​        The community of Searsboro, population 129, in southwest Poweshiek County is celebrating 150-years with a parade and other festivities on Saturday, Sept. 12. The parade gets underway at 2 p.m., followed by a car show, carnival games, water games, basketball, food, a dance and fireworks.

By J.O. Parker

       Kim Thon Shutts recently stopped to see her dear friend, Kennetha Smith Criswell.
Shutts and her husband, Rick, had downsized and moved to New Sharon from Searsboro earlier this year and she stopped to catch up on the latest happenings.
       As the two ladies sat in the living room visiting and sipping on a cups of coffee, Criswell, who had moved to New Sharon about 10 years ago, started talking about the upcoming Searsboro 150th town celebration and that triggered memories from back in the day.
      “We had two gas stations, two restaurants and two grocery stores,” recalled Criswell. “One time we had a motel and a bank and a produce store were farmers brought in their cream and eggs. We had movies outdoors in the summertime and outdoor dances.”
       Shutts said after her dad passed away, her mom, Jean Thon, and her sister-in-law, Barbara Meredith, opened up a grocery store and café known as BJs.
      “What was really cool was the train engineers would stop and eat lunch at BJs,” recalled Shutts. “My grandfather, Jim Guthrie, owned one of the gas stations.”
       “My brother-in-law had a pizza place in Searsboro and people came from all over to eat there,” noted Criswell. “His pizza was awesome. And Tuesdays were Taco Night and guests could enjoy softshell tacos.”
         The ladies recalled the big co-op in town and Macy’s Lumber where people came for lumber, cement and coal to heat their homes.
          Criswell said she remembers the town depot and that she’d sometimes take the doodlebug to Grinnell with her mom.
        And Shutts mentioned that in the 1970s, there was hangout for the kids called the Pink Panther.
        “Our teacher, Linda Vogt, painted panthers on the wall,” she said. “The building is still there.”
Criswell said as a kid, she delivered the Des Moines evening Tribune in town and the Register on Sundays.
           “A lot people had outhouses and I had to use them on my paper route,” Criswell said with a chuckle.
        She remembers the 500 card club in town, saying “there were 12 of us that belonged to that.”
        “My great grandfather, Robert Gregson, was sheriff in the Poweshiek County years ago,” recalled Criswell.
         Criswell was born in Grand Prairie, Texas and raised in Searsboro where she graduated from the high school with the Class of 1960.
          There were eight graduates in that class, the last at the school before it consolidated with Lynnville-Sully in 1961. The school building remained in use as a junior high through the early 1980s, but in the more than 40 years since, the building has fallen in disarray.
        “I remember the marble staircases on both ends of the old two story building with the kitchen and gym in the basement, “ she said of the school on the north edge of town.
       When Criswell was in high school at Searsboro, the only sports available were baseball, softball and basketball.
          “We didn’t have a football team,” she remembers.
          “ I loved school,” she went on to say “We were free spirits.”
         “I went to seventh and eighth grade there in Searsboro and graduated from Lynnville Sully in 1977,” said Shutts. “It was a great schoolhouse. It’s just sad that it has died out. Just changing times. They call that progress.”
Searsboro 150th Celebration
         The Searsboro 150th Celebration is slated for Saturday, Sept. 12. The parade gets underway at 2 p.m. with staging of floats by the old schoolhouse.
        Other activities from 3 – 7 p.m. include: water games at the fire station, carnival games on the basketball court, bounce houses at the Searsboro Telephone Building and a Car Show on Railroad Street.
