Joanmarie and Roger Weiss
Weiss Centennial Farm
5450 Weiss Road
Frankenmuth, MI 48734
Saginaw County Farm
Our mission statement: We are a family-owned dairy farm,
producing fresh, wholesome milk for consumers. We value
rural life. We are committed to preserving and sharing
America’s agricultural heritage.
Marrying into the Weiss family has given me the opportunity to connect the dots between generations, between our
farm and other farms, and place it all within American history. I listened to Elmer and Lorna’s stories. I interview others
in the family and Frankenmuth area about Weiss stories. Ongoing research at local, national, and international places
has yielded information and insights. Our farm story is portrayed in a small museum in our Welcome Center.
Johann Leonhard Weiss was born in Rosstal, Germany on January 20, 1820. This area was under Catholic
German control at the time, but was historically influenced by French politics. Lutherans like Weiss had a difficult time:
young men were forced into the army, not allowed to marry until sufficiently settled, and had little prospect of getting
ahead. Wilhelm Loehe, a Lutheran pastor, lived in nearby Neuendettelsau. He had missionary zeal to spread
Lutheranism throughout Germany and abroad. In 1845, Loehe commissioned fifteen young people from Rosstal and
nearby churches to make a permanent move to Michigan to teach Native Americans about Jesus. Each year more
young people decided to leave Germany and make a new life for themselves in Michigan.
In the Nuremburg newspaper dated March 30, 1852 Johann Leonhard Weiss declared his intentions to immigrate to
America. So, too, did Katharina Barbara Knoll and three of her brothers. We have not located a ship’s manifest with
these young peoples’ names yet. However, the archives of St. Lorenz Lutheran Church in Frankenmuth, MI record that
Johann L. Weiss and Katharina Knoll married at sea May 23, 1852. In Germany, Weiss had been a master weaver by
trade. He had some money, perhaps from selling his business assets. He arrived in Frankenmuth by late summer 1852 if
his journey was similar to others who came here to settle. (A real estate manual from the period describes the stops
and modes of transportation one could use to get from the US east coast to mid-Michigan.)
Our next piece of historical evidence regarding Johann is the original deed to the farm we own today. This deed was
issued by the United States government “according to the provisions of the Public Act of 1820”. That Act had been
passed following the War of 1812, after the US government realized how difficult it was to follow up on debts incurred
as public lands were sold to private parties using legislation passed in 1763. The 1820 Act made it possible for a man to
purchase public lands for one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, but the land had to be paid for in its entirety the day
of sale. On August 1, 1853, Johann Leonhard Weiss traveled to the Genesee County, MI federal land office and
purchased fifty-three and three-quarters acres of land. He paid for the land in cash that day according to certificate
number 3109 in the archives at the Library of Congress. Though no price was recorded, most land sold for the minimum
price stated in the Act.
Our farm also has a strip of land designated “Indian Reserve” land, which made it possible for Native Americans living
nearby to get to rivers and other traditional lands. Johann and Katharina spent their lives farming in Frankenmuth. The
couple cleared more of their land each year, and Johann prospered. The couple had ten children, seven who lived to
adulthood.
The couple set up house and farmed in the “west viertel” (western section of Frankenmuth Township), on the
property Weiss purchased from the government. He went on to purchase land in several other areas as well during his
life. Today, part of the “old house” still exists. According to Elmer and his siblings, this structure was an addition to the
original house built for “the blind grandpa” after his wife passed away. At an advanced age, Johann was blind from
complications with diabetes.
Our next “picture” of Weiss Centennial Farm is a page from the 1880 US Census for Agriculture. Johann is listed on
page 19 in Schedule 2, along with nine neighboring farms. He reported owning 103 tillable acres and 179 acres of
unimproved land and woodlots. The value of buildings and land was $9616 and he reported $1600 in products sold,
consumed, or on hand in 1879. He harvested 30 acres of hay, 32 acres of oats which produced 1000 bushels, 6 acres of
Indian corn which yielded 150 bushels, 30 acres of wheat that yielded 500 bushels of grain, 5 acres of Irish potatoes
which produced 350 bushels, and 2 acres of apple orchards with 70 trees that produced 50 bushels of apples worth $25.
