October 6, 2017 at 4:40 p.m.
100 years: Farm adapts, bridges and connects five generations
100 years: Farm adapts, bridges and connects five generations
By By Judy Herman Wiff-
In August, 12 members of the family, which operates Hermans' Clover Valley Farm, met in West Allis to receive the Wisconsin State Fair's Century Farm and Home Award.
The first 40 acres for the farm was purchased May 27, 1914 by Martin Herman, who was born in Switzerland, and his wife Carrie Preston Herman. The couple had wed in 1912 and started their married life in Nebraska, where they farmed before buying land in the town of Cassian.
According to old family records, Carrie and the couple's three young daughters arrived in Harshaw June 14, 1917, traveling in a Ford. The family spent the summer living in a tent as they worked on their house. In October they went to Kansas to help harvest wheat and spent the winter there.
In March 1918, they sold their car to afford to take the train back to Harshaw.
"The only farms north of Harshaw up to our place were (owned by) August Lokken and Elmer Webster," said Martin, dictating to his daughter Edna in later years. "Fire came through from the Hazelhurst area, and everything was as black as soot could make it.
"We were prairie folks and could get lost on the 80 acres of land we had in Harshaw."
Martin said the couple originally mortgaged the acreage they owed to raise money to build a house and in 1920 they borrowed money to clear land.
Letters to his wife show that Martin traveled to North Dakota to work threshing crews. While there, he also worked on potato farms and developed his plan to grow that crop in Wisconsin.
On March 9, 1925, he registered his farm as Clover Valley Farm. In the early years, Martin and two other farmers purchased a car that they shared.
By 1927, the Hermans were shipping potatoes. A document signed in April 1926, shows that Martin joined the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Association. A shipping bill from 1927 shows he grew Irish Cobblers and sold them for $1.75 per 100 weight.
Martin and Carrie had seven daughters and one son, Thomas. Old photos show the couple and their small children picking potatoes by hand. The women are wearing long dresses in the field.
Tom, who was born in August 1927, started working with his dad as a child, took a course in agriculture at the University of Wisconsin in Madison after graduating from high school, was deferred from military service during World War II as an only son and ran the farm into his 80s.
Tom and his wife Dorothy had 12 children and added land to their operation over the years as other area families left farming.
The Herman children were very much a part of the operation.
"Daddy believed in starting kids out young," said Pete Herman. "My first memory of harvesting is using a small Ford tractor to spread empty potato bags for the neighbor people he hired to pick potatoes by hand. I think I was about six years old."
Pete continued, "My father kept the tradition going by taking the grandsons - as soon as they were big enough - out into an empty field and putting them behind the wheel of the farm pickup truck."
"Farming is in the hands of Mother Nature, unpredictable," said brother Dick, who was also introduced to the work early.
"Lots of hard work for little pay, but it was all worth it: I learned lot," said Dick, who as an adult earned his living as a heavy equipment operator. "I'd do it again."
Tom's sisters Elizabeth Michie and Zella Busche stayed in Harshaw and raised their families there. Those families and the families of the other sisters still consider Harshaw their home. Reunions for the extended family of over 100 are held there every two years.
During Tom and Dorothy's generation, the main crop was Russet Burbank potatoes which were shipped throughout the country. Tom also grew oats, hay and sunflowers.
When Tom and Dorothy reached retirement age in 2002, the family formed a limited liability corporation with the parents as managing members and nine of their children as members.
In the beginning the LLC members continued selling bulk potatoes as their main crop along with oats and rye.
While they still grow food potatoes to sell locally, they now also produce seed potatoes for Jung Seed Company out of Randolph. In recent years, the family has grown small crops of Yukon Gold, Irish Cobbler, Russet Burbank, Reds, Fingerlings, Yellow Finns and Rosy Finns.
The third generation planted Balsam seedlings and started making and selling holiday wreaths both at the farm and at craft sales. As the planted trees matured, the family opened a cut-your-own Christmas tree lot, which opens the Friday after Thanksgiving each year.
Tom died in 2012. Two daughters, one son, a daughter-in-law and their families still live in Harshaw.
Current members of the LCC are Dorothy; Sandy Herum, who lives in River Falls; Pete, who lives in Menomonie; Cindy Schmitz, Newbold; Sharon Kremsreiter, Harshaw; and Gay Herman, Cottage Grove, Minn.
At planting, harvesting and throughout the year, the LLC members, their children and grandchildren and even non-LLC members and their families travel to Harshaw to help the others with farm work.
Gay Herman said she's pleased that family members - from three generations - who have no stake in the farm join these traditions.
"It's great that we're able to find something that we all enjoy doing and we all want to participate in," said Gay. "We created an environment that children, grandchildren and great grandchildren all want to be part of."
"Everyone puts in their work, long days, long nights, but it's overall pretty enjoyable," said Pete of the wreath making and tree selling.
"By the end of the year, our joke is we're never doing any of this again, but around January of each New Year, we start planning and dreaming of the new seasons," said Sandy Herum. "And we start all over again."
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