Standing near the original homestead on the Wischmeier/Wehmiller family farm south of Seymour, the city can be seen in the distance.

But the surroundings and peacefulness affirm you are in the countryside.

Near the home off of East County Road 50N, the original washhouse, smokehouse and outhouse are still standing. Just down the driveway are a few old barns and a grain bin. All of that is surrounded by land that is still farmed by family members.

There also is plenty of fresh air to breathe in and natural spring water to drink. It’s just peaceful, easy living.

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The farm, established in 1866, is now in its sixth generation of the family.

That accomplishment recently was acknowledged, as the family was one of 39 presented with a Hoosier Homestead Award from the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.

To earn the honor, farms must be owned by the same family for more than 100 consecutive years and consist of more than 20 acres or produce more than $1,000 of agricultural products per year.

Based on the number of years, farms are eligible to receive the Centennial Award for 100 years of ownership, the Sesquicentennial Award for 150 years of ownership and the Bicentennial Award for 200 years of ownership.

Overall, 44 farms were honored during the spring ceremony at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, with five families receiving two awards. Since the program’s inception in 1976, more than 5,000 families have received the award.

The Wischmeier/Wehmiller farm was one of 19 receiving the Sesquicentennial Award. The family wasn’t able to attend the ceremony at the Statehouse, so a sign to put up at the farm and a certificate were mailed to them.

“There are so many people that desert their homestead and they don’t keep it up, and (the state) thinks it’s a great idea that some people stick with it and keep it up and pass it on,” said Helen Wehmiller, whose great-great-grandfather, Dietrich Wilhelm Wischmeier, started the farm.

Her grandson, Lucas Wehmiller, now lives in the original home and is the sixth generation to do so. He said the Hoosier Homestead Award is a nice honor for the family.

“For the people that stick with their roots, with their family, it’s pretty cool,” he said. “It takes, like they say, all kinds of kinds. You have people move away, that’s part of it, but it is neat to see family farms are still intact.”

Helen said her grandfather was 9 years old when the family came to the area from Kalkriese, Germany. He was one of eight children in the family.

A home was built right away on the property. Three of the rooms in the house today are from the original homestead, but at one point, an addition was constructed.

“My grandpa, he lived here with us, and then my dad and mother,” Helen said. “It got passed down to my grandpa, and then it got passed down to my dad and then to me.”

Helen lived in the home until her husband died five years ago in October. Since then, she has lived near Seymour High School. She turns 92 on July 30.

“To me, it was wonderful,” she said of growing up on the farm. “Fresh air, away from the road, you didn’t have to mess with anybody. We were back here, and we could do what we wanted to.”

From the beginning, part of the property has had crops, including corn, soybeans and wheat. For short periods of time, there also were pumpkins and sorghum.

Since 1991, the ground has been rented out for someone to farm. Today, the fifth and sixth generations of the Wischmeier family tend to the cropland.

Helen said she has fond memories of helping her husband on the farm.

“I helped drive the tractor. I helped my husband because he had two jobs, and I got ground ready when he came back so he could plant,” she said. “I loved to be out here on the tractor.”

Helen also took care of a garden near the home and did a lot of canning. While she was growing up, the home didn’t have electricity.

“Big garden, and we had a big orchard,” she said. “We had every kind of tree you could imagine — apples, peaches, pears.”

The farm had animals until the 1970s. That included pigs, cows, chickens and horses. The red barn where they milked cows still stands today, but the horse barn no longer is on the property.

“We probably had 18 cows or so, and then Dad, he might have had about 30 hogs. He raised nice hogs,” Helen said.

Helen’s son, Larry Wehmiller, said he remembers spending a lot of time around the chicken houses when he was a young boy.

“Then when I was old enough to start working, I just helped Dad work to try to keep everything up,” he said.

His sister, Mary Garetson, said she didn’t do much on the farm since she left when she was 18 to attend college, but she loved growing up there. She’s now a teacher in Hong Kong, China.

“The view, it’s very pretty. It’s very peaceful, and I had friends close enough, like right across the street, one of my high school friends lived there, so it was good,” Garetson said. “It wasn’t as easy then. There wasn’t air conditioning in cars or internet or anything like that, but it was peaceful and good and very pleasant.”

The fresh air and well water made for a healthy lifestyle, too, Garetson said.

“You eat healthier foods because we ate a lot of our own food when I was growing up,” she said.

The family members agreed being raised on a farm made an impact on the people they have become.

“I think the big impression it makes on me is as a Christian just the faith you have to have in God for rain at the right time, sunshine at the right time,” Garetson said. “That carries over into whatever you do in your life. You have to have that faith, so I think that is a big difference. And I think if you grow up on a farm, you watch people work hard, so whatever you decide to do, you are going to work hard at it.”

Larry agreed it builds a good work ethic. He said he always made sure Lucas helped with various tasks on the farm and didn’t spend too much time in front of the television.

Helen said the generations of the family tending to the farm and homestead made it what it is today.

“You have to keep everything up. If you don’t keep everything up, you get in trouble,” she said. “You’ve got to keep the roofs painted. You’ve got to keep the house up. We put aluminum siding around it. Of course, if you let it deteriorate, it’s going to go downhill, and it would not last 150 years. Everybody kept it up, and there was never really a big obligation for the next one to do anything.”

Lucas said that motivates him to keep it going for years to come.

“That makes a guy like me want to stay and keep it nice because it has been 150 years in the family,” he said.

He considers himself fortunate to have the opportunity.

“Now, it’s my job to keep it to make it to the bicentennial,” he said.

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In honor of Indiana’s rich agricultural heritage, the Hoosier Homestead Award Program recognizes families with farms that have been owned by the same family for 100 years or more.

The program was instituted in 1976 and recognizes the contributions these family farms have made to the economic, cultural and social advancements of Indiana. In the past 30 years, more than 5,000 farms have received the honor.

There are two Hoosier Homestead Award ceremonies each year. One is at the Statehouse in March or April, and the other is during the Indiana State Fair in August.

Indiana family farms may qualify for the following:

• Centennial Award, 100 years of ownership
• Sesquicentennial Award, 150 years of ownership
• Bicentennial Award, 200 years of ownership

The deadline for the March ceremony is Dec. 1, and the deadline for the August ceremony is May 1.

For information, contact program manager Linda Forler at [email protected] or visit in.gov/isda/2337.htm.

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