The Farm
In 1949, my great-grandparents, Rose and Kenneth Shultz, purchased a 95-acre parcel of land in Brighton, MI. The property included an 1800’s farmhouse with no indoor plumbing, as well as an unpainted barn and pump house - where my grandma and her siblings fetched water until plumbing was installed. The farm cost $8,500. After a $1,500 downpayment, the monthly mortgage was only $40. Can you imagine that kind of payment today?
My grandma and grandpa, Kathryn and Gerald Fuller, built their home on the property in 1968 - around the time my mom was five. They raised their three children there. As the family grew, so did the people who love of the farm. My sister, cousins and I had many happy memories naming the cattle my grandpa raised for a time, riding horses in the paddock, helping with chores in the big barn, and exploring the wooded hills behind the house.
As I grew up and would visit during my travels between Michigan and Indiana, the image of my grandparents standing on their porch waving and blowing kisses as I would depart will always remain a core memory and bring tears to my eyes. I am wiping away tears as I type this now…
As my grandparent’s portion of the farm was sold to a new family in the past year, I feel a great sense of nostalgia going through old pictures of the place that my family holds so dear. I want to do what I can to preserve these special memories and the history of the farm for us all to remember and share with the decedents of my Shultz and Fuller families.
While Grandpa Gerry was finishing up classes at Michigan State University following his marriage to Grandma Kathy, he took a “Conservation Education” class and completed a project on the farm. He wrote about the history of the land and the first settlers. He also mapped out the property and identified the animals seen around the property. My grandma compiled this project and other photographs in book gifted to her siblings in 2011. I have the original, faded papers of Grandpa’s project, as well as a copy of my grandma’s book. I plan to combine the pages and information found in my grandma’s book with other pictures and stories I have found while preserving my family’s memories into an updated book to be shared with our extended family. Perhaps I’ll share parts of it with you all someday, too.
How have you captured the stories, photos and locations important to your family history? Do you still have the original “keepers” of these memories around to share them with you?
This is why I do the work that I do. I want each family member to have access to these stories and memories so that they may live on after our loved ones are gone.