Johann had livestock, too. Like the farms of his day, it was a menagerie. “Seven horses, 6 milch cows, 12 other cows,
1 calf born, 5 purchased and 1 cow sold live.” The cows produced 500 pounds of butter in 1879. The family had 30
mature sheep and 25 lambs, of which 21 were sold, 3 were slaughtered, and one was lost to disease. He had 21 fleeces
to sell weighing 90 pounds. He had just one pig – odd, because most of his neighboring German immigrant farmers had
many more and pork was a mainstay in most farm family diets during this time period. The barnyard was home to 80
poultry birds (chickens, ducks, and geese) and they laid 320 eggs in 1879. He cut 50 cords of wood which had a value of
$50.
Johann was a big farmer in his day! His brother-in-law, Paulus Knoll, also owned 100 acres of tillable land and
reported a net worth of $4800. His future son-in-law, Adam Jordan, owned 50 acres of tillable land worth $5125. The
census document is a fascinating picture of Johann and Katharina’s farm and his family in a single year, when their
children were reaching adulthood. The values listed in the census report also indicate how hard-working these
immigrants were as they cleared land and built prosperous farms and raised large families.
We have a single photo of round-faced, heavy- jowled Johann Leonhard taken perhaps in the 1880’s; when I saw the
picture in 1987 I thought it was Elmer dressed up for the US Bicentennial, perhaps. Roger also has a remarkable
resemblance to the original Johann!
St. Lorenz members are buried around the church building. In the early cemetery area, people were buried in order as
they died. Thus, Katharina’s limestone grave marker (she died in 1892) is two rows away from her husband, Johann’s
marker (died in 1897). Birthdates for the two were listed on the tombstones, and today the church record is accepted
for official dates of birth, marriage, and death. When Johann passed away, the farm was split between his three living
sons. The original farmstead – where we live today – was purchased by his son, Johann Martin Weiss, for the sum of
three thousand dollars.
Johann (also John) Martin owned the farm from 1890 when he married Elizabeth Gugel, until his own son,
Balthas purchased it in 1923. Martin’s face is more angular, perhaps he took after Katharina? There is no photo of her
that we know of at this time.
Martin and Elizabeth had one son, Balthas, and one daughter, Agnes. In a photo taken of the family circa 1915, the
Weiss homestead is captured on film. The house, including the part that still stands today, is just behind the family. A
windmill stands over top the well we still use for household needs today. The large gambrel-roof barn already looks
aged in the background, along with a corncrib that was torn down when Roger was young. Behind the house one can
see the smokehouse, another landmark which still exists. We are the fifth generation to smoke bratwurst in it, and our
children have learned some traditional butchering skills, too.
As Johann’s farms had been divided among his three sons, Martin owned about one-third the acreage his father had.
Historians use records to make educated guesses. Here is mine: I don’t think Martin was a farmer at heart. He
maintained the land and livestock, but sold it to his son, Balthas, in 1923 when Balthas married Lydia Bernthal. In his
obituary, besides mentioning that Martin was “The sole surviving descendant of one of Frankenmuth’s pioneer
families…” the obituary also reads that he was active in “church and school affairs for many years” and, “Prior to his
retirement he was auditor for the Star of the West Milling Col, the light and power company and the Union Cheese
Factory.” Furthermore, the story noted he had only ever missed one shareholders meeting at Star of the West; that was
in February of 1952, as he was ill. It was that illness that contributed to his death on July 31, 1952. Martin was “a
farmer by trade”, but he also contributed much to the village of Frankenmuth, which grew and thrived with businesses
as the decades passed.
St. Lorenz Church operated a Lutheran Day School since it was founded in 1845. Every Weiss child born on this farm
has attended school there through eighth grade. Martin must have been good at his lessons, and enjoyed mathematics
and bookkeeping a great deal. Our local museum has a taped interview of Martin and others who were original settlers
in Frankenmuth in its archives. The interview is in Bayerisch, the local German dialect that has been passed down
through successive generations here in Frankenmuth, so I am still waiting for translation to learn more about Martin and
Frankenmuth in the early 20th century.
