Lycoming County Form
BY BARBARA MILLER
Lycoming Co. Correspondent
MUNCY—If they look closely on
a summer day, visitors to the
Lycoming Mall In Muncy may
notice a woman and a dog in the
cab of a tractor working the fields
opposite the mall. For almost 25
years Thelma White has been
spending her days, often from
sunup to sunset, helping husband,
Frank, put out approximately 440
acres in grain.
Thelma, who ironically enough
possesses a degree in home
economics, stresses she loves the
out-of-doors and the variety of
activities farming offers.
“Farming is dirty work, a
tiresome and thankless job, but
also rewarding in the variety of
activities,” she remarks.
Thelma helps Frank in all
aspects of farming, and although a
woman, she is definitely a Jack-of-
.. . sne a college ee in . ie economics,
Thelma White of Muncy devotes much of her time to field
work. Thelma and her husband, Frank, raise about 440 acres
of grain. Here she points to the word "Hers” which
distinguishes her tractor from the identical one Frank uses.
Thelma and her Malamute, Mike, disc a field. Mike has been
riding with Thelma since he was a puppy.
all-trades and mistress of many in
farming as well as other areas of
her life.
Thelma and her Malamute,
Mike, can be found in the fields
chopping, discing and in the fall
bringing in numerous wagonloads
of com from the fields to unload at
the driers. She is in charge of
drying and storing the com and
notes the care which must be taken
with the com.
“Monitoring the com is very
critical because you want to have it
dried for safe storage but not over
dried so the quality is en
dangered.”
Thelma adds that some nights,
since the drier runs continually,
she slips out at 10 o’clock to unload
a couple more loads into the drier.
She says they were the first farm
ers to own an automatic grain
drier in Pennsylvania.
When she’s not driving tractor,
Woman Holds Her Own In The Reid
Thelma is busy greasing
machinery or helping Frank repair
equipment. In addition, she does
the book work on the farm. All this
is a far cry from the Georgia
native who moved to Pennsylvania
in June 1954 to work as a food
supervisor at Penn State. It was
there she met Frank, and in a
whirlwind courtship married him
in December of the same year.
In May 1955, Frank graduated
with an agricultural degree and
shortly thereafter the Whites
rented Muncy Farms from the
Brock estate and moved to their
current address. Muncy Farms is
a beautiful estate situated along
the Susquehanna River with a
large fieldstone house and an
abundance of riverbottom
acreage. Established in 1769 by a
land grant from William Penn, the
fieldstone house is the oldest house
in Lycoming County.
It didn’t take Thelma long to
discover farming in the North
differed a little from fanning in the
South.
“I was six months pregnant and
he put me on a tractor to rake hay
and I didn’t know what a windrow
was,” she recalls, laughing.
Reared on a southern farm,
Thelma observes, she had learned
to pick cotton and raise corn and
watermelon, but no hay. However,
she proved a quick study, swiftly
acquiring the necessary skills
through the years.
During the first years of their
tenure the Whites ran a dairy
operation until the bam burned.
Next, for a few years, Thelma
recalls, they ran a successful
swine operation, raising 1,200 pigs
a year until the bottom dropped out
of the market.
Although their boys, Steven and
Lee, were bom during these years,
Thelma helped with the farming,
particularly, she says, with the
care of the animals. Both boys
since, Thelma notes, have
graduated from Penn State with
degrees in chemical engineering
and presently live out of state with
their families.
“I milked cows and vaccinated
pigs. I was on call 24 hours a day,”
recalls Thelma.
When they were involved in their
swine operation, Thelma observed,
they employed two men, but when
they made the decision 24 years
ago to grain farm, they decided
they would farm without outside
help. It was at this time that
Thelma began spending a major
chunk of her time in the fields.
Presently, Thelma relates with a
Thelma displays the 1954 Willys Ambulance she and her husband, Frank, own.
Members of a military vehicle collectors club, they have restored six such military
vehicles.
When she's not in the field, Thelma spends some of her
time going over the books.
chuckle, she and Frank possess
identical tractors marked “His”
and “Hers.” They bought a new
Allis-Chalmers in 1961 and a used
one exactly like it a year later, she
says. The one equipped with power
steering was designated Thelma’s
tractor and the other without it was
supposed to be Frank’s.
Frequently, Thelma says, she
found herself driving the tractor
without power steering because
Frank “forgot” and drove the
other one. It wasn’t long after
Thelma got around to labeling the
tractors his and hers that a
wmesfead
decision was made to install power
steering in Frank’s tractor.
In addition to field work,
machinery repair, and farm book
work, Thelma also performs the
usual household chores and still
finds time to pursue an abundant
variety of other interests. Thelma
enjoys sewing and says she hasn’t
bought a dress since she was nine
years old. She also sews curtains
and draperies.
Thelma has refurnished
numerous pieces of furniture in
their home such as cupboards,
(Turn to Page B 4)