A Visit With the Downens of 

 Gallatin County I 



How They Put Their Farm Bureau Membership to Work For Them 



SQUIRE 

 "We g< 



IT SEEMS almost impossible that 

 there should be any people left in 

 Posey county, Indiana, after visiting 

 Gallatin county, Illinois. In our various 

 visits with folks down there, it seemed 

 that everybody's ancestors came from 

 the Indiana county. For instance, take 

 Herman L. Downen, who lives in As- 

 bury township not so far from Ridg- 

 way. He was born in Posey county, In- 

 diana, in 1887, and came to Gallatin 

 with his parents when he wa.s a year 

 old. Here Herman grew up, attended 

 the country schools in Asbury township 

 and took to calling on Martha Reeves 

 who lived two miles from the old Down- 

 en farm. Now Martha's fathsr was born 

 in Posey county too. But her great- 

 grandfather got the land where the 

 Downen farm is now a.-s a land grant 

 from the government. 



Yellow Wheeled Buggy 



While looking for a new quilt she 

 had just finished, Mrs. Martha (Reeves) 

 Downen told us all about things back in 

 1912 when she . married. "Herman and 

 I lived just two miles apart when we 

 were young. About the time I was 20 

 years old, he used to come over in his 

 horse and buggy to see me. The horse 

 was a bay and the buggy had yellow 

 wheels. Then we'd ride around the coun- 

 try, go to parties or to church. One 

 Easter we drove over to Ridgway, 10 

 miles, for services. It took us all day. 

 I was 23 when we were married. That 

 was August 5, 1912. We used to have 

 parties at people's homes. The preach- 

 ers didn't like parties, though. It was 

 all right when we sang but not when 

 someone played a violin." 



Now it's different, she says. Mrs. 

 Downen likes the movies. Her favorite 

 radio programs are "The Life of Mary i 

 Sothern" and "Bob and Bet'.y." Herman 

 likes his music snappy, he says. He al- 

 ways tunes in on the "Barn Dance" and 



says, "We don't seem to have any other 

 station on the radio." 



The Downen farm totals 200 acres. 

 While it is the land on which Martha 

 Downen was born, Herman says he 

 has spent enough time on it to almost 

 feel that he was born there too. This 

 year, there will be 26 acres of wheal, 

 75 of corn, 40 of oats and clover, 25 of 

 soy beans, and the rest is in pasture, 

 wood lots and barn lots. Right now, Her- 

 man has only seven head of Guernsey 

 tattle. He used to run about 25 head 

 all the time. Buiit up to that from his 

 first Guernsey in 1925. But with the 

 children either away or at school he 

 finds it's too much work for himself and 

 the one man he hires. 



Uses Farm Bureau 



Some of the Gu^^rnseys were sold in 

 Kentucky. People say that Herman 

 knows how to raise good cattle and 

 they don't hesitate to buy from him 

 when they get the chance. There are 

 four horses, one of which is a saddle 

 horse which Herman rides about the 

 farm. Most of the farming, however, 

 is done with a new Farmall tractor. 

 Mrs. Downen takes care of the chickens. 

 They are her special pr!de. White Leg- 

 horns they are, 200 grown and 400 

 chicks. She sells and trades the eggs in 

 town and also has built up a n'ce busi- 

 ness seKing live chickens to people in 

 town. There are usually 80 to 93 cross 

 bred Duroc and Spotted Poland hogs 

 fattening up at Downens. They're vac- 

 cinated with Farm Bureau serum and 

 shipped to the Producers through a local 

 man. Gallatin county is one of the out- 

 standing counties in marketing livestock 

 cooperatively. 



There are four Downen children. 

 Dorothy June, aged 24, teaches school 

 in Fairfield, Wayne county. Doris Mae, 

 22, is going to school in Carbondale. 

 Last year she taught in Fillingham, 



Ridgway township. Max Reeves, 20, is 

 also in the Teachers Co.lege at Carbon- 

 dale. Mary Lucille, 17, is a Senior in 

 high school in Ridgway. Herman .says 

 it's kind of lonesome around the place 

 with three of the children away. He s 

 pretty proud of them, though. They're 

 getting good educations and they're am- 

 bitious. Mrs. Downen likes holidays best 

 of all because then the children usually 

 come home. 



The Downens really put their Farm 

 Bureau membership to work. Both Her- 

 man, Mrs. Downen and the two oldest 

 children have policies in Country Life. 

 Herman says his father was never very 

 much sold on insurance but he is. The 

 car is insured in the I. A. A. company. 

 The buildings are also insured. On the 

 house is Soyoil paint, put on three years 

 ago. The house hadn't been paintad for 

 13 years, and while the paint looks fine. 

 Herman thinks he'll put on another coat 

 this fall. The Farmall tractor runs on 

 Service company products. His hogs, 

 as we said before, go to the Producers. 

 His cream is picked up twice a week by 

 the truck from the Producers Creamery 

 (if Olney. He thinks the new egg mar- 

 keting plan ought to hi' a good thing 

 and he'll co-operate. 



Raised Cream Prices 



He tays this about selling cream co- 

 operatively, "We used to have a small 

 co-operative here. It raised cream prices 

 four cents. When it shut down some 

 time ago prices dropped. Then when the 

 Producers plant at Olney was organized, 

 cream prices shot up again. Old line 

 companies boosted their price awhile 

 back, but over-bidding has finally caused 

 ih'jm to come down to OIney's price 

 level where it is stabilized. If it wasn't 

 for Olney, our cream prices would be 

 way down." 



"Farm Bureau services," he says, 

 'have done me a lot of good. Legumes, 



DOWNEN'S CHICK HOUSE 

 "Mrs. almost hand raises 'em." 



MISS "LULU BELLE" 

 Curiosity is her undoing. 



JESS TROUSDALE— HELPER 

 "Penn Bond's Olcehl" 



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