82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 30, 1994
81-Year-OldMcCullough Hook Continues Farming
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
WOLMESDORF (Berks Co.)
McCullough Hook remembers
the days when he was featured in
newspapers and national maga
zines for hosting 23,000 children
on tours of his farm.
Although Hook is now 81 years
old, he isn’t silling in a rocking
chair simply remembering the
good, old days. Instead this
energetic octogenarian puts in 15-
to 17-hour days working on the
family farm, cooking, canning,
cleaning, and taking care of his
wife Anna who is disabled from
Parkinson*s disease, which is a
chronic progressive nervous disor
der of later life that is marked by
tremor and weakness of resting
muscles.
“Annie and I always stuck
together and we always will,”
Hook says when asked why he
doesn’t rely upon nursing care for
his wife.
“She helped make me what I am
today. We are still partners regard
less of the condition she’s in,” he
said.
That care often requires Hook to
arise seven to 11 times during the
night to assist Annie.
But Hook is not complaining.
He said, “Sitting around makes
you stiff. As long as I move
around, I can’t get stiff.”
Hook learned responsibility ear
ly. When he was 13 years old, his
father died. As the oldest child,
Hook grew up on this 118-acre farm on which he continues to work. He said, “Best
land you want to find here on this farm. We can match crops here with Lancaster
County.
This Is the crew that keeps the Hook farm going. From left: Jim Hook, Garrion Shaw,
hired man; McCullough, Debbie, and Loretta Hook. Loretta Is in charge of the 80 cows
since her husband died of cancer in 1991. Daughter Debbie takes care of the calves
and about 40 head of replacements. Jim helps milk and do field work. McCullough Is
responsible for field work, equipment repair, and managing the farm.
Hook felt the responsibility of
helping to keep the family, which
included an 8-year-old sister, a
2Vi -year-old brother, and a six
week-old baby.
Some people discouraged his
mother from trying to keep the
children and suggested she let
others adopt the children, and
return to her childhood home in
Virginia. Hook remembers the
event as clears as if it were today.
He recalled, “My mother put her
arm around me and said, “I want
our family to stay together. I don’t
want a split family.”
Hook vowed to do his part. He
had learned to plow with horses
when he was only eight years old.
That was when, the plow hit slate
and the plow handles bounced up
and knocked out several of his
teeth.
“From then on, I knew the right
way to hold a plow,” Hook said.
Fortunately, his mother was no
novice to farming. She grew up on
a farm, her husband had not, so she
always said that she had taught him
everything he learned about
farming.
With the help of neighbors and
friends, the family managed to stay
together and keep the farm in Wol
mesdorf on which Hook still farms
today.
When Hook brought his girl
friend (whom he later married) to
the family farm, she was afraid of
the cows and ran and hid until the
cows were tied in their stalls.
Hook’s mother told her, “If you
want to go with him, bring some
old clothes along next time, and
I’ll teach you to milk.”
Annie bravely took her advice.
“Soon she could outmilk my
mother and me,” Hook said of the
girl he soon married.
“When we married, we didn’t
have much money. My wife made
flapjacks to sell and milked 28
cows by hand while I worked in the
brickyards at night,” he said.
During the day, Hook hauled
school children to school in the car
and helped do the morning milking
and field work. The couple pur
chased few groceries only
sugar, salt, and safety matches
everything else was raised on the
farm.
After two years of working in
the brickyard, Hook was able to go
into full-time farming. The couple
rented an adjoining farm to their
mother’s.
“Back then, all you needed to
get a loan from the bank was ambi
tion and a reputation to do what
you promised,” Hook said.
Loans were repaid not by set
payment fees and dates but by how
much you could afford when you
sold your crop.
Later, the couple moved to
Bemville and rented a large farm
there for 37 years.
“I was the first guy in the area in
1940 to lay the farm in contour
strips. This is my pride and joy,”
Hook said as he showed a colored
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Hook takes a break from his duties. Although he is
81-years-old, he continues to put in long days doing the
field work on the 118-acre farm and the additional 120 acres
that are rented.
photograph that clearly depicts the
contour farming techniques.
Bemville was also the place
where Hook began to hold farm
tours long before they became
popular.
“It started with the FFA boys.
Soon I was getting requests from
schools and Girl and Cub Scouts
located as far away as Allentown
and Harrisburg.”
Hook limited the tours to Berks
County where every school but
one participated. The tours
included hay rides and chocolate
milk, which Clover Farm Dairies
provided.
Hook still has thousands of let
ters received from the children
who visited the farm.
The Hooks themselves had five
children and now have 12
grandchildren.
While Hook was farming in
Bcmville, he continued to help his
mother on her farm until 1980,
when he made sale of the Bemville
livestock and equipment and
moved back to the family farm,
where he built a house on the
Jfomestead
JTotes
Hook holds a can of cookies he baked. His wife Anna has
Parkinson disease and is unable to do household chores so
Hook cooks, bakes, and cans food In addition to working on
the farm.
acreage. He laid the block and
brick himself. He had learned to do
that when fire destroyed his Bem
ville bam and he helped to rebuild
it. He also built several structures
on the Wolmesdorf farm and
added to the two houses on the
farm. Installing block glass win
dows is also one of his skills and
one which he used in the bam. He
is quite proud that the bam is so
well lighted from installation of
the block glass on two sides.
From 1985 to 1987, Hook also
kept his mother who in her final
years had Alzheimer’s disease.
“My wife and my mother sat all
day long in facing chairs,” said
Hook who believes home care is
the best care that can be given to
family members.
Hook had taken over cooking
duties in 1980.
My wife was an excellent cook,
but this Parkinson Disease just
didn’t let her continue,” he said.
Some days Annie is able to walk
gingerly by herself and other days
she can barely move even with
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