My father was born
and raised in this area. He helped his father farm until he was called for duty in
World War II. He served in duty on the
U.S.S.
Altair (AD-11).
After serving in the Navy, he returned to Washington D.C. and worked
as a welder. It was at that time Howard and Josephine were married. My mother
was born and raised near Sykesville,
Maryland. My parents had four children Robert, Mary, Beth, and March. (I was
named after my Grandfather March Stevens.) Howard always loved farming. In
1950 the two of them purchased 480 acres of land in Renville County. They both
worked very hard with the farmland in addition to milking between thirty and forty dairy
cows. My older brother married and he and his wife raised a family of four.
Robert and Howard farmed together for some time. Currently two of
Roberts sons
farm in the area. My sister Beth lives in Minot, N.D. Beth and her
husband Keith have two sons. She owns and operates an art supply store. (The Artmain)
Our farm consists of
5,500
tillable acres and 410 acres of pastureland. We normally seed about two thirds
of our acres to Hard Red Spring Wheat and Durum. However the last few years our
crops have been devastated by scab and insects. Due to this we have been raising
more oil seed crops. Currently our son Clarke and his wife Lora also farm with
us. We have the seed cleaning business on our farm as
a convenience for us and some diversification. We enjoy working with our customers
year to year. |