       Food trucks will also be available from 3 – 7 p.m., including Fire on Wheels Pizza, Katie’s Donuts, Paparoni’s, Road Trip Coffee and Suikerspin Cotton Candy. And from 2 – 10 p.m., Old Fashioned spirits will be available.
        At 4 p.m. the fire station is hosting a cornhole tournament. A Street Dance with Paul Michael Davis Band, on Main Street gets underway at 7 p.m., followed by fireworks from 9 – 10 p.m.
More Searsboro memories
     Criswell had three boys with her late husband, Jerry, who originally hailed from Malcom where he graduated high school in 1958. The couple met and were married at the Friends Church in Searsboro in 1961.
       Jerry died at 1970 at age of 30 due to a heart condition while the family lived in Ruthven near Spencer in Northwest Iowa.
     He coached basketball and taught physical education at Ruthven and was preparing to assume the spring track coaching program before passing away. And prior to Ruthven, Jerry coached and taught at Twin Cedars in Bussey for three years.
       At the time of his death, the couple had three children, Greg, Jeff and Tim, who were all under age 10 at the time of their dad’s passing.
        After Jerry passed away, Criswell returned to Searsboro and worked at Grinnell Mutual for 35 years before retiring.
         Greg is a 1981 graduate of Lynnville-Sully and Jeff graduated in 1982. Tim graduated in 1986 and has enjoyed a long career in sales. The two oldest boys attended and graduated from Graceland in Lamoni. 
        Greg taught physical education and coached girls’ basketball at Montezuma in the 1990s. He then went on to earn his masters at UNI and served as principal with the Winterset Community Schools. Jeff had a long career as an offensive lineman in the NFL. He played eight years for the New York Jets and four years with the Kansas City Chief before retiring.
      Some years ago, there were signs on the north and south entrances to Searsboro announcing that the town was home to Jeff Criswell, a member of the Kansas City Chiefs.
       “I don’t know what happened to those signs,” said Criswell.
       Criswell has six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
      Shutts, who has two children and eight grandchildren, recalls spending the summer months with her friends playing hide and seek.
     “The railroad tracks and the school were the borders and downtown was base,” recalled Shutts. “Sometimes, we would hide in the elevator until our parents found out and forbid us to do that again.”
        During the winter months, the town kids utilized the hills on the edge of town for sledding.
       “At the time, there was a lot of kids in town and it was great sledding with all the them and sometimes the adults would join us,” said Shutts. “When I became an adult, I still sledded down the hill, only with my kids. A few years later, I had the privilege to sled with my grandchildren.”
         She also remembers all the town Christmas gatherings in Searsboro.
       “We had luminaries that we put out and we served hamburgers, soups and held a bake sale,” recalled Criswell. “And Santa Claus showed up, too.”
Criswell said every year the Searsboro alumni still get together.
        “A couple years ago, we had about 50 of us, some in their 90s,” Criswell said of the reunion. “They (the alumni) still come for luncheons at Seeland Park in Grinnell.”
       Shutts said she and her husband have been members of the fire department and that she and the now late, Diana McVay, where the first women in the county to join a fire department in 1983.
      Shutts and her husband have both sat on the Searsboro City Council and have held the mayor’s position at different times.
         “When you are from a small community, you have to take you civic duty turn,” said Shutts.
       “Searboro was a great place to grow up and raise my kids,” she added. “And my heart will always belong to the town.”

