—Laitcattar Farming, Saturday. January 5,1974 46 .Mrs* Mary: Funk.*... A Credit to Famih Mrs, Milton B. (Mary) Funk, Washington Boro RDI, treasurer of Lancaster County Society of Farm Women and a charter member of Farm Women Society 23, will be one of the hundred or more Farm Women of Lancaster County attending their annual two-day state convention at Harrisburg January 7 and 8. Monday’s session will be held at. the Forum, the banquet Monday night will be held at the Penn Harris Restaurant and the session Tuesday at the Farm Show Building. Approximately 600 Farm Women attend this convention. Most of the women attend the banquet and largely, delegates attend Tuesday’s session when policies are adopted. Mrs Funk, who is serving her second Vear as county treasurer, says “I tenjoy Farm Women. I put it almost first. I think you only get out of something what you put in it. I especially enjoy being county treasurer and going to all these other Society meetings. I don’t mind working with figures.” Farm Women Society 23 was organized about 21 years ago. They have 20 members and meet the first Tuesday night of each month. They have ,supported .a Korean orphan for at least 15 years. They give birthday and Christmas gifts and treat money to three children at Hamburg State Hospital. They put on programs and took treats a couple times to the Lancaster County unit at Erabreeville State Hospital. They gave a |25. love gift-to the state-Farm-Women scholarship fund this past year. This scholarship fund is for any Farm Women daughter who is taking home economics. Mrs. Funk has served as president, vice-president and treasurer of this Society, was program chairman three times and has been on the ways and means committee four or five years. The Society earns most of their money by having food stands at sales They also sell Mary B. Funk enjoys music and is a church organist. tjgjssps Farm Writer By 'Mrs. Charles, McSparran dishcloths and vanilla. Mrs. Funk entertained two Michigan homemakers for Farm Women this past year, and also made a dress for the county contest. Ten from each county will be entered in the state contest. Mary, the daughter of Mrs. G. M. and the late Mr. Brooks of Willow Street, graduated from West Lampeter High School and started to work in the tabulating department of Armstrong Cork Co., Lancaster, January 1940. She worked there four and a half years, during which time she was married. Mary has a twin sister, Alice, married to Robert Shenk, a part of the Shenk Cheese Co., who is often mistaken for her. Both Mary and Alice are musical and are organists at their respective churches, Mary at Central Manor Church of God and Alice at West Willow-United Methodist Church. Mary’s husband Milton is the oldest of nine Funk brothers whose parents were the late Mr. and Mrs. Roy Funk. These nine brothers are in the business together known as Punk Brothers, Inc., of which Milton is president. Their business con sists of farming on a large scale together'with ~anr excavating' business for which they are better known. Milton, who graduated from Manor High School and took a farm management correspondence course, started out in farming on a small scale and later got an excavator. Mary says “I rather think our business grew on the little things.” Four of the brothers work with the excavating equipment and five with the * ** Mrs. Funk does the farm bookwork and handles the money end of Funk Brothers, Mrs. Milton B. Funk, treasurer of Lancaster County Farm Women, enjoys being treasurer and likes to work with figures. farms and markets. Milton hires the men for, and is in charge of, excavating and is responsible for the whole business. Mary does all the office work for the farming end of the business, including the book work, answering their business phone when her husband isn’t home, handles all the money and banking, even for excavating, and the payroll for the farm and excavating business. Five of the farm help are paid every week, ten by the month plus 15 Puerto Ricans who pick field grown tomatoes for canneries, asparagus, strawberries and raspberries one and a half to two months in the summer They live in two apartments and a house of Funks Funk Brothers hire 60 people the year around, including Business- seasonal help. They have about 30 men -working on—exeavating which includes one office man, one office girl, one engineer and Milton and Mary’s son David who has a B.A. from Millersville State College in geology, plus three Funk brothers. They moved their office five years ago to their Market House at Central Manor. Funk Brothersown five farms “consisting ~0l 200 acres’ plus 400 acres rented ground which is all farmed except a little ground —where-the-houses-are situated and a little meadow. They grow SO acres of com for silage and 200 acres which they pick, 75 acres of mixed hay, 100 acres of wheat and 50 acres of barley. They use most of the straw for their steers but sell some. They raise 25 acres of white and yellow sweet com, 8 acres of celery, 20 acres of field grown tomatoes which go to canneries, 6 acres of staked tomatoes which are picked when they are pink (green wrap) for market and ship some to New York and Philadelphia markets. They also raise 10 acres -of vegetable crops which include cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, radishes, string beans, lima beans, onions, asparagus, strawberries and raspberries. They have an irrigation system for the vegetables. Then to keep their farm and excavating men busy all year they grow 50 acres of tobacco Funk Brothers finish 700 steers annually. They buy Angus, Hereford and some crosses as feeder cattle as they have room for them and sell on hoof at Lancaster Stock Yards. They also have their own beef for all Inc. the family. Their barn holds over - 205-steers at-a tiine.-- They buy shoats and finish 500 annually. They also sell the bogs at the Stock Yards. They keep 2000 Leghorn laying hens. They raise 45,000 chicks per year for replacement for Bab cock Hatchery, getting them at two days old and keeping them till they are 22 weeks old. Funks raise 5000 double breasted turkeys, mostly whites and some bronze, a year. Most of - them goforthe Thanksgiving and Christmas orders. They had one order for 1000 turkeys for Christmas. They deliver all their turkeys, and have a lot of orders for frozen turkeys. They start to dress them about the second week of October using about 15 people, a lot of them members of the family, who dress turkeys one day a week. Then they dress three days each for Thanksgiving and Christmas and put them in their cold storage to sell fresh. They also keep breeder turkeys and have some of their own eggs, which they have hatched, raising their turkeys on wire. Funks attend three Markets. They go to Central Market, Lancaster, at 5 a.m. to set up their stand Tuesdays and Fridays, Columbia Market Fridays and Saturdays and Lebanon Market Fridays and Saturdays. They sell their produce, also eggs at their Columbia and Lebanon market stands. Mary makes out two reports for Central Market and Lebanon Markets and one for the Columbia Market. Some of their produce is sold to local market '(Continued On Page 48)
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers