Roots grow deep: Three Jackson County families receive Hoosier Homestead Award
SEYMOUR, Ind. (The Seymour Tribune) — Twice a year, Indiana farm families are offered the chance to apply for a Hoosier Homestead Award if their farms meet several criteria.
Since Jackson County is more than 208 years old and the 14th oldest of 92 counties in the state, it should come as no surprise that the list of honorees each time includes some local farm families.
On Aug. 14, the newest batch of Hoosier farm families — including three from Jackson County — were recognized during the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis.
To be named a Hoosier Homestead, farms must be owned by the same family for at least 100 consecutive years and consist of more than 20 acres or produce more than $1,000 of agricultural products per year. The award distinctions are centennial, sesquicentennial (150 years) and bicentennial (200 years).
For this season, three families received the award; Claycamp with centennial and sesquicentennial, Bell-Alwes-Mellencamp with centennial and Shoemaker with centennial. They received these Aug. 14 at the Indiana State Fair in Indianapolis.
Claycamp
The 200-acre farm located north of Cortland was purchased in 1869 by Frederick and Mary Claycamp, who purchased it from James and Emma Booth.
Originally, the property was purchased right after Indiana attained statehood in 1816 by Jacob Peters. Although the Claycamps have a lot of relatives within the Peters lineage, the familial relation could not be traced back to Jacob. If it were, the family and farm would be looking at a bicentennial award as well.
The Claycamps and Peters are still a tightly knit crew, helping one another manage all farmland owned by the two families.
After Frederick, the farm was passed down from Claycamp to Claycamp — John Henry and Mary in 1880, George Henry in 1903, George Henry’s wife, Emma, and one of their sons and his wife, Everett and Clara, took over in 1937 when George Henry died, Wilbur and Selma in 1943 and then to Paul and Cynthia, when they purchased some of the property in 1971 and the rest in 1995.
In 1960, the house on the farm tragically burned down. The new house took eight weeks to build.
Paul and Cynthia own and have lived on the farm, but their son, Scott, and his wife Rebecca now live on the homestead, where they are expecting the property to continue being passed down. Since the Claycamps have had the farm, they have always maintained the original 200 acres they purchased, not having sold any part of it.
The farm started mostly covered in trees. After clearing the land, the farm hosted cattle and corn. As the farm was passed down, the focus shifted to becoming a dairy farm. Now, the farm specializes in soybeans, corn and cattle, owning about 35 cows at one given time.
Being historical grounds, arrowheads and other items from the native peoples that occupied the land previously can be discovered on its grounds.
Since Rebecca married into the family, she didn’t grow up on a farm, so seeing her husband’s family and the life he grew up with gave her a new perspective. Her upbringing was rather different than that of the farmers she now knows well.
“They are the hardest working people I think I’ve ever met in my life,” Rebecca said.
With farm life, Rebecca said what also stood out to her that was unlike her upbringing was how family oriented being a farm family is.
“It’s been a blessing to raise my children […] in that type of environment,” she said.
Farming comes with specific challenges. The nature of the farming business is a gamble. As farmers, they only have so many chances to plant and harvest, and farming is rather expensive.
Rebecca said all the equipment used is old and has been used, never new. They reuse and fix what they have to save as much as they can. An example of equipment they have purchased comes from the early 1940s, when the family bought a Farmall F12 tractor, which had all metal wheels.
“It would be easy to give it up, it would be easy to sell (it) off,” Rebecca said. “They would probably be millionaires if they did, but they won’t and they never will.”
When it came to receiving their award, every part of the family was represented, resulting in one of the biggest family turnouts for the homestead awards this summer.
Rebecca’s favorite part of farm life is being able to sit on the porch and overlook the entirety of Cortland. She said for her husband, both him and his father love planting and harvesting. As a farmer, they only have a few times they can reap what they sow.
“He loves being in the fields and getting dirty,” Rebecca said.
As a teacher at Seymour Intermediate School, Rebecca said she can spot the farm kids from those who are not. She teaches sixth grade science and social studies. The kids who have experience on the farm typically excel in their work ethic and express kindness and open-mindedness stronger than the other kids in her classroom.
“They just have a different work ethic because of the way they have been brought up,” Rebecca said.
Bell-Alwes-Mellencamp
The 13.2-acre farm in Seymour was bought by William and Henry Mellencamp from Dempsey and Lottie Manion in 1918. It was passed down from Mellencamp to Alwes to Bell, where it is now owned by Cary and Julia Bell.
Cary Bell said the reason he wrote up the name of the farm with all three last names was to remind everyone of the extensive history behind the farm because Bell alone doesn’t do it justice. While this is the property that technically received the award, their farm is a small part of a bigger whole.
“The farm’s bigger than just this 13.2 acres,” he said.
After William and Henry, it then became solely William’s in 1921, half of the interest under Henry and his wife Elizabeth, before Marguerite Alwes owned it in 1941. Emily Persinger and Carol Ann “Alwes” Bell, Cary’s aunt and mother, had the farm passed down to them in 1987.
In 2002, Cary bought the property and in 2017, after marrying Julia, they had the farm put under both of their names.
For the last 30 or more years, the farm has focused on producing corn and soybeans. When Carol was growing up on the farm, they had pigs, chickens and cows, but managing them was an around-the-clock operation, needing to be cared for daily. Naturally, the family steered away from animals.
In her youth, Carol enjoyed the animals, even giving all of them names. Growing up and being constantly on the farm also taught her many responsibilities, which she believes gives farmers a different outlook.
“I think for kids, it’s a good life,” she said.
As time has progressed, so has the way they farm. Instead of plowing, the family now utilizes no-till farming, planting over the crop remains from the previous year and keeping it clean with herbicide, since they have soybean and corn varieties that are resistant to certain herbicides. This technique saves time and money while disturbing the soil as little as possible.
When asked about what the Hoosier Homestead Award means to her, Carol was thankful for Cary’s research into the award, but she also thought of her mother.
“I’m proud … My mom I know would’ve been very proud,” Carol said.
When looking toward the future of the farm, Cary’s son, Andrew, has expressed interest in sticking to the farm life. Both Cary and his father, Charles, worked for Cummins — Cary for 38 years, Charles for 33 — and had backgrounds in engineering. Now, Andrew is studying engineering at Purdue, following in their footsteps.
“Being around a farm, working with equipment — all of those mechanical-related things are kind of what drove me to want to be an engineer,” Cary said.
A concern that many farmers have is flooding. At a meeting Cary attended with other farmers recently, when asked for what water-related disasters they have faced, many thought back to the flood back in 2008. Everyone has dealt with plumbing and other issues, but the flood stood out.
It was a historic flood, especially affecting Bartholomew County, but Jackson County felt the aftermath of it as well. The water came down and took over the land.
“The most unusual thing was that you would see deer (and) animals you’d never see […] trying to escape it,” Cary said.
Cary said a lot of farms around them have heritage tied to their family, from Bell to Alwes back to Mellencamp. When looking at old pictures of the farm compared to now, Cary said that you can’t really see anything different such as the barns. Some fencing and animals have shifted, but overall, it is the same farm as it was.
“If somebody looked at these two pictures (of the farms), they don’t look a whole lot different, really,” he said.
This article originally appeared in The Seymour Tribune.