Five Bartholomew County farms are being honored this year for remaining in the same family for over 100 years.
This year’s recipients of the Hoosier Homestead centennial awards were announced by Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and Indiana State Department of Agriculture director Bruce Kettler.
Among this year’s centennial recipients is a family that operates one of the county’s largest farm markets that has become a landmark northwest of Elizabethtown.
Whipker, 1889
Located four miles south of Columbus on U.S. 31, the Whipker homestead began when two German immigrants moved to Bartholomew County after residing briefly in Cincinnati, Ohio.
August Whipker, Sr. (1830-1917) purchased more than 120 acres south of Columbus on Feb. 26, 1889 for $60 an acre, according to fifth generation family member Doug Whipker. August, Sr. and his wife, Elizabeth (1828-1922), would have eight children.
One of the children, William Whipker Sr. (1865-1948) took control of the farm on Sept. 13. 1911. But sadly, the new proprietor would suffer through four personal losses in just six years. His wife, Elizabeth, died at the age of 50 in 1916, and his father succumbed the follow year. Just two years later, his son, William, Jr. (Willie), died when he was only 15, and William Sr.’s mother was gone three years later.
But William Sr. threw himself into his work with his surviving children, and opened Whipker’s first public farm market in 1928. At that time, the establishment was closer to State Road 7 than now, Doug Whipker said. The market did not move to the current location until U.S. 31 was paved in the 1930s, he explained.
The year after William Whipker Sr. died on March 15, 1949, the homestead went to his oldest son, Elmer Whipker, Sr. (1898-1980), and remained under his control for several decades. It was Elmer and his wife, Goldie Beryl Whipker, who began growing melons and other soft produce to sell at their market, Doug Whipker said. They had nine sons and two daughters.
When Goldie died in 1990, much of the farm got divided among the large number of siblings, according to Doug Whipker. But after being given first choice, son Alan Whipker selected the property that contained Whipker’s Market and Greenhouses.
Alan and his wife, the former Karen Meier, grew and sold sweet corn, tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe and pumpkins as their top crops, Doug said. But the market’s most successful plant was introduced when Karen began selling flowers on a flatbed wagon at the market in 1987.
With 18 greenhouses today, “the flower business has easily overtaken produce as the biggest selling items,” Doug Whipker said.
A family corporation called Whipker Farms LLC was formed in Dec., 2012 that contains 85 acres of property. Alan and Karen still work, but it’s Doug and his brother, Mike who manage the operations — with the help of several other family members.
That includes Doug and Jenifer Whipker’s daughter, Emilee, and son, Mason, who both attend Columbus East High School — as well as 6-year-old August at Rockcreek Elementary.
Mike and Becky Whipker have two adult daughters, Brittany and Morgan, while Mike’s sister, Vicki Whipker Murphy, has two sons, Brock and Bryant.
Cline, 1919
Generations of the Cline family have owned farmland on County Road 550 West, between Harrison and Grandview lakes.
While Cleveland Cline (1885-1964) is considered the founder of the homestead, he was actually a third-generation Bartholomew County resident. It was Cleveland’s grandfather, Elias Cline Sr. and his grandmother, Mary Bricher Cline, who came to south central Indiana from Pennsylvania.
Elias Sr. and Mary had a son, Elias Cline Jr. (born 1854), who would later married Emma Holtz Cline. (born 1861). Cleveland was one of their four children.
Cleveland and his wife, Mattie Lohr Cline (1888-1970) founded what is now a 94 acres homestead on Sept. 20, 1919, according to family member Adam Cline. Cleveland, who worked several years at the former Arvin Industries while farming, also served two terms as Harrison Township trustee.
The property was eventually passed down to their two children — career postal worker Ralph Cline (1924-2003) and Evelyn Cline Schuette(1920-2005), Adam Cline said.
Several descendants and their spouses have financial interest in the homestead that include Doug and Lisa Cline; Jessica and Doug Trueblood (children Cam and Ali); Nathan and Megan Cline (children Logan and Maddie); and Adam and Lauren Cline (children Ryan and Evan).
The farm, which still has the original barn built in the 1920s, is rented out to local farmers who grow soybeans and corn.
Fiesbeck, 1919
The patriarch of the Fiesbeck family, which maintains a 116 acres farm southwest of Petersville, succumbed to illness just five days before the 2020 Hoosier Homestead winners were announced.
Clarence Albert “Shorty” Fiesbeck Jr. (born 1931) died on July 24, his wife of nearly 70 years, Jean Sims Fiesbeck, survives. She remains the owner of the Clay Township farm purchased in February 1919 by William and Elizabeth Fiesbeck.