​     The Cody Family of Grinnell, owners of Back Forty Honey, are shown at the Iowa Honey Producers Association both at the state fair. From left is Isabel, 13, Andy, Rachel, 16, who won a blue ribbon for “The Best of Iowa Honey” class this year and Angie. The Best of Iowa Honey class is judged on by taste.

By J.O. Parker
 
       Back Forty Honey in Grinnell is the recipient of a number of top ribbons and honors from this year’s Iowa State Fair.
       The awards were presented by the Iowa Honey Producers Association (IHPA) in connection with the state fair.
         The IHPA has a booth on the second floor of the Agriculture Building.
The business, which is located south of Grinnell, is owned and operated by Andy and Angie Cody and their two daughters, Isabel, 13, and Rachel, 16.
         The “Best of Honey in Iowa” class went to Rachel this year. The class is judged only on taste.
In addition, Andy brought home 15 ribbons including five first places, four second places and two third places for the company’s honey products.
         This includes observation hives on display at the Iowa State Fair, dipped wax candles, round comb honey and chunk honey (the comb honey in liquid), Amber extracted honey, square comb honey and a couple beekeeping photos.
         In addition, Back Forty Honey is positioned to win the IHPA Sweepstakes honor in 2026 for a third straight year, having won it in 2024 – 2025. The IHPA will announce the winner at its fall conference. 
How it all started
       The Cody family got into beekeeping thanks in part to a co-worker of Andy’s at Jeld-Wen. Andy worked in corporate management at the time at the Grinnell location. He has also spent time with the company in Oregon and central California.
      “A friend and co-worker, Steve Hardeman, at Jeld-Wen asked about putting bees on our timbered 40 acre property and I decided to join him,” said Andy. “We had six colonies that first year and Back Forty Honey was what we called the first harvest.”
          And the business kept growing from there.
By 2019, the business had grown to 40 – 60 hives.
         In 2019, with 20-years of service at Jeld-Wen, Andy left his full-time job to concentrate on the bee keeping business and to raise his girls.
Then 2020 hit and Andy said the role of stay-at-home dad took on a new meaning.
“Actually, I enjoyed the shut down and being at home with the kids,” he said.
           Today, the business oversees more than 240 hives, most all in the Grinnell area.
        And according to Andy, the business is expected to produce 20,000 pounds of honey in 2026.
         “I always come up a couple hundred pounds short of what I thought I’d produce because my family eats it all,” he said with a chuckle.
          When asked how the honey producing process works, Andy said after the bees produce the honey, he gathers the boxes of honeycomb in late-July through September and brings them home.
       “The honey is sealed in the comb and we uncap the comb and place them in a honey extractor where the honey is spun out of the comb,” said Andy. “From there, the now liquid honey moves to large settling tanks where any remaining wax or debris settles out of the honey. The honey then goes into 5-gallon buckets (available on Facebook Marketplace), or barrels for longer term storage or to a bottling tank to fill the retail size bottles.”
          The business offers 2 ounce and 12 ounce bears, 16 ounce glass or plastic bottles, 24 and 32 ounce squeeze bottles and 80 ounce (5 pound) jugs, and 5-gallon (60 pound) buckets. The business also offers cut comb and some beeswax products.
