It’s not only the 200th anniversary for Columbus and Bartholomew County.
The Ensley-Weinantz family farm in northern Bartholomew County is one of only two Indiana farms to be honored this month with the Hoosier Homestead Bicentennial award. The other farm is near Paoli in Orange County.
Located at 3750 E. County Road 950N, Edinburgh, the Ensley-Weinantz homestead has remained in the same family since 1820, co-patriarch Randy Weinantz says. Randy, his brother, Rick, and sister, Connie Jessee, represent the seventh generation to have lived on the farm, which has grown from about 200 acres to about 920 acres today.
Randy Weinantz and his wife, LuAnn, reside in the same family farmhouse where he and his siblings grew up. Rick Weinantz lives in a renovated 19th century log cabin about a mile south of the farmhouse.
The story began when Benjamin Ensley, a Revolutionary War veteran, decided to move his wife, Prudence Cutter Ensley, their children and other family members from Pennsylvania to a new state called Indiana.
According to the “History of Bartholomew County, Indiana,” many families were motivated to come to the new state of Indiana after six treaties were signed with five Native American tribes in 1818. Those treaties opened up Indiana for white settlement from the southern third of the state north to the Wabash River, the book states.
The Ensleys were among hundreds of families, largely from Ohio and Pennsylvania, who arrived to purchase public lands surveyed in 1819. Property was being sold by the U.S. government for as low as $1 an acre, according to the book.
“Everybody was heading west at that time,” Randy Weinantz said. “Supposedly, the story is that my ancestors came down the Allegheny River (to just west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), where the Ohio River begins.”
While floating on a raft carrying themselves and their possessions in 1820, the Ensleys were also towing a second raft carrying their cattle, according to family member Judy Weinantz Droddy.
“When they got into rapids, the family thought they were going to capsize,” Droddy said. “But then, one of the family members took an ax and cut the rope to the livestock raft.”
While the Ensleys lost their cattle, the family survived, and reached the Madison area, and started moving northwest by land, Droddy said. At that time, there was a Native American and pioneer trail from Madison to Tiptona. One year after the Ensleys arrived at their homestead west of the Flatrock River, the tiny town of Tiptona was renamed Columbus.
Finding fertile ground and abundant water, Benjamin Ensley laid claim to the property, Randy Weinantz said. The land grant was written on sheepskin and was signed a year later by President James Monroe in 1821 — five years after Indiana became a state and the same year that Bartholomew County was founded.
The family originally built a one-room log cabin. But Benjamin Ensley was already in his 60s when he moved his large family to Indiana. While he died just three years after arriving in Indiana, his wife and their seven children were more than capable of developing the farm.
The tiny cabin was replaced with a larger one in the mid-1800s, Rick Weinantz said. The current farmhouse where Rick and LuAnn Weinantz reside was constructed in 1913, he said In the 1980s, a company was hired to move the larger cabin about a mile south of the farmhouse, which is where Rick Weinantz lives today, he said.
Keeping it in the family
With seven children, the Ensley family lineages went off in many directions. But key descendants that can be traced to the current occupants include another man named Benjamin Ensley and his wife, Lucinda Carter Ensley. Their son was Landa H. Ensley, who married Katherine Swank in 1891. The couple had a daughter, Mary Ensley, who married Russell Weinantz in 1922. One of Russell and Mary’s sons was Robert Weinantz, (1923-2011), the father of Randy and Rick Weinantz and the brother of Judy Weinantz Droddy.
When asked how his family has been able to avoid subdividing a large farm, Randy Weinantz paused for a moment before answering.
“Luck … faith … timing,” Randy Weinantz said with a soft laugh.
But one factor that has kept family members working together, instead of separately, is a willingness to diversify, he said.
One form of diversification undertaken by his father, Robert Weinantz, was the 1980 opening of Weinantz Food and Spirits on Jonathan Moore Pike. The 4,600 square upscale establishment held 160 diners, as well as 80 customers in the lounge.
The popular restaurant would remain open for 17 years until Robert Weinantz retired after selling the restaurant to a developer in 1997 just before retiring. The building was demolished to make room for an Arby’s Roast Beef franchise, according to news accounts.
While their father kept his attention largely on the restaurant, Randy and Rick Weinantz kept their focus on the large farm.
Spreading the risks
“When Randy and I started farming together, we went through some pretty skinny years,” Rick Weinantz said. “We didn’t have crop insurance back then, but we did have some major droughts. There were a few years where we didn’t know if we could be able to continue on.”
Today, the farm grows sweet corn, Pioneer seed corn, soybeans, wheat and even popcorn,” the brothers said.
The family has been selling yellow popcorn commercially in 1979 to the Ramsey Popcorn Co. of Corydon since 1979. If you’ve enjoyed a box of Cracker Jacks over the past 40 years, the caramel-covered popcorn might have been come from the Weinantz farm, Randy Weinantz said. Their product is also used extensively for Cousin Willie’s original popcorn.
By all indications, the homestead will remain in the same family for the foreseeable future. While Randy’s son, Ben, resides in Colorado, the 37-year-old says he still wants to maintain an active voice in the farm’s operation, his father said.
Connie Weinantz Jessee has a 40-year-old son, Kevin Jessee, who has constructed his own home on the property. Kevin Jessee handles a substantial part of the farm’s day-to-day operations and has become a significant asset to the agricultural operation, Randy Weinantz said. As many as five people, including Mike Hoover and Craig Thayer, perform seasonal work on the farm when needed, he said.
Finally, there are grandchildren Ryker Jessee, 4, and Ryston Jessee, 2, who represent the family’s ninth generation.
“They love to be part of the farm,” Droddy said. “They are in tractors and combines as much as they can be.”
To be named a Hoosier Homestead, farms must be owned by the same family for more than 100 consecutive years, and consist of 20 acres or more, or produce more than $1,000 in agricultural products per year.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About the farm ” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Homestead: Ensley-Weinantz
Founded: 1820 by Benjamin Ensley (1757-1823)
Location: County Road 950N, northwest of St. Louis Crossing
Generations of family: Nine
Current patriarchs: Randy and Rick Weinantz
Original size: About 200 acres
Current size: 920 acres
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