment. We had it coming.”

“When Dad said, ‘No, sir,’ you knew you were done,” said Elaine Meyer.

“We all had chores to do before school,” said Floyd Jefson.

“We didn’t miss much school,” added Paul Jefson.

Floyd remembered when there were five boys in one bedroom and a football got kicked out of the window, breaking the glass in both windows. When Lyle Jefson saw what happened, he did not get upset. He closed the heat register and as he closed the door in the unheated room with a broken window, said, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Saturday night bath time presented a dilemma for the Jefson kids. There was only one bathtub.

“We knew if we watched both ‘Gunsmoke’ and ‘Paladin,’ we’d get a cold bath,” said Kirk Jefson.

The Jefson kids remember that their friends wanted to visit them on the farm because there was always something going on. Playing hide-and-seek was a favorite game with the laundry chute being a great place to hide, although much caution was needed.

“Our guardian angels worked overtime,” said Paul Jefson. “We worked hard and played harder.”

“We learned to love and fight at the same time,” said Kyle Jefson who lives in Maryland.

By CLAYTON RYE

Farn News writer

CORWITH — Rudolph Glawe

(pronounced with the German pronunciation, Glay-vee) arrived in the United States as a child from north of Berlin, Germany.

He lived near Appleton, Wis., where he was a wheelwright. He later moved to Illinois, and then to Corwith where there was a German population.

He purchased the farm that would become the Century Farm in 1919 for $143.75 an acre. The land around Corwith is flat and black.

“This was all swamp,” said George and Janice Guenther’s daughter, Sara.

Rudolph Glawe loaded tile from the tile plant in Corwith and hauled it to his farm where it was laid.

Sara Guenther said Rudolph Glawe hunted and trapped in the winter.

Rudolph Glawe was father to six children. His son Elmer was his second child, born in 1897. In 1929, Elmer bought another farm located across the road, north of the land his father bought. Janice Guenther is his daughter. It is on this second farm where his granddaughter Janice and her husband George Guenther live today.

Sara Guenther told that when Elmer would walk to country school, Elmer and Rudolph would pick corn by hand on the way to school with Rudolph picking on the return trip home. At the end of the school day, Rudolph would have picked corn on the way to the country school and Rudolph and Elmer would hand pick corn on the walk back home.

Rudolph Glawe worked hard and

Kossuth

Glawe/Guenther Century Farm

Farm Name: Guenther Farms Corp., George and Janice Guenther

Year established: 1919

Generation: 3

Township: Prairie

Acres: 160

Year awarded: 2022 expected his children to also work hard.

“Everyday he checked his kids to make sure they were working hard,” said Janice Guenther.

A census from that time identified Rudolph Glawe as having a fifthgrade education and Elmer Glawe having an eighth-grade education. His family says Elmer read the Bible from cover to cover several times.

“He wore out a Bible,” said Greg Guenther, George and Janice’s son.

“You couldn’t beat him at Chinese checkers,” said Sara Guenther.

Rudolph Glawe died suddenly at age 84 at home when his wife called him for supper and he didn’t come.

Elmer Glawe married Florence, who was working at the bank in Wesley when they met. Their daughter Janice has many memories of growing up on the farm.

“I was the son my dad never had,” she said. “I followed my dad around and took care of the animals. I liked the animals and wandered all over the whole place. I vaguely remember horses.”

George Guenther was a student at Iowa State and Janice Glawe was a student at Drake when they met at an Iowa State-Drake football game. They were married in 1959. They are parents to four daughters and a son.

The five Guenther kids remember the farm as a wonderful place to grow up.

“Us kids were like Mom. We were all over this place,” said Sara Guenther.

There were two houses on the farm. The George Guenther family lived in one and across the driveway lived the grandparents, Elmer and Florence Glawe.

Sara Guenther said the grandparents’ home was a place for the kids as they grew up.

But it was not all play for the kids. Walking beans was a family event, with Janice Guenther as crew chief.

When the kids were grown and gone, Janice Guenther walked the beans by herself and said she didn’t mind it because she didn’t have to listen to the complaining.

Elmer Glawe died at age 99. George and Janice Guenther continue to live in the home on the farm where they raised their family.

KNOBLOCH’S GREENHOUSE is the dream of Myron and his late wife Beth, a partner whose shoes seem impossible to fill. “In 2015, we lost Beth to a battle with brain cancer,” said Knobloch. “Our store’s setup and design were all started by Beth, and we still follow her principles of great store signage and visibility.”

By DOUG CLOUGH Farm News writer

ALVORD — Walt Disney said, “Progress is not possible without change.”

Myron Knobloch embodies that spirit, as well as the heart of his kids, wife Beth, uncle, grandfather, and great-grandfather.

“My wife and I have five kids,” said Knobloch. “Laura, Brett, Clark, Amy, and Darin. All three boys are in the business. Amy helps on weekends. Laura is in Michigan and very involved with advertising, signage, online presence ... all that kind of stuff.”

And where there is advertising, there must be an enterprise.

In this case, the enterprise is Knobloch’s Greenhouse. It’s the dream of Myron and his late wife Beth, a partner whose shoes seem impossible to fill; the family does their best to honor her legacy, and her fingerprints are all over the greenhouse.

“In 2015, we lost Beth to a battle with brain cancer,” said Knobloch. “Our store’s setup and design were all started by Beth, and we still follow her principles of great store signage and visibility.”

Walking through the spacious greenhouse, you get a sense of her organization and marketing prowess.

There were many years when the farmer on this land grew traditional crops.

“My Uncle Carl was a bachelor with no children, so he wanted one of his brother’s kids to have this farm,” said Knobloch. “I was just 20 years old at the time and wasn’t sure if I wanted that kind of obligation. I was born and raised on my father’s farm, so it wasn’t entirely new to me; my folks, Ezra and Marie, had cattle, hogs, chickens, corn, and beans.”

Myron’s Grandpa Ernst and Grandmother Caroline built their house on the land that Myron owns now and where the greenhouse resides. “I was only 18 when Grandpa died,” said Knobloch, “and history wasn’t such a big deal to me then. Now, of course, I’d like to ask him all kinds of questions about our farm’s history.

“I didn’t realize the similarities we had in life. Grandpa had a strong interest in horticulture. Uncle Carl had an interest as well. Grandpa lost his first wife when he was 47. I wish I had known him better.”

Knobloch’s great-grandfather

See KNOBLOCH, Page 65C

THE DETERMAN FAMILY had T-shirts made for the occasion when their two farms received the Century and Heritage Farm Awards, respectively, at the 2022 Iowa State Fair. Pictured, from left, are Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, Rafe McClain, Desiree Determan McClain, Gordon Determan, Tammy Determan, Charles Determan, Adrienne Determan, Nora Determan Burkgren, Denise Determan, Duane Determan and Brent Johnson, president of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.

By KRISTIN DANLEY-GREINER

Farm News writer

HAVERHILL — As the fifth generation to live on his family’s Marshall County farm, producer Duane Determan was thrilled to have their two separate farms be recognized in the same year as both Century and Heritage Farms.

Determan’s family farm at 2849 Newby Ave. in Haverhill was honored as a Heritage Farm in 2022 at the Iowa State Fair while the family farm at 2776 Newby Ave. in Haverhill was recognized in 2022 as a Century Farm.

“It was a pretty big deal. The families all got together, we had T-shirts made and people I didn’t think would be interested were really excited, especially about the heritage farm honor,” Determan said.

His paternal great-grandparents on his grandfather’s side bought the Heritage Farm in 1871, which is where Determan lives now. The

Marshall

farm owned first by John Vernard Determan and Mary Spiker Determan originally had 120 acres; it currently has 168 acres.

“My great-grandfather came first and then brought his family with him, including his own father and mother. They came when they were in their 60s,” Determan said.

Determan’s great-grandparents on his dad’s mother’s side bought the century farm in 1890. It started with 160 acres originally owned by John Stalzer and Anna Westendorf, then grew to its current size of 233.98 acres. His great-grandparents hailed from Vienna, Austria, and Dubuque County, Iowa.

“The Determans came to the Haverhill area 10 years before the railroad came through, which plotted the town of Haverhill as a train stop,” Determan said.

Growing up, Determan helped feed the family’s chickens and gathered the eggs as a youngster.

As he got older, he advanced to cleaning hog sheds and feeding cattle. Eventually he transitioned to planting and harvesting row crops.

“I worked off the farm and am the first generation in our family that didn’t receive primary income off the farm like my parents, grandparents and greatgrandparents did. I always had a job in town,” Determan said.

Currently, the farm ground is rented out, but Determan still tends to the CRP land that was established during the 1980s during the farm crisis.

“It was tough in the ’80s,” he said. “But we still hung on to the family farm. My dad passed away in ’86 and that was a really tough time.”

Although he’s retired now,

See DETERMAN, Page 76C

By DOUG CLOUGH

Farm News writer

HARTLEY — Across from the Covey Church of Grant Township in O’Brien County is the land settled and farmed by Alexander McCreath, originally from Ireland.

“Alex was born in 1857,” said Jon McCreath, son of current owner — his mother, Sharon McCreath (pronounced like “breath”).

“He was born in Ballymoney, Ireland, County Wexford, south of Dublin. Alex, my great-grandfather, had two brothers and five sisters. The family moved to Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1861 and then moved to America — Cook County in Illinois, the Chicago area. Alex was 7 years old when the family settled in the Chicago area in 1864.”

Eventually, Alex McCreath found himself just west of Cedar Rapids in the Traer area, marrying Agnes Brown in April of 1884 when he was 27 years old. “Two months prior to that is when he