William Fiesbeck (1853-1929), who was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, was already considered one of Bartholomew County’s most successful farmers in 1919, according to his great-grandson, Keith Hudson. But William and Elizabeth didn’t acquire the property east of Columbus for themselves. They had their own well-established homestead four miles west of the city,
Instead, the property in Clay Township was given as a wedding gift to their son, Clarence Fiesbeck, Sr. (1896-1985), and his bride, Blanche (1897-1956), Hudson said.
Clarence Sr. and Blanche lived and worked the farm that produced both crops and dairy products, according to Hudson. The original house, barn and corn crib are still being used today, he said. The couple also raised a family of four boys and one girl: Don, Dean, Bill, Clarence Jr. and Margaret Fiesbeck Hudson.
Clarence Sr. lived out his entire life on the homestead, although Clarence Jr. and his wife, Jean, has acquired the farm long before before his father died.
Besides raising crops and hogs, Clarence Jr. was a seed sales rep for PAG and Stine Seed companies. Nicknamed “Shorty” despite his 6’2” frame, Clarence Jr. was also on the Bartholomew County Fair Board and the Bartholomew County REMC Board of Directors.
Clarence Jr. and Jean had two daughters and a son that represent the third generation that has lived on the homestead: Jan (Robert) Shireman, Pam Jordan and Jay (Jordea) Fiesbeck. In addition, there are several grandchildren and great grandchildren.
The land is currently leased to Mike Kamman, who uses the property and grain storage facilities to raise a rotation of corn and soybeans.
Harris, 1916
Many local historians understand that Nortonburg was a community along County Road 450 North that existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Nortonburg had a post office inside a general store operated by the small town’s most prominent members, Ephriam B. Norton (1847-1917) and his wife, Matilda (1861-1957). Also within the 12-home community was a blacksmith shop, grain elevator, train despot and sawmill.
While the couple had two sons (Don and Overton), the Nortons also ensured that 80 acres was provided to their daughter, Mary Norton Harris (1885-1948) and her husband, Arthur Jack Harris (1880-1960). The land transfer took place one year before Ephriam died, according to family member Lynda Ziegler.
Jack and Mary established their own homestead on property located on the south side of what was then called Nortonburg Road (now County Road 450 North), about three-quarters of a mile east of where Simmons Winery now stands. They raised six kids: two daughters named Beulah and Ruth, as well as four sons: Orine, Charles, Kenneth and William, according to Ziegler.
Better known as “Will”, William Harris (1918-2005) married Rosemary Hendrickson in 1942 and had three children: Barbara, Dorothy Jean and John.
Today, it is Dorothy Jean — the wife of Don Burton — who represent the third generation on the homestead. She and her husband reside in a new house completed early this year, Dorothy Jean said. But it was constructed on the more than 30 acres they still retain of her family’s original 80 acres near the junction of County Road 600E. A representative of the fourth generation, Bruce Burton, lives on the property with his parents, Ziegler said.
She adds the family grows beans, wheat and hay on a rotational basis, as well as raise a small herd of beef cattle.
Ziegler, as well as fifth generation representative Tyocia Ziegler of rural Flat Rock, both own part of the cattle, and help on the farm when needed, Lynda Ziegler said.
She adds the current plan is for Tyocia to take over the farm some day from Donald and Dorothy Jean.
Ott/Shafer, 1883
Just five years after Indiana became a state, the Rev. Joseph Pownall (born 1790) purchased nearly 100 acres of land next to the Driftwood River near where the Lowell public fishing site is located.
For the next 50 years, a small town named Lowell Mills would spring up where the public fishing site is now. Two of the town’s earliest developers were the Arnolds and the Gales.
So who was Lowell? Although nobody is certain, the hometown of the Gale brothers: Isaac, Rufus and Daniel — was Lowell, Massachusetts, said Adam Rediker of the Bartholomew County Historical Society.
In its heyday, Lowell Mills had two grist mills, a barrel and cask-making facility, cobbler’s shop, distillery, saw mill, woolen mill, an inn and a general store. By after the mills closes, Lowell Mills was abandoned in 1980.
That allowed a couple name John Ott (1855-1935) and his wife, Sarah (1862-1951) to found their farm in Pownall’s former property. Besides farming, John Ott was also superintendent of what is then called the Bartholomew County Poor Asylum.
While John and Sarah were still alive, they turned control of their farm in 1922 to one of their three children, Odus Ott, (born 1886) and his wife, Katy (born 1889). While both controlled the homestead for over 40 years, Odus and Katy died in 1965.
That same year, the property was inherited by their daughter, Betty Ott Shafer and her husband, Clarence Schafer (1922-1996). Besides farming, Clarence also worked for a tool and die company and sold insurance. Five years after Clarence died, Betty Shafer passed away in 2001 at the age of 77.
Today, the farm is owned jointly by Clarence and Betty’s four children and their spouses: Linda Grimes, Dennis and Claudia Shafer, Eileen and Bill Robertson and Susan Riddle. All of the siblings, as well as their children, will work on the farm, where corn and soybeans are the annual crop.