            “We only sell the buckets directly to the consumer,” he said.
             Andy said his biggest customer is Van Wijk Winery in Sully.
         “They actually won best of show (at the state fair this year) for their Blackberry Mead (honey wine),” he said.
            The winery buys honey from both Back Forty Honey and Eberts Honey in Lynnville. The two companies work together to provide honey products in the area.
          “They (Eberts) operate at a different scale than I do and we help each other out,” said Andy. “I send my colonies to California in the winter with Eberts to pollinate the almond groves when they bloom in February.”
Where to purchase Back Forty Honey
        The honey is available at several locations including Freedom Firearms in rural Grinnell, Pioneer Bookshop in Grinnell, Brooklyn Grocery in Brooklyn, Nancy’s Canned Creations in Newton, Three Sisters in Montezuma and the Grinnell and Newton Hy-Vees. Grinnell Farm to Table also offers our full product line-up, both on their bi-weekly on-line market and during Saturday afternoon store hours.
          For more information, Back Forty Honey can be reached at: [email protected].

​      A close up of Rachel’s “The Best of Iowa Honey” that she won a blue ribbon on at the Iowa State Fair. The class is judged only on taste.

     The Cody Family of Grinnell brought home a large number of ribbons from the Iowa Honeybee Producers Association at the 2026 Iowa State Fair. Daughter Rachel, 16, won a blue ribbon for “The Best of Iowa Honey” class.

​      K9 Deputy Simon with the Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office recently passed away. K9 Simon served the department from 2016 -2025 when he retired.

     The Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office is saddened to announce the passing of retired K9 Deputy Simon.
       K9 Simon faithfully served the citizens of Poweshiek County from 2016 until his retirement in 2025. During his career, he was assigned to Sheriff Matt Maschmann, before Sheriff Maschmann was elected to his current position.
      Simon’s journey to becoming a law enforcement K9 began as a rescue from a shelter in Detroit Lakes, Minn. He was later trained by Midwest Canine Alternatives in Long Prairie, Minn., where he was prepared for a career of service to the Poweshiek County area.
       “Throughout his career, K9 Simon was credited with numerous narcotics seizures and several successful tracks,” noted Sheriff Maschmann. “He also earned several trophies during his annual certification trials, demonstrating his skill, dedication, and hard work.”
      But for Simon, the best part of the job wasn’t the searches, tracks, or trophies. It was meeting people. Simon loved being around the public and especially enjoyed receiving all the pets, scratches, and attention that came with being a K9 Deputy.
    “K9 Simon was more than a working dog,” noted Sheriff Maschmann. “He was a valued member of the Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office, a trusted partner, and a friend to the many people who had the opportunity to meet him.”
      “The responsibility of having a K9 partner is a lot, but the rewards of having a partner all the time is worth it,” Sheriff Maschmann added. “You spend more time with those dogs then you do your family because they are with you at home and work.”
     Thank you, K9 Simon, for your years of service, loyalty, and dedication to the Poweshiek County Sheriff’s Office and the Poweshiek County community.
     Hannah is the department’s current K9 Deputy under the service of Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Criswell.

