We are frequently asked, "Why The Old Smith Place?" when the topic of our farm name is raised; especially by family members (We are the third generation of Andersons to inhabit). I suppose we could've called it The Old Ehlert Place but nobody around here called it that to our knowledge. Dane's grandfather Mervin Anderson grew up next door to this place and as a kid watched Fred Ehlert and his family farm all these acres and more. When Fred's family put it up for sale after the passing of his wife Annie, Mervin wasted no time in making his offer and was awarded the Warranty Deed on March 16th of 1946. Although there is no record of a mortgage attached to the property, Dane said his grandpa paid for it in two years time raising pigs up in the woods on the north side of the farm. He must have been so proud! I'll bet he was equally as proud when his son Delmar bought the place from him in 1971 for the grand sum of $28,000.
Dane has many happy (and some not so happy) memories of time spent here on weekends and holidays with his brother Scott, his dad, his uncles, his grandparents and his bonus brother and sisters after his dad remarried. At one time they had the run of over 600 odd acres on which to hunt and fish and work and just do what boys do. I don't think Dane ever really thought he'd be back here farming the place as an adult. He met his first wife Melva in Janesville while she was still in school, they lived and worked and raised two wonderful boys together and after that battled cancer together until her passing. When I met Dane some years later and learned he was the husband of only one wife for nearly 30 years you'd better believe I paid attention. That seems to be so rare in this day and age. In many ways, I inherited a whole family when I married Dane, the product of his upbringing and his marriage to Melva. Though we never met, as the years go by, I feel closer and closer to her the more I get to know Dane and his boys and my dear daughter-in-law Margaret.
Despite the nearly 75 years of Anderson history on this place (probably well over a hundred if you include adjoining properties!) we never really found a way, or felt right about weaving Anderson into our farm name. As we walk these acres we often feel the presence of the many who have gone before, and not just those recorded on paper or those whose stories that have been passed along to us. Nearly every season we dig up something that causes us to wonder, to reflect... And sometimes, it's just a feeling in the air.
When we stumbled across the abstract to the place in a box of papers, it just seemed right. The Old Smith Place. It fit. It was a specific part of the place's history, and yet generic enough (Smith) to be somehow honoring to all that had gone before.
Thanks for listening to a bit of our farm history. My farm neighbor and friend Carissa challenged me recently to the 10 day farm photo challenge. It seemed a fitting reason to fire up the old blog which I've been meaning to do for quite some time. Perhaps by the 10th entry I will have formed a new healthy (for me) habit! Here's to trying...
