Meet the locals in oral ag project
Take a tour of the Audio-Video Barn at avbarn.museum.state.il.us online. Meet:
Manda Geerts-Davis
26 when she was interviewed on Aug. 14, 2008. Geerts-Davis raises Columbia sheep on her family’s 17-acre farm in Whiteside County, and she is a National Junior Adviser for the Columbia Sheep Breeders’ Association, helping young people raise and show Columbia sheep.
Michael, Patricia Johnson
59 and 63 when they were interviewed on Oct. 8, 2008. The Johnsons are Carroll County tree farmers and were named Illinois Tree Farmers of the Year in 2003. They operate Johnson Creek Hardwoods, a sustainable tree farm and sawmill that produces furniture-grade lumber. Michael also is a professional landscape photographer.
Harold Steele
85 when he was interviewed on June 17, 2008. Steele was born in 1922, in Sublette, and grew up on the family farm his great-grandfather established in 1873 in Dover, in Bureau County. He attended the University of Illinois and enlisted in 1942, serving in World War II in Europe, He returned to farming and later became president of the Illinois Farm Bureau, where he witnessed many changes over the years.
Frances Culver
84 when she was interviewed in 1973. Culver, born in Whiteside County on the Mississippi in 1889, recounts the many duties of a girl growing up on a farm and the many duties of a farm wife.