John Balthas married Lydia Bernthal in 1923 and took over ownership of Weiss Centennial Farm. He purchased it
for $4800 and “other considerable remuneration.” Likely, this meant that Martin and Elizabeth shared in the gardening
work and harvest, and that Balthas acknowledged that his parents would live on the farm until their deaths. Martin built
a smaller home, called the “Altsitz” in Bayerisch, in 1923 by the road in front of the larger farm house. Johann had lived
in the main farm house when he retired in two rooms built especially for him. Martin and Elizabeth were able to
maintain their own household and not live with the newlyweds.
Johann sold butter from his milch cows. By the early 1900’s, cheese was being manufactured from dairy milk. In
the last decades of the 19th century and first three of the 20th, five cheese factories made cheese in Frankenmuth.
On December 10, 1924, Balthas Weiss purchased five shares of stock in the Union Cheese Manufacturing Company,
located on the southeast corner of Junction and Maple Roads, one mile from his farm. This was one way that the
various cheese factories were established; farmers were in partnership with the factory owners. Milk would be
collected in large cans which were cooled in a water bath on the farm and then taken by horse and wagon to the cheese
factory each day. Farmers took home the discard whey after the cheese was made to feed to their livestock or dump on
their fields. In 1947, the account books for Union Cheese Company record that Balthas then owned fifty shares.
Next to the stock certificate on display in the welcome center museum is a photograph of Lydia standing on the milk
house platform, visiting with another lady who must have come to visit that day (the other woman is too dressed up to
be planning to help on the farm). This photo is from the late summer of 1926, Lydia is pregnant with her second child,
Elmer. This is one of two photos we possess in which Lydia is visible as she works on the farm. However, she definitely
loved taking photos and there are several of the “Weiss Stepladder”, that is of the children she and Balthas raised on the
farm. Eventually seven children would be born to them.
Balthas farmed through the Roaring 20’s and the Great Depression. I’ve not located records which indicate the
farm’s value through those years or the receipts from a year’s labor. One can assume that the family lived according to
the mores of the day: if something was needed, it was purchased with cash.
Did Balthas and Lydia pay cash for the large farmhouse they built in the summer of 1930? In 1930 the United States
was just beginning to feel the effects of what would become the Great Depression. Elmer once said he saw a receipt for
the house package for ten thousand dollars, but it was not among his papers when we searched for it after his death in
2010. Lydia took photos of the two-story farm house as it was built. The original homestead was moved to the
northwest of the new one, in the location it still occupies today. The new house foundation was built of hand-hewn
stones from nearby fields. This work and all the plaster on the finished interior walls was done by the William Bronner
family, which still owns a construction business today. Fred Schaffert mixed the mud for the cement work; he is in some
of the construction photos. Bronner oversaw the crew who constructed the house frame, walls, and roof, too.
Lydia cooked lunch for the construction crew and her family each day. “She was very efficient,” Elmer remembers
hearing. In the basement of the new house, next to the chimney, was a brick shelf that was held a kettle to heat up
water for laundry. Elmer remembered his mother had a Maytag wringer washer, although he could not say exactly
when she got it. The new house had indoor plumbing with a single bathroom on the first floor. Balthas paid for
electricity to be brought down Weiss Road from Junction Road in 1930 when the couple built the new home. At the
same time, electricity was put into the 1923 Altsitz and the “old house”, which was renamed the summer kitchen.
Research must be done to ascertain who designed the 1930 house and whether it was purchased locally. There are
several homes in Frankenmuth area today that are almost identical to the 1930 farm house.
Once the second floor was built, Lydia stepped out on the new airing porch upstairs. She looked through the camera
lens, and took several more photos of the farm. This visual documentation gives us a glimpse of what the farm looked
like in 1930. To the north of the house was a fruit orchard. There are not seventy trees like Johann reported in 1880,
but there are apple trees in blossom and one can see a hickory nut tree out in the field beyond. There are two rows of
grapes to the north of the house today, which Elmer said were planted by Johann when he first came to the farm in
1853. They are not visible in Lydia’s photo as the closer trees block much of the view beyond.
Then Lydia turned west and took a photograph of the farm buildings. It was a neat farm, with the large barn for
livestock and feed in the middle of the photo frame and farm. To the south are the old corncrib and a newer building
used to keep the pigs. Another tree in flowering bloom stands behind a small shop/garage. To the north of these is a
chicken coop, which looks brand new in this photo. Two children are in the picture, too; Verna stands next to the family
dog and Elmer is in a child’s wagon.
