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This is a photo taken of the farm where I grew up. My grandpa Warren McCreery purchased this farm in the spring of 1975 at which time my mom and dad Clarence and Mary Leighty moved there. I was born in June of 1975. This photo was taken in 1976. It is very neat to see the changes over time to the building site and landscape in the background. There are alot more trees around now then there were at that time. In the late 70's mom and dad added on an addition to the house which about doubled the size of the house including a basement. We raised alot of hogs and cattle when I was growing up. Mom and dad still live there and now my children enjoy when we go out to grandma and grandpa's to run around, ride tractor or 4 wheelers on the 245 acres. Best memories of my life are on this piece of land and can't wait to make more with my kids in the same house, barn, hog house and grainery and land in Guthrie County, Iowa that I ran around on as a kid.

HARMONY GROVE FARM. This farm got it's name back in the late 1800s because all the family members played musical instruments, plus other neighbors showed up on certain weekends for barn dances or other type of community get-togethers. This farm was purchased by Dr. David D. Bechtel and Mary K. Bechtel in 1952 from Glen Byler. Back when this picture was taken, it was 78 acres total. Even though David was a full-time dentist, he couldn't wait for his day to end and come home and work the ground or work with his registered horned hereford cattle. Even though Mary sold the farm in 2000, she didn't have the heart to leave it, so she was granted a lifetime lease to live there until her quality of life forced her to leave in 2009. At this point, the farm is owned by Don & Nancy Sham Sr.

Our farm was in Sperry, Adair County, MO. Sperry consisted of our house, my grandparents house, two neighbors, the one room school I attended (complete with outhouses), the general store my grandfather owned, and the Baptist Church, all clustered around a crossroads.

What else could a boy need in the late 1950s? My parents moved there in 1951 and lived there until my fathers death in 2000.

This is a picture of the farm that has been in my family for over three generations, at one time covered 600 acres. It has been in the family since the mid 1800's. We used this land to raise cattle, grow many crops like cotton, corn, soybeans, and hay.
Much of the land has been sold but a small portion still remanins in the family. All of the buildings including the home place is now gone, so I was very glad to find this company to get a piece of my family's history for future generations to enjoy.

This picture is of the home of W.L. "Bill" Caldwell which was built in 1950. He owned the Four Pine Ranch which consisted of about 2300 acres at Gillis, Louisiana. The ranch farmed rice, soybeans and cattle. He raised Quarter Horses and trained and showed Cutting Horses. He and his wife Estelle started the Ranch in the late 1930's. Later, the house shown and about 440 acres was inheirted by C. C. Caldwell and his wife Oma and presently is owned by their son Robert Caldwell. A present day picture would still show the barns shown, a large riding arena behind them and the house has been replaced by a new one in 2005.

This is a view of my Uncle Les's farm from 1975. You can see the contoured fields. It's a little hilly around there. My uncle used to raise cattle and hogs. He was a 4-H leader and taught a lot of 4-H kids how to raise and care for calves.

This photo from 1980 is of my family's farm. My father, Russell Johnson, farmed the land beginning in 1973. I was born in 1976 and this is where I lived for the first 20 years of my life. You can see the garden where we grew sweet corn and the house which remained relatively unchanged in the years we lived there. My father's Case tractor is also visible, as is the barn for our feeder pigs. There are a few open hog lots visible as well as some fields.

The angle of this picture is facing northwest. To the south and southwest were approximately 150 acres of farmland.

I left home in 1996 for college. My father farmed this land until his death in 2000. In 2007 the farm was sold to two of my dad's brothers who continue to farm the land, keeping the farm in the family.

This photo from 1985 is of my family's farm. My father, Russell Johnson, farmed the land beginning in 1973. I was born in 1976 and this is where I lived for the first 20 years of my life. You can see the house which remained relatively unchanged in the years we lived there. A barn and farrowing house for feeder pigs is to the right, as well as hog houses at the top and a large open lot for sows.

The angle of this picture is facing west. To the north were more open lots and some farmland, to the south and southwest were approximately 150 acres of farmland.

I left home in 1996 for college. My father farmed this land until his death in 2000. In 2007 the farm was sold to two of my dad's brothers who continue to farm the land, keeping the farm in the family.

This photo is fairly similar to the way the property looked when we purchased it in late 2006. We bought this house off of the Auglaize County Sherriffs auction, as it had been foreclosed on. The house was in pretty sad shape, but we spent the next year completely remodeling and rennovating the property. We added on 12 feet of living space and a 2 car garage. The inside of the house was completely re-drywalled, painted, and 2 full bathrooms were added. We did remove the smaller barn in the picture, but have plans of renovating the larger barn with new roofing and siding. We are just starting our family, and look forward to providing this house with many more stories to tell!

This farm is one and one half miles east of Oneida, IA and was settled on by a family named Rector. In 1887 Mr. Rector shipped a railroad car load of hogs to Chicago and built the 40' X 100" barn and two years later he shipped another railroad car load of hogs and built the house. The house was torn down in the early 2000's and replaced. My Grandparents, Jesse and Bertha Matthews rented the farm in 1923 and lived there until 1946. My parents, Carl and Clara Fenstermann moved onto the farm in 1939 and helped with the farming. They moved off the farm in 1959 when my sister and her husband, Casey and Ruth Tucker moved here and lived here until 1962. My wife and I, Robert and Mary Fenstermann moved here at that time and moved off in 1964. Our family had rented this farm on a livestock/crop share lease for 41 years.