My grandfather, Frank Murphy, was 28 years old in August 1914 when he bought a small farm in Marshall County, IL. In the spring the following year he planted his first crop of oats and corn, and began raising cattle and hogs. That’s my sister Peggy and me with him in 1964.

He farmed during the worst of the Great Depression; my mom remembers corn that he couldn’t sell, piled on the drive. On top of that, he wrote in his journal “the crop year of 1934 was the driest ever recorded here. No rain from March until late September, awful hot.” Whatever crops survived the drought, he added, were ruined by chinch bugs.

By 1939 things had improved enough that he needed help on the farm. He hired Clarence Knobloch and it was the beginning of a business partnership between the families that continues today. By the early 1960s, Clarence’s son, Marvin, took over helping my grandfather. Today, Marvin’s sons, Brian and Daryl, and their brother in law, Jason Cresto, farm the same ground.

It meant so much to me to be there last week to see Brian harvest the land my grandfather put his life into. And to see Marvin, now 82 years old, show up to keep a hand in process. His old McCormick Farmall tractor was still on the job too, running the grain auger.