Lydia took photos of the horse team Balthas used to farm with, too. The horses, Ginny and Minnie, pull a seeder in
one photo, with Verna and Elmer sitting on the planter and Balthas standing behind it. The photo is taken in front of the
recently built farm house. The windmill is still on top of the well, and a sturdy fence runs the length of the front yard to
keep cows from tearing up the grass while on their way to pasture. A photo circa 1935 shows Elmer on a new bike he
had received for his birthday taking the cows to pasture. This photo is from the other side of the sturdy fence, Lydia
watching as her son does a daily chore.
According to Elmer, Balthas used horses for farm work until after World War II. Teams of horses pulled farm
equipment in the summer and sleds in the winter. Horses also pulled a wagon or buggy to take the family places. In a
photo from summer of 1927, Grandma Elizabeth is watching Verna and baby Elmer as she perhaps is cutting up potatoes
for spring planting? Behind her the carriage steps are aligned with the fence around the yard, allowing people easier
access to the interior of a horse-drawn wagon.
After WWII, farming changed dramatically in the United States. Machines using technologies developed before and
during the war were adapted for farm use. Tractors replaced horses; by 1951 there were more farms with tractors than
horses. While the number of farms did not change much from 1920 to 1950, the number of people who farmed for a
living certainly did: in 1920 twenty-seven percent of the population farmed, in 1950 that had decreased by more than
half to just twelve percent.
After the war, seed companies and universities began to intensify research into crop genetics. In 1879, Johann
harvested about 25 bushel of Indian corn per acre on his farm. In 1920, average yields were still about 26 bushel. Why?
Farmers traditionally kept seed stock they kept from previous year’s crop, seeds were planted with little attention to
depth or soil conditions, open-pollination meant that pollen from less desirable plants was as likely to pollinate an ear as
better plants, and there was little sharing of seed stock from farmer to farmer or region to region. Some hybrids had
been introduced to American farmers by the late 1920’s, but the war interrupted research. However, after the war
better yielding varieties of corn emerged every year. Farmers purchased seed from companies selling hybrids; by 1950
an acre of land was producing 50 bushels of corn. In 1950, every American farmer fed 17 people.
Dairy farming changed, too. Farms had assorted livestock prior to WWII. But, after the war farms began to specialize.
In the mid-1950’s, the USDA and Congress began to create the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO code). This book is
some 900 pages long today and it has rules for milking equipment standards, milk handling procedures, milk
pasteurization methods, and on and on. One of the first rules written and enforced was a requirement that farms cease
selling raw milk locally; it had to be pasteurized. Farmers also had to install refrigerated bulk tanks on farms to store
milk until it was picked up to take to dairy processing equipment. Thousands of farmers quit milking cows.
Those who remained in dairy farming adopted technological advances as a farm’s ledger allowed them to do so. With
milking parlors and bulk tanks, farmers could efficiently milk more cows and send better quality milk to processors.
Dairy cooperatives existed in which many farms joined together to sell their milk for a set price, instead of each farmer
seeking his own markets. The federal government set the milk price once a month; that was the basis for a farmer’s
payment on his milk. Cooperatives added value by paying for quality milk so that each farm strived to do its best every
day.
On Weiss Centennial Farm and other dairy farms, in addition to milking machines and a bulk tank, another structure
was built in the 1950’s. Any romanticized farm painting today has a stone, brick, or cement silo next to a red barn. A
ten by forty (foot) silo was built adjacent to Johann’s old barn. Every autumn Balthas chopped corn plants while they
were still green and stored the silage in the silo.
