One of the guys (he was in his 70's) from the Hay Baling day we had last weekend was telling me about this farm that was by Odebolt, Iowa. He said that his Dad visited there and saw 60 teams of horses or mules go out to cultivate corn one morning....I don't know what year that would of been, maybe in the 1930's....BUT Here is an excerpt from the internet dates 1910 (This is pretty amazing):
The next stop was at the Adams farm (also called Wheeler Farm or Fairview Farm) with nearly ten sections - 6160 acres, to be exact - lying in one contiguous tract, this is the largest farm in the state. Organized and operated on strict business principles, the Adams farm is a striking object lesson of the value of business methods on the farm. The fields, for the most part, are laid off by sections - corn rows a mile long and oat fields a mile square. Sixty miles of woven wire fencing and concrete posts separate the fields from the roadways.
The farm is managed from a central plant and two sub-stations. The main set of buildings is located in the center of a section, with a diagonal elm-bordered driveway running to each corner. The corn cribs, elevators and machine sheds, together with the mess and bunk houses, the mule barns and the residences, make an establishment that looks more like a manufacturing plant than a farm yard. The largest building is the mule barn, 50 x 232 feet in size. The motive power of the farm is furnished almost entirely by big Missouri mules, shipped up from St. Louis.
The farm is under the direct supervision of a manager. Under him are ten or twelve foremen. At this time of year there are about 140 men employed. They are housed and fed on the place. Although there is always [unreadable] or [unreadable] shifting, Mr. Adams has very little trouble with the labor problem. Probably one of the main reasons for this is the wage scale, which is so arranged as to make it to a man's advantage to stay as long as he is wanted.
Aside from the mules, there is little live stock on the farm with the exception of sheep. The sheep sheds will easily accommodate 14,000 sheep, which is the number that were fed out last winter. A consistent rotation is followed, consisting of two years corn, one year oats, one year corn, one year oats, and one or two years of clover. About one section a year is manured. The cultivation is of the best, scarcely a weed being in evidence on the whole place. Under this system Mr. Adams has laid by million dollars in profits during the past fourteen years, which is not so bad. He is still prospering, and from all indications seems likely to do so for some time to come.
And here is a photo of the barn that was on the farm...
http://iagenweb.org/sac/photo12.htm
Still more on the history:
The Odebolt Chronicle, May, 1977, pp. 110-112)
William Phipps Adams was 33 years old when he took over the ranch. He was a shrewd businessman, who loved the land. He was married to Nettie Moore in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, December 17, 1884. They went to Wahpeton, North Dakota shortly after their wedding. It was on this farm owned by his father that he launched his career as a farmer at the age of 21. They remained there until 1893. They moved to Wheaton, Illinois. He tried staying in an office in Chicago but the lure of the farm soon brought him back. He started looking for land in Iowa in 1894 and it was in 1896 that the Adamses took possession of Wheeler Ranch and set about building it into the outstanding farm in Iowa.
The land was farmed with mules with 140 sections of four-foot harrows moving a mile together covering 62 acres. There were 76 wagons of men husking corn for 60 days, 27 mule teams, four abreast. The men averaged 60 bushels of corn a day. The Ranch had their own elevators, both on the farm and in Odebolt. There were 50 (Mike's note I wonder if this was 500?? ) acres of corn of which 250 acres went to feed the mules.
Not only were there 12 sections of land fenced with cement posts, but shade trees lined every roadway around every section. The early plantings were cottonwood trees and in later years these were replaced with American Elm trees. The cottonwoods were sold to a box factory. In 1966 the Dutch Elm disease moved into this area and by 1976 not a tree remained standing along the ranch roads. The giant shade trees at one time made tunnels of green across every road.Sheep on the road
W. P. Adams purchased sheep for Fairview Farm with from 10,000 to 100,000 grazing the land. The sheep barns from the Adams farm in North Dakota were brought here on boxcars. Some of the original sheep barns were later used to house cattle.
