Buying the Farm

Though I had, after the move to the Bay Area, pretty much committed myself to engineering as a lifelong occupation and had dispensed with the idea of farming in the Midwest, I continued to be attracted to acquiring some property with an agricultural aspect to it While I was residing at the Reymanns’, the subject of a 17-acre prune ranch near Morgan Hill came up. Morgan Hill is a San Joaquin valley town on Highway 101 located some 10 to 20 miles south of San Jose. The ranch belonged to some relative of either Mr. or Mrs. Reymann.

I drove down to see it and I recall looking at the house and other buildings (this was after I had the green Chevrolet sedan). It even seems that I may have had a meal there with the owners but I doubt that it was an overnight trip. Whether I seriously considered it as an investment I really can’t remember now but I must have had some thoughts along those lines to drive down to look at the place.

While the prune season was on, Mrs. Reymann would get fresh prunes from the ranch and she would make an upside down prune cake (like an upside down pineapple cake) and which she treated me with on more than one occasion. Maybe having the prune cake was what brought up the subject of the prune ranch in the first place.

Another place I looked at was a 7-acre parcel up in Sonoma County. This came through a realtor I think. The place had been used for growing rabbits but a windstorm (tornado?) had more or less wrecked the structures on the place. When I looked at it, it was mostly just a grassy area, not very many trees and I was not attracted to it.

The urge I had in me to own some land continued at a low level during the rest of my bachelor days and during the first years of my marriage. Mostly this was evidenced in writing for various listings of farm property, such as was put out by the United Farm Agency or Strout Realty. None of these ever developed into a purchase although we did inspect several pieces of property such as the small ranch growing watermelons near Turlock and the alfalfa ranch in the Chico area. In both of these cases we had several of our children along when we looked at the property. Of the Chico property there are several slide I took for later review. These trips were probably coordinated with other sight-seeing activities.

When my grandfather Peterson died in about 1915 he specified in his will that the Peterson farm not be sold during my grandmother’s lifetime. I suspect the reason for this was the wish on his part to have my grandmother provided for for the rest of her life, but I suspect he may also have recognized the trauma my grandmother went through when they acquired the various parts of the farm and wanted her top now have the benefit of that experience which at the time seemed so onerous.

The heirs did not divide the estate on my grandmother’s passing, but eventually decided to do so in the lated 1950s. Vincent at the time was looking for more land to add to his farming operation but did not feel that he had the capital to acquire any land. Some consideration was given to me (we) acquiring the Peterson farm (or part of it), using my mother’s inheritance as a loan to us as part of the down payment. The land would have been farmed by Vincent, although being 8 miles distant from Dad’s farm, the arrangement would not have been very convenient.

The possibility was never realized for several reasons: 1) the potential price was too high for us (all parts of the farm sold for $400/acre or more and we would have had difficulty in arranging the financing), 2) irrespective of the financing the price just seemed too high for us and 3) had we acquired the place we would probably have destroyed (razed) most of the buildings and the farmstead site, which my mother thought would have engendered an unfavorable response from her siblings.

Shortly thereafter however the possibility of purchasing a tract of about 125 acres near to my dad’s farm arose. This tract was known as the “Joe” Johnson farm and was the subject of an estate sale. Joe had died and his son Harris had been farming the place (perhaps in conjunction with his mother). The other children were wanting to sell the property to secure their inheritance and there had been some litigation to implement the sale of the property and distribution of the proceeds.

My recollection is a little vague but it seems there was a court-ordered disposition of the property under a court-appointed trustee — one Maurice Breen. Then there had been an interruption in the process, possibly because the heirs had decided not to proceed. Following this there was again a falling out amongst the heirs and the trustee was again offering the farm for sale. Because of the interruption there was some question as to the legality of the resumed proceedings. Vincent was of course aware of the possibility and brought it to our attention.

To aid Vincent in extending his farming operation, my mother was willing to lend us her inheritance from the Peterson farm as part of the downpayment. It would have been more appropriate for Vincent to have been the purchase but h felt he did not have the capital to proceed.

The advertisement by the trustee was made in August of 1959, I believe, about the time that Laurel was born. . . . I had contacted the trustee indicating an interest, but needless to say my attention had been diverted by . . . the change in the home pattern after Laurel’s birth [and other factors]. Anyway the trustee became irked at my dallying and finally informed me (us) to proceed if we were indeed interested. So finally we made an offer of $42,000 and made the 10% down payment. Another individual who was very important in the situation was a Mr. Johnson who was the Prudential agent who arrange the loan we eventually had (for $25,000) covering the balance of the purchase price.

Vincent later told me that toward the consummation of the deal he [Mr. Johnson?] was out at the Joe Johnson place and got stuck in the long lane leading to the building site. By the time he [Johnson?] got out he had spent most of the commission he got for arranging the loan. It was only after we had made the down payment that the somewhat shaky legal situation came to light and there was a real question in my mind whether to write off the down payment and back out of the deal.

However after consulting with the law firm of Kirchner and Kirchner in Fort Dodge we went ahead with the purchase. I well remember the long telephone call with one of the Kirchners one noon in my office at Shell and his analysis of the situation. Basically what he recommended was that we insist on separate quit claim deeds from each of the heirs, in addition to the trustee’s deed covering the sale. There was also a release of possession signed by Harris and his mother who were still actually living on the property.

The final signing of the documents and transfer of the money was made I think in the offices of Kirchner and Kirchner. Vincent I guess represented us; neither Jean nor I was there. So my long-awaited desire to own some Iowa farm property was fulfilled, albeit with an accompanying period of worry and concern. The investment as it turned out was a good one both for Vincent and me. One reason that the deal went through was that the land market was depressed at the time and we were the only individuals showing interest in the purchase.