Ensiling corn ferments it and it becomes silage. The plant’s nutrients are preserved in the feed. This dramatically
changed the course of American dairy farming. Farmers had quality feed all year round. Cows produced milk in
sufficient quantities to keep the market well-supplied. A well-fed cow produced more milk in each lactation. Artificial
breeding also became more commonplace in the 1950’s. Bulls with superior genetic traits supplied semen for thousands
of cows. In the 1920’s the average dairy cow produced about 4000 lbs. of milk a year. By 1950, with better milking
machines, quality feeds, and better bulls or AI breeding, an average dairy cow produced about 5300 lbs. each year.
Martin and his son, Elmer, were milking about ten cows in the 1950’s. The US average in 1950 was 7 cows per farm.
Martin had seven children, three of them boys. Martin’s oldest son, Elmer, loved farming and worked with his dad,
learning farming through the daily experience of farm life. Donald became the Frankenmuth postmaster and the
youngest son, named Martin, was a good student who loved math and science. He went to University of Michigan and
became a computer expert in the early days of that technology. The farm was not divided between the boys in this
generation; instead all the children except one, Elmer, left the farm for other professions or marriages.
In 1954 Elmer married Lorna Maurer. Balthas sold to the couple in 1954 “all the farm machinery, farm tools and
livestock owned in whole or in part by the party of the first part…for and in consideration of the sum of neun (?)
thousand dollars.” When sharing oral farm history with me, Elmer said he purchased the farm for $1, plus a verbal
agreement made between father and son in 1954. Elmer would pay his parents $1000 a year until their deaths, as well
as provide them with beef and garden produce. Balthas died in 1969, Lydia in 1975. So, over the years Elmer paid
$21,001, plus food and wood for the house furnace and kept both houses in good shape.
Elmer milked cows by hand as a child. He was eighteen years old in 1945 and WWII was over. Balthas and he
continued dairying. In 1936, US dairy farming was made easier with the invention of the Surge milking machine. With
milking machines cows were milked in half the time: four teats with four teat cups instead of two hands. However,
Balthas and Elmer did not purchase milking machines until after WWII in the early 1950’s.
Cows came into the barn at milking time. Teats were cleaned with soapy water and towel, then a strap (surcingle) was
put over the cow’s back and the bucket was suspended from the strap. Once a cow was done milking, the bucket was
dumped into a milk pail. That was carried to the milk house, where it was poured through a filter into a refrigerated
bulk tank. There it was cooled and stored for pick up by a milk hauler.
In the 70’s Elmer purchased a Surge milk conveyor system. Surge milk buckets were dumped into it right in the milk
barn. The milk filtered through a strainer, large particles like straw and flies and hair were separated from the milk, and
then a plastic hose at the bottom of the conveyor pail transported the milk to the bulk tank. In 1984, Elmer was milking
twenty-three cows while average American herd size was 40 cows. He did not install a milking parlor, although that
technology was developed in the 1960’s.
In the barn each cow was fed silage, as well as ground ear corn mixed with oats and soybean meal. Early on, the
grain mixture was custom ground by Star of the West Milling Company in town. In the late 1970’s Elmer purchased a
grinder mixer and could make the feed at home. Elmer remained a small dairy farmer in the next three decades as dairy
herd size increased on most American dairy farms.
Elmer grew the food for his cows. Alfalfa was cut three times each summer and laid to dry in the sun before being
baled. Each bale weighed about 50 pounds. It was brought home with a wagon and stored up in the mow above the
large barn. Corn was grown and harvested with a corn picker or corn chopper. If picked, the cobs were stored in large
corncribs on the farm to dry. Chopped corn plants were stored in the silo next to the large dairy barn. Oats was also
grown for cows.
Elmer worked with several nearby neighbors to harvest crops each year. Together, three farms owned a combine for
wheat, oats, corn, and dry beans. In the winter, the families celebrated the previous year’s blessings and settled
accounts between them. An account book records the parties and transactions for many years. Sugar beets were
harvested in a similar way, with other farmers. Elmer owned tillage and planting equipment on his own. In the early
1970’s he purchased a Massey Ferguson 1080 tractor from Heindl Implement Company. He also had a MF 165, a Case,
and a Farmall BN tractor.