The farm procedure was so well organized by Adams that he won the admiration of many observers for his advanced methods at a time when big farms were out of the ordinary. In plowing season, working at one time, were 18 gang plows and 17 single plows, 18 manure spreaders and 80 farm wagons. During the busy season 150 men were employed and during the slack season 45. No women were employed except on the household staffs of the families.
The ranch contained a bunk house for the men; a kitchen and dining hall; commissary; a blacksmith shop; mule barn; several homes for married men and their families; a large garage with chauffeur’s quarters above; and the palatial home of the Adamses. The ranch had its own ice house and kept milk cows to provide butter and milk for the tables.
With the advent of tractors and other farm machinery Adams continued to farm with mules in conjunction with the machines.
In 1918 W. P. Adams built the First National Bank in Odebolt and continued to operate it until the depression of the 1930’s. The bank building was later purchased by the Board of Directors of the Odebolt State Bank and is in operation today [1977] in Odebolt’s Centennial year. [Note: It is in operation in 2001.]
After fires in 1905 and 1919, a complete fire fighting system was set up on the ranch. December 11, 1905 the cookhouse burned but the other buildings were saved. September 10, 1919 the mule barn and cattle barn burned along with the grain elevator, water tower and blacksmith shop - - a $100,000 loss.
Adams took these setbacks in stride and continued operating one of the most successful farms in the country. At his death it was noted that the Adams ranch never had a mortgage on it and it was never in the red.
The Adamses were ardent travelers. They had a fine home in Miami Beach, Florida, where they spent their winters. At one time he nearly lost his life when a ship, the Vestris, went down off the Virginia Capes in November 1928. He died in Miami Beach, Florida at the age of 74, March 25, 1937.
Before his death he had sealed more than 300,000 bushels of corn under the AAA, getting a loan of $135,594 from the Federal government, believed to be the largest corn sealing loan ever made in the United States. Besides being president of the First National Bank in Odebolt he was a director of the International Harvester Company.
HERE IS A SUMMED UP HISTORY OF THE FARM...
History
The ranch originally consisted of nine sections, purchased by H.C. Wheeler in 1871 from the Iowa Railroad Land Company for three dollars an acre.
In 1896 Wheeler sold the ranch to W. P. Adams. For the land Wheeler paid $20,000 for a quarter of a century earlier, he reportedly received $185,000. W. P. had all the sections fenced with cement posts and shade trees lined every roadway around every section. When he died in 1937 the Adams Ranch had never had a mortgage on it and had never operated in the red.
Robert Adams took over the operation of the ranch following his father's death. In addition to the farming, he became interested in breeding, selling and showing saddle horses. He left the ranch to his son Robert Adams, who introduced Hereford cattle and built up a herd of registered stock in the ranch.
In 1963 the ranch was sold to Charles E. Lakin of Emerson. The ranch then consisting of 6,510 acres went for $2,500,000. He sold off several parcels of land on the fringes of the ranch.
William Bridge of Bloomfield, MI purchased the ranch in 1967 but the deed for the ranch was held in escrow in an Omaha Bank until 1975. In February that year the deed was recorded in the Sac County Courthouse. The purchase price for the transaction was $4 million. The ranch then became known as Shinrone, Inc. Changes were then made. A large feedlot was constructed in 1968. The hillside feedlot contained 4,500 head of cattle at one time in a series of about 16 feeding pens. Three large trench type silos were also built.
In 1970 Shinrone had the largest consignment of cattle ever sold at the Sioux City Stockyards from one farm, when 5,000 head were shipped in three shipments.
The ranch was split and sold off in 1978 with several area farmers buying portions of the land.
BIG BARN
BIG BARN
Here is a photo of the McCormick Tractors at the Farm at one time....
tractorsodebolt.jpgfairviewfarmview3.jpg
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Larry(OH) wrote: