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| From left: Patty and Danny Hininger, Virginia Hininger, Mike and Lisa Friedemann |
Our family was honored to receive a Missouri Century Farm recognition in August 2012. This program, sponsored by University of Missouri Extension and Missouri Farm Bureau, recognizes Missouri farms with at least 40 acres that have been owned by the same family for at least 100 years. We received a sign we plan to place in the front yard of our farm house this fall.
The original 40 acres that initially qualified for the Century Farm program, were purchased by my paternal great-grandfather, Lewis Lisher, in 1901. There was already a farmhouse on this parcel, part of which was built before the Civil War. He purchased the adjoining 88 acres a few years later. This 128 acres passed down to his daughter (my paternal grandmother), Ruby Lisher Hininger, then equally to my father and his younger sister upon her premature death when my father was 10 years old. My paternal grandfather, Arthur Hininger, along with my father, Earl Hininger, farmed the land together until the 1950's. My father purchased his sister's 50% interest in the late 1940's and then moved to the farm house when he married my mother in April 1951. Upon my fathers' premature death in 1969, the acreage passed to my mother, brother and myself and ag land is still owned jointly by us. My brother and sister-in-law now own 3.5 acres where they built a house and my husband and I purchased the 6.5 acres where the original farm house, barns and outbuildings sit. My mother continues to live in the house since 1951.
Update:
At Thanksgiving 2012, Mike installed our Century Farm sign at the farm. He constructed the frame around the sign from 4x4 treated lumber posts and set them in Quickcrete:
