Thomas Goodheer is a Perry “Dutchman” BY BETH HEMMINGER Staff Correspondent Perry County’s Thomas Goodheer is a Pennsylvania “Dutchman” in every sense of the word This German-born hog producer was raised in Holland for eleven years before making his home on a farm in Blam, near the heart of Pennsylvania’s “Dutch” country. Goodheer’s bfe and love for farming began in 1959 shortly after his mother made a daring escape from East to West Berlin during the construction of the city’s famous “Wall.” But Goodheer was not to know his natural mother who, he later found out, made her living as a farmer, for soon after Conoco-Brook, owned by John Book and , and barn to an expensive livestock operai family, is nestled in the village of Blain. Over dealing in dairy, beef cattle, and swine, the years, the farm has grown from a house THINKING OF REMODELIN BUILDIN • Manure Pit Walls • Hog House Walls • Chicken House Walls • Concrete Decks • House Foundation Walls • Barnyard Walls • Concrete Pit Tops • Silage Pit Walls • Retaining Walls • Insulated Walls • Slatted Fencing Invest in Quality - It will last a lifetime. 410 Main St. • Akron, PA 17501 • (717) 859-2074 or 733-9196 Call NOW For New Springtime Building. his birth he was placed in an adoption agency There, the young boy with curly blond hair and blue eyes was an irresistible sight for two United States missionaries who were living and working in Holland. The Goodheers adopted Thomas and took him to live with them near the Netherlands seat of government, The Hague, where he lived for eleven years. The Goodsheers, first generation Americans, were quite at home in the Netherlands, a country twice the size of New Jersey bordering the North Sea with West Germany as its eastern neighbor and Belgium on its southern side. It was young Thomas’ adopted ■ The Wall is Only as Good as the Material Used. ■ Poured Solid Concrete Steel Reinforced Walls. CONCRETE WORK, INC. grandfather who, many years before, had made the venture from his native Holland to the United States in search of a brighter future As a young man he made the trans-Atlantic trip and settled in New Jersey After their 11-year stay in the Netherlands, the missionary family returned to the United States and settled in West Chester, Pennsylvania. That was when young Thomas got his first glimpse of a full-fledged dairy farm He recalled how living near The Hague, a metropolitan area, left little opportunity for him to see the farmer’s life in Holland Con sequently, he was intrigued by the dairy operation and the gigantic machinery used by a neighboring farmer "It didn't take long until I was hanging around the farm across the road and then finally I got a job there doing odd things in the summer and after school," he remembered :ion Being born in West Germany and raised in Holland gives Thomas Goodheer an appropriate title of Pennsylvania Dutchman. The young hog producer, now a U.S. citizen living in Perry County, says he likes "best” his life on Conoco-Brook Livestock Farm, where he lives with his wife and in-laws. HP Now you can go from standing I II I hay to windrows m one easy oper ■■ ation with either a 7-or 9-foot aa H H a B ■ A\co New. Idea Tut CONDITION, D, “- " ram- or wnd-flattened mk Mil crops easily And under these ■A 111 II adverse conditions, the Cut Ditionei could gne \ou up to 23 ufiiinßnuf . W llvUI lAp ■■■ conditioners do And the softer, better mixed ha> will agree with v our In estock Stop in and see us toda\ for ail the facts. ~»VCO~^£4 co— «as? Models in Stock, Check Our Prices. Ayn-ltSßfci HEISEY FARM EQUIPMENT, INC. LONG TERM LEASING AVAILABLE THROUGH: • Leyland& Same Tractors • Taylorway-Dunham • New Idea • GT Dryers • Landoll • Dion RD 1, Box 2294, Jonestown. PA 17038 Phone 717-865-4526 Located Vi Mile South of Fredericksburg Off Rt 343 in Shirksville Business Hours 7AM toSPM Daily, Sat till Noon. Evenings by Appt Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 15,1982—029 & NEW IDEA Sales, Service and Parts Thomas’ childhood fascination for fanning blossomed during his college years His love of the agrarian way of life became in tertwined with his love for a fellow student at Northeastern Christian Junior College (Turn to Page 030) gam ,/* FINANCING AVAILABLE
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers