Anderle farm named a 2015 Century Farm
Vintage is the word the Anderle family uses to describe their farm located about halfway between Glencoe and Silver Lake. Vintage indeed, the land was first purchased almost 150 years ago by their great-great-grandfather, Joseph Anderle, and is still run by the family today.
This summer, the Anderle farm was recognized as a Minnesota Century Farm at the McLeod County Fair.
It all started back in 1867, when Joseph immigrated to America from Czechoslovakia with his wife and young son, Joseph Jr. He purchased two 80-acre parcels in Rich Valley Township and set to work farming.
Over the years, the two parcels were passed down to Joseph Jr. and then divided between sons. After the death of Joseph Anderle III, the current 80-acres were rented out before Paul Anderle Sr. and his wife Edna bought the land.
Their son, Paul Anderle Jr. and his five sisters, Marlene Havelka, Betty Steele, Judy Anderson, Mary Nass and Nancy Humlicek, make up the current generation of Anderles. Paul Jr. now farms the land first purchased a century ago.
During the last 150 years, the farm has grown corn, soybeans and alfalfa. The farm also raised dairy cows until 2005.
Looking back, the six Anderles reminisced about the different chores they did as kids to help out around the farm. They dished feed out, drove the tractor, baled hay and milked the cows.
The six recalled helping their dad with the cows in the old barn they now stand in front of, managing to find fun in the work.
“We’d stand with our mouths open and he would squirt the milk in,” Mary Nass said.
Although the farm has seen many changes over the years, new sheds and barns were built to replace the old, farming techniques changed and help came and went, one constant is the farmhouse itself. It was first built in 1913 and has remained for over 100 years.
For more, see the Oct. 14 print edition of The Chronicle.
