Newsletter

Spring 2001: Notes of a Graduate Fellow

Out on the County Road
by Chad Kruger

The family farm is an icon of stewardship in the American landscape. Families throughout America have stewarded the land for generations, parents and grandparents teaching children the importance of keeping and conserving the land and preserving the faith.

Yet, for the last 50 years, agrarian families throughout the country have been ripped from the land in a crisis that has far surpassed epidemic proportions. My family is no exception. As we consider our responsibility as stewards of God's creation, we must recognize that a sustainable agriculture is an agriculture that sustains the stewards on the land. Stewardship and the sustainability of agriculture in America depend as much on the values of the farm family as good farming practices.

This is the story of how my family came to steward the land that we presently farm. I believe our story demonstrates a principle often overlooked - that stewardship reflects our character as followers of Christ. Regretfully, our national priorities of economic "efficiency" and cheap food have led to the disintegration of the traditional agrarian communities that have cultivated Christ-like character for so many generations. I'm concerned that the corporate-sponsored model of industrial agriculture may uproot the last strongholds of faith in rural America before my children come of age.

In the late 1800's, my family settled on a farm in what is now known as the wheat belt of eastern Washington. Through hard work and financial discipline, my great-grandfather Edd and his father Henry accumulated a significant amount of savings before my grandfather Eugene was born in 1917. That year, a broker for a prospecting operation in Montana came to the area selling stock in gold futures. Like many other area farmers, Edd and Henry invested their fortune of $80,000.

Over the next ten years, the broker returned several times to make assessments on the stock - always promising a payoff just around the corner. In 1927, the broker returned and levied an extremely large assessment on everyone - $36,000 for Edd and Henry. Of course, no one had the cash to pay that kind of assessment, so everyone mortgaged their farms to pay it rather than losing their entire investment to date. Edd also loaned an additional $19,000 so a close relative could pay his assessment.

The deal went bad. The prospecting operation went broke and the money gone forever. Edd and Henry were in debt to the bank for $55,000, and like everyone else they had no way to pay it back. Henry died shortly after. To make matters worse, the relative who owed them $19,000 stole the promissory note from the house during Henry's funeral.

The banks foreclosed on all the unpaid mortgages. Most farmers declared bankruptcy to save their farms. Edd refused bankruptcy, believing that he was responsible for his debts. The bank took the farm, but the banker, W.W. Downey rescheduled the debt for Edd. As my Grandpa Eugene used to say, this was the first time the family was "out on the country road".

For the next few years Edd farmed as a tenant on a neighbor's farm. The farm was not large enough to sustain a traditional wheat and cattle operation - especially with the added debt burden - so they raised chickens, sold milk from their cows and hired themselves out when they could find work. After a few years, the relative who owed them $19,000 lied to the landowner about Edd's farming practices. Without verifying the allegation, the landlord evicted him. Again, my family was out on the county road.

Another neighbor heard of the incident and he offered Edd the lease on his farm. Because Edd could not make a down payment, he agreed to share some of the hay he put up for the winter. After a few years on this farm, the neighbor passed away and his children sold the land. So, for a third time, my family was out on the county road.

A real estate broker from Spokane was trying to sell a small farm. The broker, W.W. Downey, heard that Edd Kruger was on the county road. He drove down from Spokane to ask Edd if he wanted to buy the farm. Edd said he wanted it, but there was no way he could pay the down payment of $2,500. Downey told him that if he could come up with $1000 in two months time, the farm was his. Downey later said that Edd's word was better than cash any day.

Edd scratched together $1000 three days before the deadline. The first winter on the farm Edd and Grandpa lost 12 of their 20 horses and had to purchase a tractor and truck to replace them. They continued to raise chickens, milk cows and find other wage labor in order to pay for the equipment and accelerate the mortgage payments. Over the next ten years, they purchased the additional pieces to make our present farm - one of the smallest farms in the area.

The incredible miracle about our "small" family farm is that it has provided for us through both times of plenty and lean. While many of our neighbors have struggled to sustain capital-intensive operations and heavy debt burdens, we have survived by "hay-wiring" equipment together and fixing old fences. We've learned that stewardship is not just tilling on the contours or rotating crops - it is the way we live and farm and ultimately who we are. Our stewardship of the land is indivisible from our convictions and faith.

As I look at the picture of our farmstead on my wall, I can't help but wonder if we will be out on the county road again soon. Recent times have been very lean and we are struggling to make ends meet. Regretfully, ours is the story of so many others - Godly people striving to be good stewards in the face of tremendous adversity. My prayer is that God will sustain us as his stewards on our farm.

Chad Kruger is a graduate student in Land Resources and an Au Sable Graduate Fellow at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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