As the 20th century continued, the US government greatly influenced agricultural practices, crops, and families. In the
1960’s, Soil Conservation Service started to cost-share tiling farm land in Michigan. Elmer purchased a 1947 Buckeye tile
machine in the late 1970’s and supplemented farm income by putting field tile in neighbor’s fields as well as his own.
Record books from 1986 show he earned about $10000 trenching with the Buckeye tiler.
Elmer grew the dairy herd from ten cows to twenty-five in the thirty-five years that he was steward of the farm. He
did not increase the acreage of Weiss Centennial Farm during his tenure as owner. As the farmers in the wheat
harvesting club retired, he rented their farms on a yearly basis. Elmer’s philosophy embraced living debt-free; he used
income from the farm to support his family first, instead of growing his farm business with land and new equipment
purchases. He enjoyed hobbies like fishing, hunting, playing cards, and dancing. Machines made farming easier in the
20th century, but most farmers just obtained more land and continued to work from sun up to sun down and beyond.
Not Elmer: he put his family ahead of work.
US agriculture dramatically changed between 1950 and 1990, but Weiss Centennial Farm did not grow larger as
many farms that remained in farming families did. The total number of farms decreased in the US from about 5 million
in the 1950’s to about 2 million in 1990 as children left farms to seek lives in other occupations. Average farm size grew
from about 215 acres to 473 acres. Land was taken out of production agriculture, too, and developed for other uses. In
the same time period almost 3 million acres of land was repurposed. When Elmer began farming on his own, sixteen
percent of the population farmed and the average farmer fed seventeen people. By the time he retired, only two
percent of the population made a living from farming, but each farmer fed 132 people.
To achieve success on small acreage and with a small dairy herd Elmer had to be a good steward. His one hundred
acres farm was one-half (in 1954) or one-quarter (in 1989) the size of an average American farm. He and Lorna raised
seven children. Four attended college, two others learned trades, and one son, Roger, remained on the farm. Elmer
grew the dairy herd slightly; when he retired in 1989 he had twenty-five milking cows. However, Weiss Centennial Farm
was by that time smaller than average in cow numbers: in the 1990 Agricultural Census the average dairy farm had 64
cows. Elmer succeeded as a farmer and provided for his family by careful planning and making each dollar of income go
as far as possible. He did not upgrade milking equipment, but continued to use the Surge bucket system Balthas had
purchased for the 35 years he had stewardship of the farm. He purchased Massey Ferguson tractors, not a popular
brand but dependable. Lorna and he had a large garden and Lorna and the two daughters put up many vegetables and
fruit for the family to eat all year long. Living conservatively, they accumulated savings so that retirement at age 60 was
a reality.
Elmer officially retired in 1989. A written contract between Elmer and Roger set up a five year rental agreement. The
land was rented for $6000 a year with a clause that stated that if Roger decided to buy the farm the rental monies would
be considered the down payment for a land contract agreement. During the five years, Roger also paid ten percent of
cow sales and milk sales to Elmer. In this manner, he purchased the cows over a five year period. Calves born in 1989
and thereafter were Roger’s immediately.
Weiss Centennial Farm was defined as a small farm by US government standards in 1994, when Elmer sold it. Land
contract payments made by Roger supplemented Elmer’s retirement savings. Roger and Joanmarie bought the
farm from Elmer for the state equalized value of three hundred thousand dollars. The thirty thousand dollars which had
been paid as rent for the prior five years were considered an upfront payment on the land contract. Elmer and Roger
agreed to a six percent interest rate on the contract. This assured Elmer and Lorna that at the end of twenty years, they
would receive double the amount of the initial loan. Elmer also protected the farm in the event of a divorce with
conditions in the twenty year contract. During the first five years, if Roger and Joanmarie sold the farm 100% of any
profit was to be either split evenly between Elmer and the couple, or Elmer’s heirs and the couple. During the next five
years, 50% of any profit was to be distributed the same way. So, it was only in the eleventh year of the land contract
that Roger had enough sweat equity into the farm to profit one hundred percent in the event that he sold the farm
outside the family. There was also an agreement that the loan could be paid off earlier if Roger desired to do so. In
2010, with Elmer’s health failing rapidly, Roger and Joanmarie financed the rest of the farm payments, about $40000,
with Farm Credit Services and took legal possession of the farm deed. On his birthday February 12, 2010, Elmer
received final payment on the land contract. He had thought he would not live to see the last payment when it was
executed in 1994. Sadly, Elmer passed away February 28, 2010. His life was a long and for the most part, joyous one.
