Blood Runs Deep: Farm Families Preserve American History

Every farm a story: Follow the bloodline of America’s farming families over decades and centuries, across countries, states, and counties.

By Chris Bennett

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August 04, 2021 02:18 PM

Farm blood runs through deep family veins spanning decades and centuries, often traced through the march of patriarchs and matriarchs across countries, states, and counties. Compared beside the flux of most any other occupation and lifestyle, farmers are vessels of history, borne out by the frequency of multi-generational legacies within a single agriculture operation.

A snapshot look at nine farm families stretched across the United States reveals appreciation and admiration for the struggles and trials of those who came before and toiled to provide a coattail of improvement for the next in line. No doubt, the past is always alive on a farm.

John Agostinelli

On the level land of northwest Mississippi, John Agostinelli, and his brother, Mark, grow 5,000 acres of corn, cotton, and soybeans in Coahoma County. In 1916, their great-grandfather, Ferdinand, and their grandfather, eight-year-old Peter, arrived at Ellis Island as immigrants from central Italy, hailing from Ancona on the Adriatic Sea. Ferdinand and his family bounced as sharecroppers around the Mississippi Delta (once a frequent destination for Italian immigrants), eventually settling in Clarksdale.

“We always assumed they farmed back in Italy, but we’ve never been sure. Imagine getting on a boat and leaving everything behind forever for a better life for your family,” John Agostinelli says. “They survived on their own with no government help and asked for nothing but a chance. I always think back about them and I’m always grateful for their sacrifices.”

Steve Stevens

Southeast Arkansas, particularly the flat ground of Desha County, is the home of producer Steve Stevens. For decades, on predominantly buckshot acres outside the tiny town of Tillar, Stevens, 72, grew corn, cotton, and soybeans before stepping aside as his son-in-law and daughter, Wes and Vonda Kirkpatrick, took the helm of the operation at Rondo Farms.

In the early 1900s, Stevens’ grandfather, William, hit the northeast road out of Hazlehurst, Miss., possibly on the run from the reach of local law, according to family lore, and crossed the big water into Arkansas. William lived in a tent and ran free range cattle in Desha County. In 1937, William’s son, Cloyce, married Fetnah Chapman and homesteaded 160 acres and cleared the new ground with Kaiser blades and chop axes.

Stevens worked on a tractor from the age of 10, the vast bulk of his childhood spent on the farm or at the schoolhouse. “It’s important to appreciate what we have today,” Stevens says. “I remember my parents talking about hiring workers that walked four to five miles every day, arriving at daylight, just to make 50 cents a day, to clear the original homesteaded land. My mother said if the war had not happened they may not have made it. I always hear about the good old days, but I’m not so sure about that. All of those that came before us went through very tough times. That was life.”

Laura Collins

In the Missouri Bootheel, Laura Collins, 40, forms half of a farming duo with her brother, Will Hunter, and the third-generation pair grows 6,500 acres of cotton, rice, and soybeans at Willow & Co. They stand on the shoulders of their grandfather, William Pinnell Hunter (W.P.), who initially built levees in the Bootheel region during the early 1930s, eventually clearing ground with mule teams northwest of Sikeston, in the Bell City area (Toppertown). W.P. acquired 40-acre tracts, contingent on cleared ground, and attained phenomenal 1- to 1.5-bale cotton out of the gate. His initial stake grew into a sea of sharecropper houses with a general store, fertilizer warehouse, cotton gin, delinter building, and later, a 2,500-head cattle operation.

Rick Clark

On the edge of historical prairie, fifth-generation Rick Clark, 57, no tills on silty, clay loam, roughly 15 miles north of I-74, outside Williamsport in west-central Indiana, almost on the Illinois line. Alfalfa, corn, grain sorghum, field peas, soybeans, and wheat make up the cash crop rotation on 7,000 acres, along with roughly 175 head of cattle scattered across the operation.

Clark’s farming lineage is a Bowlus-Clark tandem. In 1872, arriving from Cincinnati, Ohio, Clark’s great-great grandfather, George Washington Bowlus, purchased land in Warren County. Likewise, in 1883, Clark’s other great-great grandfather, Frank Lincoln Clark, also moved into Indiana from Ohio, teaching school and farming on the side. The families married and the union produced successive farming generations intent on improving the land, Clark explains.

“I think about my forefathers a lot, and I hope they are pleased, because that is so important to me to be conservation-minded, concerned about human health, and a serious steward of land. They made every effort to make things better for the next generation and that’s our same approach today.”

Jared Schott

On some of the same ground originally owned by his great-great-grandfather, Jared Schott, 53, grows 2,000 acres of corn, soybeans, sunflowers and wheat, and raises livestock (Limousin cattle and commercial Angus) just outside Mobridge, South Dakota, on land that rubs against the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Schott Ranch is a picturesque jumble of knobs and ridges tucked just west of the Missouri River (West River) and north of the Grand River at the north-central tip of the Mount Rushmore state.

