i is
At 14-years of age Wayne Gabel delivers milk to the receiving station In Honey
Brook. The milk was loaded on freight cars and taken to Philadelphia. “We got more
money that way than sending our milk to the creamery,” Gabel said.
WO-Year-Old Reflects
A Century Of Farming
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
CAMBRIDGE (Chester Co.)
At 100 years of age, Wayne Gabel
is the oldest member of die Honey
Brook Township Grange.
“Not only am I the oldest mem
ber, I’m the only charter member
left,” said the jovial centenarian.
Gabel isn’t one merely to have
his name listed on the membership.
He still holds the office of
chaplain.
Those who pass his home near
the Lancaster and Chester counties
line often see Gabel working in his
large garden or mowing the grass
on his or his neighboring son’s
property.
For the last 25 years. Gabel
lakes his 7 ‘ ~ -'alk
Neighbor Henry Zimmerman admires the weather vanes
that Gabel makes from wood.
About a year ago, Gabel Invested in a riding mower
instead of using a walk-behind mower. Now he mows both
his and his son’s bordering property.
A
check the rain gauge mounted on a
tripod in his backyard. Gabel is one
of those people who keeps records
for the National Weather Service.
He records each day’s temperature
and sends a copy to Harrisburg and
to the corporate headquarters in
North Carolina. Sometimes, the
Weather Service calls him for
details on the weather in his area,
which is then related on the news
reports.
Despite his age. Gabel is not a
tottering old man. Rather than sit
and relax, he’d just as soon stand
and talk with visitors or perch on
(he arm of (he armchair “because
it’s not so hard to get up again.”
Gabel has outlived two wives
and said, “If 1 wouldn’t be so old.
' J> \t> „
He was married to the first one
for SO years. After her death, he
remarried and lived 21 years with
his second wife until she died two
years ago.
Two years ago. Gabel passed the
eye test and physical and had his
driver’s license renewed.
“It’s good until I’m 102,” he
said.
But last year. Gabel sold his car
because he thought the car insur
ance was too high.
Gabel is a talking historian who
remembers paying $7,500 for the
70-acre farm he purchased in 1928.
He added another 50 acres for $lOO
per acre and started with 5 or 6
cows.
The cows were milked by hand
until 1935, when he bought a two
unit milker.
As a member of DHIA, Gabel
recalls having one of the top cows
in 1932, which milked 9,970
Gabel’s advice for long life Is
’Don’t drink and don’t smoke
and stay home with your
woman .'
pounds.
Com was his biggest crop. He
cut the shocks by counting six rows
and seven steps to form the com
shocks.
“My daddy was sort of slow to
get on machinery, but I remember
the first manure spreader we got.
We ordered it through the Sears
Roebuck catalog,” Gabel said.
Other machinery was added bit
by bit. He said, “A friend bought
his hay loader to our place. We
tried it and bought it
“My first corn fodder shredder
ran on five horsepower. I thought
that was great”
His father started a milk route in
which he would park his milk
wagon at set locations and house
wives would come with their con
tainers and fill them for six cents a
quart for whole milk, three cents
for skim milk, and six cents for a
Homestea
mmt
On
“We got more for our milk there
than at the Creamery,” he said.
He remembers working the land
with a hand plow. It was exciting
for Gabel because he found many
arrowheads while plowing. He
now has an extensive collection of
arrowheads.
Gabel’s dad bought his first
Model T in 1916.
“The Model T got through mud,
unlike the Overlander and other
early cars. We’d fly past them sit
ting in the mud," he recalled of the
era before a driver’s license was a
government requirement
Early drivers carried a tire pump
and patches with them. “We got
flat tires often. Tires are much bet
ter now than back then,” he said.
Grover Cleveland was president
when Gabel was bom on Sept. 2,
1896. Since then, Gabel has lived
through the terms of IS id
Although 100 years old, Gabel Is often on his hands and
knees working in his large garden. He sells produce to local
markets and freezes some for his own use.
half pint of cream. The milk route
was lots of work, and Gabel said
that they didn’t keep it up much
more than a year.
For a number of years, the
Gabels loaded their milk cans on
their wagon and took the milk to
the Emery Creamery, just west of
Cambridge. Here they emptied the
milk cans. On the opposite side of
the road was a cistern into which
the skim milk was piped under the
road. The empty cans were then
filled with skim milk at the cistern
to take along home for the hogs.
Gabel said that later he delivered
the milk to the receiving station in
Honey Brook, where freight cars
took the milk to Philadelphia.
He was graduated from Twin
Valley in 1914, the only male stu
dent in a class of five.
Gabel recalls the days before
rural delivery. He’d walk to the
post office two mornings a week to
pick up the mail.
“The store opened at 9 a.m., and
the boys and men would gather to
hear the news,” he said.
In 1966, Gabel sold his farm and
moved to the house he built on his
farm.
He sells produce from his garden
to local markets. He also freezes
his own com and beans. He enjoys
making wooden wind vanes, but
doesn’t have a big enough market
to use up his stockpile of them.
For 24 years. Gabel was a school
board member. He’s also been a
Fire Company member. He has
been a member of Honey Brook
United Methodist Church for 70
years. For SO years, he’s been a
mason of the Howell Lodge.
Although Gabel said that all his
friends his age have died off, he
still receives more mail than any
other person on the route, accord
ing to the local mail carrier. This
week the local post office cele
brated its 100 year anniversary and
commemorated it by deliving
Gabel’s mail in a horse and
carriage.
Gabel’s advice for long life is
“Don’t drink and don’t smoke and
stay home with your woman.”
He said that about 25 years ago
he had pain in his head. His doctor
told him to keep away from fat
“I’ve been keeping away from
fat and feeling good ever since,” he
said.
A typical breakfast is oatmeal.
Lunch is mostly potatoes with
skins on. and supper is a whole
wheat sandwich with chopped
turkey or maybe some cheese and
ham.
(Turn to Page B 5)