W2-Year-Old Master Farmer Brings History To Life
(Continued from Page B 14)
1900. He willed the farm to dad.”
Weir remembers meeting his
first wife at a party. He said, “We
used to have parties held at diffe
rent places. I was invited. I took
one girl to the party and while I
was there, I saw another one I liked
better! That was Rhoda. I went
with Rhoda five years before we
were married. I was married April
2, 1914.”
But before that, in the winter of
1912, Weir attended a 12-week
course at Penn State, studying
soils, crops, dairy, bookkeeping,
and poultry. About SO classmates
including two women took
We changed the entitle
off the combine bueinese. And yglii crop
If you don’t have a GLEANER,* you’re putting your crop through aheer torture before it ever makaa it to the bin.
That's because old fashioned combines subject your wheat to as maty as five ohengeeof direction, et tnoredlbiy
C.J. WONSIDLER
BROS.
Quakertown, Pa.
215-536-7523
New Tripoli, Pa. Oley, Pa.
215-767-7611 215-987-6257
the course. Weir remembers pass
ing through the Creamery for one
of his classes and the original Old
Main on the campus.
In spite of modem advances,
fanning today still breeds its share
of drudgery, but Weir has his own
definition of drudgery.
“After we were married, we
milked 30 cows by hand for a cou
ple of years. That was drudgery!
We got up at 3:30 a.m. and lit our
lanterns you know there was no
electricity at that time lit our
lanterns and hung them in the bam.
Milked a bunch of stable cows and
then hung the lanterns in another
stable.”
are going to thank us.
high speeds, as it winds its way through the harvesting process. The GLEANER M 2
fatural Flow System fiedtyeur
crop straight through the harvesting process.
During the next 20 years, Weir
and Rhoda raised nine children.
The oldest, Anna, died of pneumo
nia when she was nine.
Weir’s crop and cattle experi
ence is spotted with award
winning good times and heart
breaking hard times.
In 1938, he was recognized fora
three-year average com yield of
121 bushels. One of the fields had
been fertilized by airplane. That’s
the same year that he received the
Master Fanner award.
“You were supposed to be just a
little better fanner than the aver
age. And you were supposed to be
something like a school director. I
In’t ever be so cruel. Our unique transversely mounted Natural Plow
Harvesting System gives your crop a smooth straight run, from the
header, straight through to our gentle angle Swivel unloading tube.
All of which means more of the extremely dean grain sample the
GLEANER has long been known for. ( ▲ ]
I IfM
a kinder, gentler way to farm. QSK) hMHtUr
B. EQUIP., INC.
Waynesboro, Pa.
717-762-3193
was a school director for 24 years.
and a member of church and com-
munity organizations.”
Throughout his life as a dairy
farmer, Weir lost three herds to
disease.
“First herd we lost was to foot
and mouth disease. That was very
contagious. That was in the neigh-
borhood of 1918 or ’20.1 remem-
ber we dug a ditch 70 feet long,
seven feet wide and seven feet
deep. We drove the whole 38 head
in a ditch and the state trooper shot
them down like rats. I remember 1
led the bull in there by the staff. Of
course, I got out of there before the
shootin’! They covered them with
Weir bought and sold many farms in the
course of his lifetime. In the 1930 s and ’4os,
Weir purchased several farms in Williams
Grove Road area of Mechanicsburg, hoping
to ensure a future in farming for his sons. Four
went into farming for themselves and those
farms remain in the Strode name. Three are
still active farms, two in dairy and one in turk
eys, hogs, and crops.
Weir has outlived two wives and one son,
and realizes good health and family as bless
ings from God. At last count, his family has
grown to include 28 grandchildren, 45 great
grandchildren, and eight great-great grand
children with three on the way.
Weir says that he wouldn’t know how to
farm today. But after hearing his oral history,
family members wondered if they could have
farmed as he did.
The Weir family recorded Weir’s accourit
of life in the past century. In the next five
years, family members hope not only to see
the next century but also the next millennium.
They want to pen what they see, hear, feel,
know and experience for the coming genera
tions.
■' f7 8
HERNLEY S FARM
EQUIP., INC.
Elizabethtown, Pa.
717-367-8867
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 15, 1995-819
lime first and then finished up with
ground. The next herd we lost was
to TB and the next one was to
Bang’s. We lost three herds.”
Weir said that the other two herd
were taken to a slaughterhouse in
Harrisburg. He also said a cow
milking SO pounds a day was con
sidered a pretty good cow.
“Now Paul (Weir’s son) had a
first calf heifer that milked 100
pounds a day. The second calf, she
milked more than that. Two milk
ings! I never had a cow that milked
over 96 pounds.”
A family member said, “It will become a
living historical link in the chain that connects
this generation to the next, just as Weir linked
us to the rumble of cannons at Gettysburg.”
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