Fourth-generation Schott is the product of two immigration lines—Schott and Dietrich—from Germany in the 1800s. His grandfather, Jake Schott, first busted sod with horses and mules, and later switched to mechanization with the advent of early tractors. On the maternal side, his grandfather, Connie Dietrich, bought livestock in Mexico and railed the herd to South Dakota. Schott’s sons, Jax, 6, and Josh, 4, are fifth-generation prospective producers.

“Despite all these generations of farming and ranching, each one had their own challenges to overcome,” Schott says. “I can’t think of any one generation that ‘had it made.’ I would also have to say

that the pride in each generation’s accomplishments is evident despite having to make their own way. My hope is that I can leave a legacy for my two boys if they so choose to continue on in this lifestyle. I only know that while God has blessed us with being stewards of some of the most beautiful land on the planet; my challenge is to continue to carry on that tradition.”

Casey Cox

Against the pristine beauty of the Flint River, Casey Cox, 30, a sixth-generation farmer at Longleaf Ridge Farms in Camilla, Ga., grows sweet corn (spring and fall) and peanuts on sandy ground, along with field corn and soybeans on the level land of Mitchell County. Outpacing row crop areas, Cox has more acreage in timber production and timber preservation.

Cox’s farming history comes from both sides of her family tree. Her father’s family arrived in southwest Georgia to farm in the mid-1800s, from England, Ireland, and Scotland, and her mother’s side (also from Western Europe) grew berries and citrus, and raised livestock, in Florida dating back seven generations.

“My dad’s ancestors were drawn to the Flint River region because of the soil, water, wildlife, and commerce. This land is the connecting thread from my heritage to my future. Our family’s roots in this area nurture a strong connection to our farm and way of life.” Cox explains. “I am very grateful for the generations before me because their stewardship is why I have the opportunity to farm today. The world and the agriculture industry are starkly different now, but we still depend on the same land and resources.”

Terry Wellmann

Just outside Hanska, in southcentral Minnesota, fifth-generation Terry Wellmann, 46, grows 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans in Brown County—via Germany and Russia.

Of German-stock, but living in Russia, his mother’s family escaped persecution and immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1800s. “We’ve got stories of my great-grandfather lifting my grandfather to look out a portal window when the ship arrived, probably at Ellis Island,” Wellmann says.

Wellmann’s paternal line arrived from Germany in the same time frame. “Our farmland was originally squatted by a male relative in about 1890,” he adds. “I guess they just kept heading west, chasing the opportunity for fertile and productive land, and went where they might have had at least a few family connections to get a new start.”

Mike Wagner

Mike Wagner’s Two Brooks Farm, located between the Tallahatchie and Quiver rivers in Mississippi’s Tallahatchie County, is a labyrinth of heavy blue gumbo—13’ to 15’ deep in most spots—dotted with 3,000 acres of rice and soybean fields.

If farming is truly in the blood, then Wagner, 59, is agricultural royalty with 279 consecutive years of crops. As a 10th generation producer, his Scots forebears hit the shores of Massachusetts in 1650 and began farming in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley in 1742. They wore out the ground and shifted to the Carolinas, subsequently moving to large tracts of land straddling the Alabama and Tennessee border. After several more generations, the family moved west into the Missouri Bootheel in the 1930s, and Wagner made his way to the Mississippi Delta in the 1980s. Wagner’s children, Lawrence and Abby, mark the family’s 11th farming generation.

“When I look backward and think of all the people that came before me, I’m so grateful and it’s all a blessing,” Wagner says. “The asphalt jungle in the city is not a place I’ve ever belonged.”

Matt Griggs

In the rolling hills of west Tennessee, located in Crockett and Madison counties, Matt Griggs, 41, is the fifth generation of his family to farm. Griggs, alongside his wife, Kelly, grows no-till corn, cotton, soybeans, and wheat across relatively compact fields averaging 20 acres in size, contoured by tree lines, terraces and ditches.

In 1882, Griggs’ great-great-grandfather, Robert Buchanan Griggs, bought a cotton gin and moved the structure four miles to the northeast corner of Crockett County, in the Mason Grove community. In addition to the gin, Robert maintained livestock, grew hay and cotton, and ran a general store, as well as operating a generator to provide community electricity.

In 2005, Griggs’ father, Bobby, the fourth link in the family farming chain, passed away with many historical memories. “I was 23 at the time and hadn’t learned as much about our past as I wanted to,” Griggs says, “but now I want to know more and I’m going to fill in the gaps.”

“Sometimes I look around at our old buildings and reflect on the history that surrounds us. My great-great-grandfather built at least five houses and four of those are still standing; I live in one now,” Griggs says. “Almost 150 years later after my family started, we’ve got almost 1,800 acres of farmland, but now I want to add all our historical details.”

A Torch

The actors change on family farms, but the stage remains the same. As summarized by Indiana producer Rick Clark: “Farming is different than other occupations because so often, we keep doing the same job over successive generations and keep it in the family. The public recognizes that farmers are related to heritage in some way, and I think that is a great thing. People need to know that farmers carry a torch for all the right reasons.”