—Lancaster Farming," Saturday, June 4, 1977
48
Kathy
By JOYCE BUPP
York Co. Reporter
DELTA, Pa. - A young
Maryland couple left a farm
sale near the southern York
County town of Fawn Grove
back in 1967 greatly
disappointed. They had been
counting on buying the
property to establish their
own dairy farm, but the final
bid had climbed way beyond
their purchasing powers.
The same day, about 15
miles away, another farmer
died, leaving his family with
the farm to sell. Through a
series of word-of-mouth
contacts, that 218-acre farm
and the Maryland couple
with a dream found each
other. In the Spring of 1968,
Paul and Kathy King, now of
Delta R 2, had come “home.”
“I love it here; I never
want to move away,” asserts
Kathy, an avid supporter of
the dairy industry and of
dairy farming as a way of
life.
When she was a senior in
high school, Kathy and her
family had moved to rural
Maryland from the town of
Rockville, not far from
Washington, D.C. One of her
new friends was the
daughter of the King family,
owners of the Kmgstead
Holsteins operation.
“The cows needed us,” she
recalls, telling of how she
and Paul married four
months after they met. He
was managing a dairy and
hog farm. For the next two
years, Kathy pitched in to
help with the work and leam
the farming industry from
the ground floor.
“One day - and it took me
all day - when I was baking
my very first pie, August
Nagle, of the Redgate
Holstein herd, visited us and
gave us the opportunity to
rent his farm and purchase
the herd and machinery,”
she says.
During the next five years,
the Kings rented Nagle’s
farm, located at the foot of
Sugarloaf Mountain, near
Frederick. Then came the
chance to locate in
Pennsylvania on a farm of
their very own.
“We moved for a year,”
Kathy laughingly
remembers. It was a 100-
mile trip each way; and it
took countless round trips to
move all the machinery,
feeds, cows, and household
goods.
“Coming around the
Beltway with a manure
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King ‘came home 9 to dairying
Early mottling, and late at night, the at the Kingway farming operation,
cows are of number one importance Here, Kathy King washes the milkers.
spreader loaded with forks
and shovels made a real
picture! And as we started to
load up the tractor trailer to
move the cows, one decided
to deliver a calf. That calf
rode to York County in the
trunk of a car, still wet.”
But once the unpacking
began, the day got even
more interesting.
‘T was carrying things
upstairs to put away when I
glanced out the window.
There was our son Peter,
four years old, steering the
car down over the hill, after
the brake had left loose while
he was in it. It stopped when
it crashed through the living
room wall. Fortunately, he
wasn’t hurt; and the wail got
remodeled a second time,”
related Kathy, shaking her
head.
The Kings have adopted
three children in the 17 years
they’ve been married. Peter,
a seventh grader at Red Lion
Middle School, is now 14. A
lover of motorcycles, Peter
has become an experienced
helper around the Kingway
Farm and often does the
evening milking while Paul
and Kathy finish the field
work.
Nature-loving David is 11
and in the fifth grade. The
owner of a recently
purchased beehive, David is
frequently seen mowing the
grass with his bug-catching
net in hand, adding to his
extensive 4-H entomology
collection.
Daughter Leslie is a third-
UMBERGER’S INC
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grade avid horse enthusiast.
At eight, she’s musically
inclined, but isn’t ready to
give up her gymnastic
lessons for the piano just yet.
The youngsters all have 4-H
dairy project animals and
are involved in a number of
other 4-H activities and
projects.
Since that unforgetable
day when the Kings moved
North, they’ve become
activists in county and state
wide dairy organizations.
Paul and Kathy, who had
never been a 4-H member
until after she was married,
helped organize the first
local dairy club in York
County. The Milk and Money
Club’s 20 members recently
finished fifth in the Hoard’s
Dairymen cow judging
contest. Kathy is also a
leader of the Airville
Community Club, heading up
dairy, entomology, and
candle-making interests.
“It upset me when 4-H
rules were changed some
time ago to make the cut-off
age 18.” she emphasizes. If
that had been in effect when
we married, I’d never gotten
involved in the organization
and probably wouldn’t be a
leader today.”
A Junior Holstein
Association for the county
was also organized by the
Kings. This youth dairy
group stages an annual
showing and fitting training
day, and has sponsored fund
raising calf raffles. Kathy
heads up the state Holstein
Association’s youth
committee as well, while
Paul represents York County
on the Board of Directors.
‘‘My ‘busiest’
involvement, though, is as an
advisor to the Salem United
Methodist Church Youth
Fellowship,” Kathy says.
We’ve just finished building
a new church and our youth
group has pledged toward
helping to pay it off." Events
such as a recent 12-hour
volleyball marathon and one
of the arch’s first “Rock-A-
Thons” have helped raise
hundreds of dollars for the
group’s projects.
“We just purchased a
school bus, too," adds Kathy,
“And we’ll be using it to
travel to our activities. In
fact, the entire group
attended a wedding 100 miles
away in the new bus. People
really looked when we pulled
up in front of the church!”
Transporting the kids to
their annual Youth
Fellowship retreat will be
another use for the bus.
Kingway’s cattle truck has
I
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CLINTONDALE
MILLS
Clintondale, Pa.
We now offer
rolled feed
for your DAIRY COWS
JUNE SPECIAL!!
PURINA
GOLDEN BULKY
been tapped for this job
time or two in the past
Kathy admits
sometimes that method J
travel got just a bit chill!
Both the Kings are Sundj,
School teachers; Kathy
however, is currently tala,'
what she jokingly calls C
“sabbatical leave.”
“I thought it was time f ot
me to be taught by someon e
else for awhile and pick up
[Continued on Page 49]
and horses.
Call 717-726-3884
for special pricing.
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