     Brandon Johnston of Grinnell poses for a photo with Richard White, a WWII Veteran, who was in a care center in Mexico, Mo., and served on the USS Pennsylvania BB-38 during Pearl Harbor. The ship was in dry dock during the Japanese raid on U.S. forces on Dec. 7, 1941. White was one of three Pearl Harbor survivors from the Japanese attack that Johnston interviewed.

By J.O. Parker
 
        Brandon Hanssen of Grinnell comes from a family of military personnel.
      His grandfather, Kenneth Hanssen of Grinnell, served in the U.S. Army as an MP during the      Korean War and his mom’s dad, Ed Johnston, served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1954-57.
       “I grew up around books of theirs and was introduced to all of the classic military movies,” recalled Hanssen. “I guess they sort of fanned the flames of my interest in the subject of the military.”
         But it wasn’t until 2016 that Hanssen’s interest in the military grew into a historical project.
        In January of 2016, Hanssen and his wife at the time became the parents of triplets, Nora, Hazel and Charlotte.
        “After a stay in the NICU helped the girls to get strong enough that they could come home, we were in for quite a year,” recalled Hanssen. “Not very much sleep was had and luckily family and friends helped us along the way.”
        Hanssen was talking with one of the ladies who helped care for the triplets about a project interviewing WWII Veterans. She suggested that he talk with her dad, Ernie Jones, a Grinnell native who lived in Newton at that point. Ernie was a sailor on the USS Pennsylvania BB-38.
       “The USS Pennsylvania BB-38 would become somewhat of a special ship to me in the future,” noted Hanssen. “At that time, it was simply an opportunity to talk to a real-life WWII veteran who had been aboard a famous battleship stationed at Pearl Harbor.”
       Unlike the USS Arizona, which would suffer a catastrophic explosion during the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hanssen said the USS Pennsylvania would survive the attack mostly with light damage due to it being in dry dock the morning of the attack.
        Hanssen said the USS Pennsylvania would go on to serve throughout the Pacific and quite possibly fired more rounds than any other ship in the war.
         “I went to visit Ernie and we became fast friends,” Hanssen said. “He shared his stories with me. I visited him several times over those couple years. I built him a model of his ship and brought it to him. He was so pleased with it, he stared at it with a magnifying glass and it even sparked some new stories I hadn’t heard.
         “Before Ernie passed, he wanted me to have the ship to keep it safe and to keep his ships’ memory alive,” said Hanssen. “I have it today and it’s one of my favorite possessions.”
           Hanssen said after talking with Ernie, he  happened across an article online about another USS Pennsylvania veteran who was living in a Veterans home in Mexico, Mo.
          “I thought, what the heck? I should go talk to him also,” he said. “My grandma Beth always the traveler, said she would ride along, so off we went. I had a great interview with him; his name was Richard White.”
          After this happened, Hanssen said his grandpa Ed suggested that he should keep trying to find more WWII veterans to interview.
         “That generation was almost gone he said, and if you don’t hear it from the horse’s mouth, you never will again,” Hanssen said his grandfather Ed told him.
         After losing his Grandpa Ed to COVID, Hanssen decided that he would keep doing the WWII Veteran interviews, “For my own interest, and because he said I should,” said Hanssen.
        Since interviewing Ernie and Richard White, Hanssen, who did not serve in the military, has gone on to interview around 85 WWII Veterans over the years.
        “I saw this as a way to give back to those who did serve in that war, the Greatest Generation as they are known,” he said.
       He then went on to mention his first cousin and classmate at Grinnell, Ryan Hanssen, who served in the military.
        Hanssen said he is still doing interviews. Most of them are done over the phone along with audio recordings of their talks.
       “They are getting much harder to do now,” said Hanssen. “Sadly that generation is in its twilight. It is thought that a little more than 16 million Americans served in WWII in some capacity, with latest estimates of around 30,000 left alive and a mere 12 Pearl Harbor survivors left living as of this moment. I would love to offer to anyone who has a family member or has a connection to a WWII veteran, I would love the opportunity to talk to them.”
       Hanssen said at some point the gathering of interviews will be done, due to everything mentioned above.
        For the interviews themselves, Hanssen said he tries to follow the same sort of questions such as where the veteran is from and when were they were born.
      “I ask them about their early life, what their parents did for a living, how the Great Depression would affect their family, where they were when they heard the news about Pearl Harbor, and lastly how they got into the service, why they ended up in the branch they did, and their experiences during the war,” said Hanssen.
         Hanssen admits he is not a professional interviewer and listening to himself on some of the interviews can be maddening. 
       “I wish I would have let them talk more, or perhaps prompted with one more question,” recalled Hanssen. “I did get better as time went on. Some interviews were better than others depending on the veteran and their story.”
        Hanssen said he’s been so fortunate to have had the honor to talk to several Pearl Harbor veterans, a couple who were on the USS Arizona, two that were on the Pennsylvania, and another on the USS California.
        “There are some interviews that stand out, due to the raw emotion captured, a close call, a friend lost, or maybe just getting back home to their loved ones,” said Hanssen. “I have heard stories of ships sinking, being lost at sea, enduring shark attacks and punishment from the elements to the liberation of concentration camps.”
