House is gone, but Century Farm family still has evidence of history

Tom and Beverly Fitzgerald look over a farm accounting journal kept by Tom's grandfather, Thomas Mathias Fitzgerald, in 1896 and 1897. Tom's father, Richard Fitzgerald, used the journal to record purchases in 1935 and 1936. (Marcia Gorrell/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Although the original homes are gone, much of the history of the Tom and Beverly Fitzgerald farm southeast of Marshall has been saved in steamer trunks filled with family photographs, coins and papers from the family's past.

"I don't think Tom's dad ever threw anything away," said Beverly.

Because of that, however, the family has found many "treasures," including an old accounting journal kept by Tom's grandfather, Thomas Mathias Fitzgerald, dated 1896 and 1897.

This four-room house was the home of Rosa Lee Perkins Fitzgerald and her four young children after her husband Thomas Mathias Fitzgerald died in 1913. The Fitzgeralds had purchased the farm from Rosa Lee's parents in 1907. This painting of the home was done by J. Homan of Kearney, Neb., as a Christmas gift for Tom Fitzgerald and his children. She used her little finger as her brush and the photo of the house as her guide. (Contributed image) [Click to enlarge]

The carefully written entries include: $2.50 for a saddle, $3.50 for a white saddle, 40 cents for a spade, 40 cents for a double tree (a hitching harness for a horse), 25 cents for a log chain, 25 cents for a bobsled, 45 cents for a coal oil can, 10 cents for a horse brush and three cents for a curry comb.

Household items listed include five cents for thread and two cents for stamps.

The Fitzgerald farm was one of 16 Saline County farms recognized on Nov. 14 as Century Farms for being in the same family for 100 years or more.

The Fitzgerald farm was purchased in 1896 by Thomas C. and Bettie A. Young Perkins from Samuel A. McClelland.

Lillian M. Boland Fitzgerald and Richard T. Fitzgerald were married on June 15, 1939. Their son, Tom, and his wife, Beverly, now own the farm southeast of Marshall, which has been in the family since 1896. (Contributed photo) [Click to enlarge]

In 1907, they sold the farm to their daughter, Rosa Lee, and her husband, Thomas Mathias Fitzgerald.

Although Thomas M. died in 1913, Rosa Lee stayed on the farm with her four young children, living in a four-room home she had had built on the property.

She lived there until her death in 1928.

Tom Fitzgerald said his father, Richard, who eventually bought the farm from his sisters, told some stories about the "rough" time it was for Rosa and the children after Thomas M.'s death.

"After his dad passed away, Richard and his older sister, Betty, would try to find any wood that they could," he said. "They would take a horse and a sled and pick up old stumps and stuff like that. His sister would try to use an axe and try to find anything they could for firewood."

Although he lived in Marshall briefly, Richard married Lillian Boland in 1939, and lived in the four-room house until his death in 1986.

On the farm, he raised hogs, sheep and cattle. He also raised some row crops, including oats, corn, wheat and, later, soybeans.

Tom, who started farming full-time with his father in the 1970s said Richard used horses until 1948, when he bought a Ford Ferguson tractor.

With the new tractor came a cultivator, mower and two-bottom plow.

He said, he "barely" remembers when his father had a stationary hay baler, "where the horses would walk around and someone had to feed the hay into the baler."

Later they went to a Case slicer-baler, which was pulled behind a tractor and picked the hay up like balers do today; however, the baler still required two people to follow it.

"One of them would be punching the wire through and the other one on the other side would be tying the wire," he said.

"My job was to drive the tractor," he said, recalling he was probably 12 or 13 years old at the time.

Years later, he said he did help "punching the wires through," recalling it as a very "dirty job."

Tom recalled a story from 1954, a very dry year, in which the corn was being threatened by an influx of grasshoppers.

"We had corn down at the lower end of this place, so dad went up to the county agent and talked to him about spraying for grasshoppers, and so he recommended a certain spray and Dad picked that up," he said.

Driving home they noticed "a little cloud in the southeast."

By the time they got home there was so much rain and lightning they could barely see to drive.

It then started hailing as they drove into the driveway.

"It hailed and hailed," Tom said.

After the storm, they realized they no longer needed to worry about the grasshoppers.

"The hail hit that corn and just stripped it. There were no leaves left on it."

Later they learned there had been no rain in Marshall or anywhere else in the state that day.

In his early years of farming, Richard had started using his father's accounting journal.

His entries, dated 1935 and 1936. include: $28 for seed oats and $6.75 for one-half bushel of red clover.

Other entries show he paid $2 to someone for stacking hay and $1 to a neighbor for cutting out fencerow.

Other items the Fitzgeralds have kept in the family include a few old gold coins, which were apparently rescued when a house on the farm burned.

They also have an original telephone, along with the receipt dated Feb. 13, 1908, from Tri County Telephone Company. The total bill for "telephone rental" was $21.77, including a 75-cent installation charge.

Another "treasure" includes a letter to Richard from REA (Rural Electric Association), dated 1939, letting them know that rural electricity was soon going to be available in the area.

A letter from Sears and Roebuck is dated shortly after REA's letter.

"It said they could come to Sears to shop for an electric stove or refrigerator and all their electric needs," said Beverly.

Other interesting items from the trunks include sugar stamps, gas rationing cards and V-mail from World War II.

The only original structures still left on the farm are an old cellar and cistern.

The lumber from the four-room home, torn down in 1994, was used to build a barn, which is still standing, along with two other barns that Richard built.

Tom and Beverly's son Brandt and his wife now live on the farm, which now includes 135 acres, in a new home.

The Fitzgeralds said their daughters, Rendy Maupin of Marshall, and Stephanie Wegner of Kearney, Neb., along with Brandt, all have items they saved from the four-room home, which they use as "decorator items" for their homes.

Contact Marcia Gorrell at marshallag@socket.net