Happy Home Farm

The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection is pleased to provide the book, Happy Home Farm. The author writes in the Preface: "Visiting churches during my sixty years of service in the church, I would, from time to time, refer to incidents happening on the 'Happy Home Farm.' How and why did the appellation Happy Home Farm come into being? The idea that our farm should have a designated name came first from the editor of Dakota Freie Presse, a newspaper for German-speaking people in North Dakota and South Dakota. The editor was a good friend of my father. On one of his visits, he surprised my Dad with a fairly liberal supply of stationery with the imprint: The Ecclesiastical Home Farms: Daniel S. Beitz, Owner."

My brother, Emil, speaks of those early days in North Dakota as follows: "Our farming endeavors in North Dakota were started during days of bravery, courage, and hard work. Frugality was the essence of success and, at times, life itself. Farmers of my day got up in the morning, headed for the barn to wake up the horses, curry them, feed them, harness them, and check whether any of them were sick. After taking care of the cows, they had to be milked--no milking machine! After all of these chores, came breakfast."

"I will remember the time a radio appeared at our home. We were all excited as we gathered around the room and listened to a small raspy, crackling-sounding crystal set very hard to understand. To us it was very exciting to hear someone's voice from Bismarck, North Dakota--100 miles from our home."