He joined his wife, Lorna, in Heaven. She had passed away April 11, 2006, from Alzheimer’s disease.
Roger and I raised our three children on Weiss Centennial Farm, too. In the 21 st century our small farm is truly a
remnant of rural American history. We purchased sixty acres of land from the family across the road. This land was
farmed by Elmer, and then Roger since the 1950’s. In 1992 we purchased a used pipeline milking system at auction and
installed it in the old dairy barn. Using four, then six milking machines, we milked our cows. We purchased a thousand
gallon used Mueller bulk tank at an auction sale in 1997. We’ve bought older Massey Ferguson tractors, feed wagons,
tillage, planting, and harvesting equipment, and other items at auction. Auction sales were an affordable way for us to
upgrade our equipment line. I (Joanmarie) love auctions, to play the head game against other bidders and become the
successful bidder! I learned from two great bidders: Elmer and Roger.
Our dairy herd doubled and tripled in size from what we purchased from Elmer: twenty-five cow herd to a seventyfive head herd for a brief time. However, throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s we settled at about sixty cows. Living
in Frankenmuth Township, we take into consideration many neighbors who like rural living but not the odors associated
with livestock. Tourism is big business in Frankenmuth. While the city takes pride in the green countryside, it does not
encourage large livestock operations. In addition, the water available at our farm is truly not very palatable to cows and
it corrodes stainless steel milking equipment in just a few short years!
We have three children. Marguerite was born in 1990, Scott in 1991, and Lydia in 1994. Margie has loved cows since
two days old. I think her favorite perfume is the familiar odor of manure! She helped feed calves by age four and at age
thirteen she begged Roger and I to go away for a weekend so she could milk the herd “by myself.” Grandpa Elmer said
he’d help if she got into a bind, so off we went with Scott and Lydia. Margie milked the cows, fed the calves, and
scraped lots. A neighbor fed the dairy cows. All was well when we returned.
We have made many improvements to the original barn over the years, so we could continue to milk cows there. We
built freestall barns for the dairy herd and pen housing for the young cattle. We knocked down the silo in 1989 and now
use AgBags for feed storage. One silo did not store enough feed for the herd, and we could only store one kind of feed.
Today we put up about twelve bags of feeds each summer including silage, haylage, high moisture corn, and wet beet
pulp. Roger has twelve Massey Fergusons; the newest one is late 1979 model. We have two skid steers which were
purchased new, and are traded when possible, as they are used for feeding cows and scraping pens twice each day.
I insisted Margie attend college somewhere as she is a very smart young woman. She went to Michigan State
University’s Agricultural Technology Institute for dairy management courses. She left home sure that there was nothing
MSU professors could teach her that Dad and Grandpa didn’t know. Within two months, she shared with us and in an
essay published in Farmer’s Advance magazine that her professors were very smart, very inspiring, and she intended to
learn as much as she could while at MSU. She finished the two year program and also went to Karl Burge’s Hoof
trimming School in Wisconsin. She learned to AI breed cows. She returned to the farm to help Dad, as well as run a
business she calls Healthy Hooves on her own.
Son Scott is just as passionate about cash cropping and fixing farm equipment. He is finishing up a certificate course in
Diesel Technology at Baker College this spring of 2013. He will marry Bethany Whitford, a young woman he met at MSU
during a year of study he did there in Agricultural Industries, this autumn. They will live at the corner of Weiss Road and
Junction, in a house moved in 2008 from the farm Joanmarie grew up on two and a half miles down the road to the new
location. There they will reside until their own family becomes too large for a two bedroom home or Roger decides to
retire.
Daughter Lydia is at Culinary Institute of Michigan in Muskegon. She spent a year in Germany, enjoys that culture and
exploring our family’s heritage there. She does not intend to return to the farm or marry a farmer. Instead, she will use
the fresh dairy ingredients from American farms to make delicious pastries and breads.
