ASHJMMHr FWMng, Saturday, July 26, 1997
\
JINNY WILT
Adams Co. Correspondent
GETTYSBURG (Adams Co.)
"This was a chance, I though),
to prove that careful husbandry
could restore land to its original
fertility ... Although we haven’t
achieved the greatest success ...
there are enough lush fields to
assure me that I shall leave the
place better than I found it.”
That quote by the late President
Dwight D. Eisenhower in “At
Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends”
indicates how much he cared for
the land.
It was to his farm in Gettysburg
the only place he and his wife,
Mamie, ever called home that
the couple' went after the 1961
inai ion of John F. Kenner
David Martin, 9, enjoys a moment with newborn kittens
on his grandfather, Wilbur Martin’s farm in Adams County.
When school’s out, David gets to spend time on the farm
where his dad, Sam Martiir, works.
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Tall,
the small dairy farm just outside
Gettysburg in 1950 from Allen
Redding with the hopes of retiring
to it, but they were to travel many
more trails before that became a
reality.
Today there are three farm out
side of Gettysburg all part of
the Eisenhower legacy left to the
people of the United States
where the land is still tilled and
cattle raised.
The job falls to Wilbur and
Dolores Martin of Martin Acres of
Gettysburg and their sons Sam
and Erie Martin.
The Martins recently won the
1997 Adams County Chesapeake
Bay Clean Water Farm Award.
Wilbur and Dolores moved to
their farm of 104 acres in 1969
fabricator which involved a lot of
overtime, in addition to fanning a
smaller property at Two Taverns.
He said, “I figured if I’m going
to kill myself. I’m going to do it as
my own boss.”
Wilbur explained that the fami
ly rented the Eisenhower Farms
when the federal government
“Advertised it and we had to go in
and apply for it just like you do a
iob. I understand when I first
applied for it there were 30 some
farmers that applied to get the
farm and I was selected. They
gave me only one farm to start
with and I had that for a year.”
He’s not sure exactly what year
he added the Eisenhower Farm to
his operation, but knows it was in
the early 1980 s.
He was later asked to take over
the other two farms. There are 489
acres he now rents on the three
farms, including ISO acres of
pasture.
But then a glitch in the way the
farms were rented cropped up and
they were put out for bid.
“You know how farmers talk.
‘This guy’s bidding on it and This
guy’s bidding on it’ so by that
time we got into the deer problem.
I was hesitant to even bid on it be
cause they were eating up all the
profits ... so I got to fighting it
with the help of a lot of neighbors
and we had a meeting with all of
the big people out of Philadelphia.
There must have been 30 people
there from the Department of
Interior and, of course, we (farm
ers) sat back along the wall like a
bunch of bumps on a log.”
But, he finally spoke up and
told them if they didn’t do some
thing about the deer problem there
would be no farming on the Eisen
hower Farms. “We couldn’t keep
putting our money into it... then
the next year they gave it to me
rent-free just so we’d farm it until
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From left, Eric
tin Acres In Adams County along with their father Wilbur
Martin. They also farm several other properties, including
the three Eisenhower Farms. Anyone who has stood on the
tower on the Gettysburg Battlefield has looked over the
Eisenhower Farms.
they decided on what to do with
the deer. It was nothing to go
down there and see 200 in a
bunch.”
The government eventually
shot many of the deer a story
that made national headlines
and Wilbur said, “Last year I
planted com down there and I got
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a decent crop and it looks pretty
good this year too.”
While Ike and Mamie lived on
the main farm, he had a herd of
prize-winning Black Angus.
Today, in keeping with that
tradition, Wilbur must keep a herd
of the same breed of cattle at the
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