Seven Bartholomew County farms have been honored with the Hoosier Homestead Award this month, including two receiving the Sesquicentennial Award.
Each award represents a farm family that has kept the same homestead for a minimum of 100 consecutive years, with the Sesquicentennial Awards going to those who have kept their farm in the family for more than 150 years.
While that’s has been a lot of homesteads over the last 44 years, it’s not a record breaker. When the Hoosier Homestead honors were created during the nation’s bicentennial in 1976, no less than 19 Bartholomew County families received the honor. And at the close of the 20th century, eight families were given the award in 1999.
Both farm families honored with sesquicentennial awards are located in the scenic White Creek area west of Jonesville.
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Kerkhof, 1845
In the same year Texas was annexed into the Union, an immigrant from the Hanover province of Prussia named Johann Heinrich Kirchoff laid claim to 360 acres of land in southwest Bartholomew County.
Over the next 175 years, nine generations of Johann’s descendants lived on the homestead in the White Creek area, according to eighth generation member Bill Kerkhof. But many who came from what is now Germany kept low profiles, especially after the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Bill Kerkhof said.
Fearing persecution, some families adapted the Dutch surname Kerkhof, which was a prominent name in neighboring Jackson County, rather than sticking with the German surname Kirchoff, he said.
Like many farm families, the Kerkhofs of the White Creek area faced a variety of adversity, including a fire that ravaged the original home between 1917 and 1922, Bill Kerkhof said. A more recent setback was a 1997 tornado that tore through the farm and caused extensive damage.
While the family was kept low key for decades, the Kerkhof name became more prominent in Bartholomew County after Bill’s great-grandparents, William Kerkof (1876-1936) and his wife, Clara (1879-1948) gave birth to Bill’s grandfather, Floyd Kerkhof (1914-1995).
After Floyd married Selma Speaker Kerkhof (1913-2006), the couple became well known throughout the county. For example, they added two large chicken coops that enabled them to create enough eggs that they added Columbus High School (located near Seventh and Pearl streets in those days) and many in-town homes on their regular route.
As a Farm Bureau member, Floyd became active in county and township offices, while Selma was a highly-admired educator with the Helping Hands Home Extension Club.
It was their son, Norman, who was able to expand and diversify his income after marrying Karen Vonderheide in 1971. Norman did that by founding a trucking company that originally hauled only animal feed for farmers.
Norman and Karen had their son Bill Kerkhof, who married Lesa Kirchner in 2007. Bill eventually took over his father’ trucking company, and was able to attract high profile customers including Cummins Inc. and Rose Acres Farms.
Now farming a total of 800 acres, the Kerkhof family grow corn and soybeans, as well as tend to about 150 head of cattle in both Bartholomew and Jackson counties, Bill Kerkhof said.
The current patriarch also has three sisters who also make up the eighth generation: Susan Wehrkamp, Jeannie Long and Sarah Grund.
Bill and Lesa also raised two sons and two daughters who are part of the ninth generation to grow up on the homestead: Luke, 11, Heidi, 9, Malia, 7 and Noah, 5.
Engelau Schepman Meier, 1864
In the same year that Abraham Lincoln won his second presidential term, Frederick William and Anna Meier bought 80 acres of farmland in the White Creek area of southern Bartholomew County. The Prussian-born Meier also dealt in horse trading and eventually provided services as a banker in his community.
“As kids, we were told they had a lot of money hidden in the house,” said Harold Engelau, Frederick’s third great-nephew, he said. “Of course, we looked and looked for that money, and never did find it.”
But Frederick did make enough money to double the size of his property, Engelau said.
Since Frederick and Anna had no children, a great-nephew named Ernest T. Schepman (born 1871) became heir to the property. And then, his wife, Louisa Pottschmidt Schepman (born 1876), inherited the land after Ernest’s death. Louisa would survive Ernest, as well as a second husband, before she inherited the property, Harold Engelau said.
“She married the third time for companionship,” Harold Engelau said. “I liked the man, but nobody else in the family did.”
That’s because the third husband had allegedly forged Louisa’s name to take out a loan to provide a substantial amount of money to a fellow farmer, Engelau said.
After the Great Depression arrived on Oct. 29, 1929, the farmer had no way to pay the money back. To Louisa’s complete surprise, bankers started showing up at her doorstep in 1930 and demanding full payment of a loan she knew nothing about, Engelau said.
While a relative who worked for Eli Lilly in Indianapolis did provide some funds to help Louisa, it would be her 16-year-old daughter, Matilda Schepman (born 1912) who first went to work as a housekeeper in Seymour — and later for an Indianapolis firm — in order to pay off the debt.
“She was largely responsible for the family keeping the farm,” Engelau said regarding his mother.
At the St. Paul Lutheran Church in Borchers, Matilda Schepman met Herman “Pete” Engelau, and married him in 1946. They sold cattle, hogs and dairy products, as well as raised two children: current farm patriarch Harold H. Engelau and a daughter, Carol Engelau Elkins.
Harold Engelau, who married Wanda Rotert in 1972, raises crops that includes corn, soybeans and wheat. But unlike his parents, Harold no longer deals in livestock, he said.
Two of the couples’ three sons, Ed and Jason, farm alongside their father. Every time one of his sons graduate from school, Harold has purchased land for each of them to create their own homestead, he said.
Today, the family farms about 9,000 total acres in both Bartholomew and Jackson counties, Harold Engelau said.
“We haven’t really been searching for acres,” Harold Engelau said. “People came to us to give us the opportunity to obtain it, and we usually took the opportunity.”
Harold and Wanda’s third son, Adam Engelau, lives in the historic homestead with his wife, Casey, and their children, Abram and Claire. But instead of farming, Adam runs a construction business out of the old house built in 1873, his father says.
There’s quite a few kids right now that may inherit the historic home in the future.
Ed and Erin Engelau have four daughters: Madison, Ella, Annelise, and Sophia, while Jason and his wife, Tracey, have four kids: Kaelynn, Melina, Henry, and Samuel.
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Since the program was established in 1976, more than 5,800 families have received the award the Hoosier Homestead Award in recognition of their commitment to Indiana agriculture.
To be named a Hoosier Homestead, the farm must be kept in the same family for at least 100 consecutive years and consist of more than 20 acres or produce more than $1,000 in agricultural products per year.
Families were eligible for three different award distinctions. Based on the age of their farm, they received the Centennial Award for 100 years, Sesquicentennial Award for 150 years or Bicentennial Award for 200 years of ownership.
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For more on the Hoosier Homestead honorees in Bartholomew County, see Page A7 or visit therepublic.com.
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