        “I have thought about all the different states that these men were from, hailing from large cities to small farms,” recalled Hanssen. “I think I have been able to capture such a swath of the fabric of our country and what life was like for them and how they grew up.
        “Many saw hard things during combat but also had a closeness with those they served with only they could know,” added Hanssen. “They were all just ‘doing their job.’ 
        “They shared funny stories too and ones about coming home to a wife, seeing a child they hadn’t been able to yet meet, or perhaps marrying a sweetheart and starting a family. They spoke about some of those that didn’t make it home too,” said Hanssen.
         Hanssen said there are only a handful of the more than 80 WWII veterans left that he was fortunate enough to talk with, “a testament to the marching of time.”
        “When I started interviewing them, they would have to have been around 93 to 94 years of age to have seen action during the war, now that number is around 100,” he said.
        “The oldest one I spoke with was 106 from Lowell, Mass.,” added Hanssen. “He served with General Patton at the Battle of the Bulge,” Hanssen said. “I have shared letters and pictures with many of those I interviewed and stayed in contact throughout the years. Some became good buddies who loved to hear about our Iowa crops, my daughters and how they were growing up. Often they would leave me with an anecdote or sage life advice.”
       Another interviewee was Albert Gill, a navigator on a B-24 bomber that flew nearly 40 missions in the Pacific.
         “He lived in Tennessee and had a passion for building model planes,” recalled Hanssen. “He had built more than 100 of them and was still building them past his 100th birthday. I built him a model of the carrier USS Hornet and sent down to him, in return he sent me one of his planes that I cherish. He recently passed away.”
         Hanssen said he had originally planned to try and write a book, but having young children and working two jobs, life is busy, and he’s not sure when he’ll get to that.
         “I have considered doing podcast episodes in the future,” he said. “I need to get some audio editing software and a better computer microphone. When I save up the extra money, I will look to invest in both.”
          Hanssen said he has a title for his work, but doesn’t want to let It out of the bag just yet. 
        “Perhaps someday I will try and switch gears to capture Vietnam and Korean stories,” he said of the future. “I did take the time to chat with two Iowa Korean War veterans who were both Marines at the famous Battle of the Chosin Reservoir. One of them from our town of Grinnell, Lloyd Sieck.”
        Hanssen said all who serve deserve to be honored, and one of the things he appreciates about the Greatest Generation is their self-sacrifice and love of our country.
         “I often ask them if they would do it again, and it’s with a resounding “yes,” Hanssen said. “I would hear about how hard depression was on many of their families, and how they grew up with nothing, working long hours for little pay as youngsters to just help bring food into the home. It made them ready for that war though.” 
        “Many lied about their age, left high school early and were just kids when they went off to the war,” said Hanssen. “Women took up jobs that had been formally occupied by men.”
         “I was able to talk with a Rosie the Riveter, a female officer in the WAVES (women accepted for volunteer emergency service) and a nurse who cared for injured service members when they came back state side,” added Hanssen. “Everyone contributed, from the farms to manufacturers switching to war material, people lived with rationing and donated items to the war effort. I wonder to myself if today we could do this again as Americans, when we are so divided. We live in a far more selfish and me first world, filled with instant gratification. When I am having a bad day, I only need to think of a few of their stories to realize I don’t have it that bad, and we live in this country because of their sacrifices.”
         Lastly, Hanssen said he has had the opportunity to speak with Adred Lenoir of Clanton, Ala., the last living member of his ship, the famous USS Samuel B. Roberts.
         “Adred would survive a fierce battle in the South Pacific against a much larger Japanese fleet at the Battle off Samar in 1944,” recalled Hanssen. “I was lucky enough to interview five veterans of this battle all of whom lost the various ships they were serving on plunging them into the waters of the Pacific.
         Hanssen said Adred would endure more than 50 hours in the shark infested waters, seeing terrible things.
        “I remember him telling me about what his farm was like in Alabama and there were many peach trees there. He described something that sounded just like a farm here in Iowa, pretty countryside and quite living,” noted Hanssen. “He didn’t think he was going to make it back home, but when he was finally rescued he was stark naked, and lost all of his personal possessions. He and the other survivors were sent back to California and given survivors leave. Due to missing paper work and loss of all his property, Adred was temporarily stuck there, trying to get home. He asked the Red Cross for help and they denied him. Later an officer heard of his plight and knew what he had gone through and ensured him he would get home.”
        Hanssen said Adred was boarding a train to head east when a Red Cross volunteer asked him for a donation, which he declined. He has declined every year since after his earlier treatment.
         “He had a laugh from that,” Hanssen said. “Going from near certain death, to stateside and back home in a short amount of time was an incredible feeling.”
          Hanssen said he asked Adred what it was like when he made it back to his property and to his home and his mother and father, he choked up saying, “It was beautiful.’’ 
         “I never forgot the way he said it, and it made me appreciate what we have here,” noted Hanssen. “I hope to tell their stories so that future generations can hear them, and remember them, perhaps giving more appreciation for those that are serving today, and all that we have to be thankful for.” 

     A before and after repaired gravestone at the Brooklyn Cemetery. Gene Adkins of Brooklyn has been repairing gravestones in Poweshiek County Pioneer Cemeteries for 30 years.

By J.O. Parker

          Thanks to the efforts of a rural Brooklyn man, Pioneer Cemeteries in Poweshiek County are being preserved one gravestone at a time.
           Gene Adkins, 80, has been restoring gravestones as a hobby for close to 30 years.
      He got involved in repairing gravestones while serving as a township clerk in Warren Township in Poweshiek County just south of Victor.
        “Warren Township has a pioneer cemetery and the township trustees were in charge of maintaining it,” said Adkins. “And it needed a lot of work.”
            So, Adkins saw a need and dug in and got to work.
            And he didn’t stop in Warren Township, he has now spread out across the county.
            “The old marble stones in the Pioneer Cemeteries are fragile and there is no end of things to fix,” he said. “I find that true in 'modern' cemeteries too where stones 50 years and older may lean, fall over or get broken.”
            Adkins is a member of the Poweshiek County Pioneer Cemetery Commission (PCPCC) and it’s through that organization that he purchases his materials to repair the old gravestones.
          “That gives me access to how to repair the stone correctly,” Adkins said of working through the PCPCC.
           “There is a good way to repair cemetery stones and there is a wrong way,” noted Adkins. “I learned early on the good way to repair the stones.”
       According to Ellen Zimmerman with the PCPCC, there are 16 pioneer cemeteries in Poweshiek County that are visible with gravestones, fences and are mowed.
         “There are recordings of 16 more in the county that are no longer visible but we know where they were before we were able to start preserving them,” noted Zimmerman.
Atkins does most of the repairs himself, but on occasion will have help, especially on bigger projects at the Brooklyn Cemetery.
           One of his most recent projects took Adkins about six hours over three days. Some of the old gravestones need a lot of tender loving care.
          “Most of the old gravestones were made using marble and were cut and shaped as much as 175 years ago,” noted Adkins.
            Rebuilding a gravestone starts at the base.
           Adkins said many of the bases or foundations are not in good enough condition to reuse.
        “After a century or more laying in the ground the elements take their toll,” he said. “I will have to pour a new foundation or base.”
          In some cases, the base or foundation is reusable, but has sunk into the ground. If that is the case, Adkins will use a large pry bar to lift a corner or end of the base. He will then add a patio block, brick, gravel or a bag of cement to relevel the base like new.
           Once the base is level, Adkins will put dirt around the base. 
        In many cases, the gravestone marker will break near the base and fall over or lean on another gravestone.
       Adkins will remove the bottom portion of the gravestone from the base and clean everything in preparation for bonding the top and bottom parts of the gravestone back together.
        “There are two kinds of bonding material available for use on gravestones,” said Adkins. “There is a special epoxy for stones or masonry and there is a newer cement product that I have been using for about a year.”
          “It’s special cement that I mix with water that will fuse the stones together,” he added.
          Once he’s applied the epoxy or cement mixture, the gravestone is placed in a wooden form and clamped down for at least 24-hours.
            Once the bonding chemicals have cured, Adkins can place the stone back in its base, fill in the dirt around the gravestone and wrap up the project.
            Adkins said some of the work he does is self-funded, but some is covered.
         “The labor is all volunteer,” he said. “I do it as a hobby and not an income. The Poweshiek County Pioneer Cemetery Commission will reimburse me for all the materials.”
          When asked, Adkins has no idea how many gravestones he has repaired in 30 years. He did say that some are easier and others are harder to fix.
       As for the future, Adkins hopes to put together a group of local citizens or a club as a community project and take on a larger gravestone repair project in the county. He recently visited the IOOF Cemetery in Montezuma and said it needs lots of repairs.
         “My long term thoughts at this time is to organize some kind of community project to help fix and repair some of the cemetery stones across the county and I hope there is enough interest that local people will continue the work,” said Adkins. “I do what I can and hope I can inspire others to follow behind me.”
     If you are interested in getting involved in the Poweshiek County Pioneer Cemetery Commission, the group meets on the fourth Monday of the month at 2 p.m. at the Montezuma Historical Building.

      Roger Van Ersvelde, left, has been working with Cole Olson, right, for several years to help him transition to farm ownership. Olson, 30, started working with Van Ersvelde in high school. The pair began by sharing responsibilities on rented ground, gradually increasing Olson’s role. By the end of 2026, Olson will be farming all of Van Ersvelde’s owned acres in a 50-50 arrangement. The next step comes in 2027, when Van Ersvelde plans to sell Olson and his wife, Kayla, a parcel of land, giving their family, including daughters, Hattie and Sadie, their first owned acres and a place to build their future. Photo by Joclyn Kuboushek.