I married Roger after completing a master’s degree in American history at State University of New York at Stony Brook
on Long Island. I grew up on a 2000 acre vegetable and cash crop farm. Not a cell in my body or brain ever planned to
marry a farmer. God laughs in His Heaven. However, Roger and I farm very differently than the way I grew up. Our life
is full of work, but also there’s time to enjoy each day and we both watched our children’s’ concerts, plays, and other big
events as they grew up. Roger worked with the kids each day in the dairy barn. Together they milked cows and made
up farm parodies to popular country songs in the evenings. Like Elmer, we raised our family on the farm’s income. Our
kids provided labor for the farm as they were able for twenty years. They contribute greatly to our success; it is our
hope that in the future one of them will be able to become the sixth generation on this farm.
In 2010, Roger and I traveled to Germany for a wedding of one of our 4-H IFYE “children”. We also visited a Swiss
IFYE’s farm that installed a LELY robotic milking system, mostly out of curiosity. Observing how it improved that family’s
lifestyle, we agreed any upgrade in equipment we made had to include a milking robot.
Margie graduated from college in 2010, too. She had learned so many things that could help us improve our herd’s
productivity. However, with no records it was a challenge. So, we committed to making a robot fit into our farm
budget. In June 2011 “Johann LELY” as we call our automated milking system, began milking our cows.
We discuss various ways we might pass the farm onto the sixth generation. Roger is 52, and will work full-time until
65 most likely. The farm does not generate enough income to pay its bills and provide profit for two families to live off
the land and cows. So, Margie and Scott work both on and off the farm now, as they are able to around their work
schedules and social commitments. Should we be more aggressive about purchasing land? Should we figure out a way
to increase the dairy herd and milk more cows? These are questions we daily ask ourselves. This is certain: we are
farming together and we are farming for keeps.
My passion for agriculture is in promoting our values, our heritage, and the methods of modern farming. Since 1989,
Lorna and I welcomed more than 500 children to the farm each spring. We led them through lessons about our farm’s
heritage and Michigan dairy farming. Roger, Margie, Scott, and I continue to offer school tours today.
“Agritourism” is increasing in popularity, as is the PureMI campaign. With our LELY robot installation completed in
2011, we expanded the concept of farm tours. We created a five-acre corn maze, using a new agriculturally-themed
design and games each year. We joined the Frankenmuth Chamber of Commerce and offer tours of our farm and share
Michigan’s agricultural heritage with visitors to Frankenmuth all year. In 2012, more than 5000 people visited our farm.
I earned a master’s degree in US history from SUNY Stony Brook in 1986. Marrying Roger gave me the impetus to
make a lasting record of the five generations that lived here and how our farm’s story fits into the story of America’s
social and agricultural history. In addition to the small museum in our welcome center at the farm, I self-published a
history of our farm.
Our family does not operate the largest farm in Frankenmuth. Ironically, we are some of the most active agricultural
advocates though. As chairman of Saginaw County’s P&E committee, five times I developed programs for urban
audiences which won an Excellence in Agriculture award from American Farm Bureau Federation. I am a Dairy
Communicator for MMPA Frankenmuth Local and a Dairy Diplomat for the United Dairy Industry of Michigan. Roger and
I were Frankenmuth Jaycees Outstanding Young Farmers of the year in 1994; Margie won that honor this spring as one
the next generation of farmers. We share our concerns about pending legislation and communicate our knowledge of
agriculture to local, state, and national leaders. Roger and I testified before a Department of Energy committee on
proposed changes to water heaters in the next five years. A farm friend summed up my own efforts this way when we
sought township approval to open our corn maze, “Joanmarie cannot help it. If she opens her mouth she is going to be
promoting agriculture!” I treasure that observation as a hard-earned compliment.
Documenting a family farm history takes lots of time and effort. This is a task I especially enjoy. Many people tell us
that we are a friendly family and very hospitable. Well, it’s a Biblical principle we like to practice. Gemutlichkeit, or
friendly outreach, is part of our German heritage, too. We welcome you to come visit us, too!