By Kriss Nelson
​Iowa Soybean Association senior writer

​      For Roger Van Ersvelde of rural Brooklyn, owner of Vally View Farms, the decision to bring a younger farmer into his operation was both personal and practical.
     He and his late wife, Louise, made the decision together, knowing that without children to carry on the farm, the future of their operation could not be left to chance. They wanted to create an opportunity for someone else, much like the one he had been given years earlier.
      “I was given the opportunity to farm by my parents,” noted Van Ersvelde. “We wanted to give somebody else that same chance.”
        That opportunity found its way to Cole Olson, also of Brooklyn.
       Olson, now 30, first connected with Van Ersvelde as a high school student looking for work. What started with mowing and helping around the farm gradually grew into something more. Over time, the two built a trust and eventually developed a plan to transition the farm.
​Building Trust
        Today, that plan is well underway.
        The pair began by sharing responsibilities on rented ground, gradually increasing Olson’s role. By the end of 2026, Olson will be farming all of Van Ersvelde’s owned acres in a 50-50 arrangement. 
       The next step comes in 2027, when Van Ersvelde plans to sell Olson and his wife, Kayla, a parcel of land, giving their family, including daughters, Hattie and Sadie, their first owned acres and a place to build their future.
        For Van Ersvelde, the approach is deliberate.
       “I’m not giving it to him. You’ve got to earn it,” he says. “But you also don’t want to bury someone in debt so deep they can’t see the end.”
       That mindset is shaped by more than five decades in agriculture.
       Van Ersvelde started farming in 1970 after returning from the Air Force, buying his father’s machinery for $10,000. He later navigated the farm crisis of the 1980s, making difficult financial decisions that still influence how he thinks about risk and opportunity today.
      Instead of passing along expensive machinery, he sees land as a more stable foundation for the next generation.
        “Machinery loses value,” he said. “Land gives them something to build on.”
Learning Curve
     For Olson, the transition has been about more than ownership. It has been about learning from experience.
         “Roger has taught me so much,” noted Olson. “That experience is something you can’t replace.”
        Unlike many farmers, Olson did not grow up on a large operation. His interest in agriculture came from friends and neighbors, eventually leading him to study agricultural systems technology at Iowa State University.
         Even then, farming was not a certainty.
         After college, Olson considered moving away for work. A simple conversation changed his path.
        “I asked him what his plan was,” Olson said. “All he said was, ‘You might want to stick around.’”
        That was enough to keep him rooted.
      Their partnership blends experience with a willingness to adapt. While Van Ersvelde brings decades of knowledge, Olson contributes a comfort with newer technology, helping manage equipment systems and data that continue to evolve in modern farming.
      “It’s a lot of small things that make a big difference,” Van Ersvelde said, pointing to Olson’s ability to problem-solve and take initiative. In one early example, Olson fixed a broken mower on his own while Van Ersvelde was away, a small moment that reinforced his confidence.
Making It Work
       Still, the path into farming has not been easy.
      Olson spent years balancing off-farm jobs with growing responsibilities on the operation. Even today, he takes on additional work to support the farm and his family.
       “As a young farmer, you’re subsidizing your habit a little bit,” he said. “You’ve got to be willing to put in the hours elsewhere if you want to make it work.”
      That reality is part of a larger challenge facing agriculture. As the average age of farmers continues to rise and fewer young people are entering the profession, making transitions like this one increasingly important.
Van Ersvelde believes part of the solution is looking beyond traditional paths.
      “They don’t have to come from a big farm,” he noted. “Sometimes the best ones are the ones who really want it.”
     He also sees value in keeping farms at a scale that allows new farmers to get started, rather than consolidating into ever-larger operations.
        “If we don’t bring younger people into agriculture, we’re going to be all old,” Van Ersvelde says.
Why It Matters
         For consumers, the impact of that trend reaches far beyond the farm.
       Every meal, every tank of renewable fuel and countless everyday products begin with agriculture. Ensuring there are farmers ready to take the next step is essential in continuing to feed, fuel and clothe the population.
       For Van Ersvelde, the goal is simple. Leave the farm better than he found it, both in the land and in the hands it passes to next.
        For Olson, it is the chance to build something of his own while carrying that legacy forward.
    Editor's note: This story was furnished by Iowa Food & Family Project through the Iowa Soybean Association and is being used with permission.

       Roger Van Ersvelde and Cole Olson discuss the farming operation at Valley View Farms in rural Brooklyn. Van Ersvelde has a plan in place to sell a portion of his farm to Olson next year. Olson, 30, has been working for Van Ersvelde since high school. ​Photo by Joclyn Kuboushek.

       Bethany Kriegel, co-owner of Sunset Hills Bison Ranch near Malcom, with husband, Carl and family, shares a story about the ranch while Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig checks out her first book, "Buffalo in the Bucket," during a visit in September 2025. Kriegel and company have been invited to attend the Farm to Fair Supper at the Iowa State Fair on Aug. 16. This is the couple's fourth year to attend the supper. The event is hosted by the Iowa Department of Agriculture.