Historic "Farm Beautiful" still shines, but not quite as brightly

Fred Schilplin started as an apprentice at the St. Cloud Times in 1887 and by 1902 was managing editor and owner of the newspaper. In 1930, he bought 276 acres of undeveloped farmland near Pleasant Lake. Three years later, it became the site of Farm Beautiful.

Once a national showplace farm, the house, remnants of a three-story barn, a blacksmith shop/machine shed, circular wishing well, bunk house, parts of a stone wall, and an extraordinary architectural and farm history of a time gone by remain on the farm now owned by Jerry and Kathy Zabinski. It can be seen from Interstate Highway 94 near St. Cloud.

On a recent visit to the farm, Jerry showed me around and into the buildings. He knows the history and use of each building. He admits the years have taken their toll on the intricate stonework and the woodwork around windows and doors, but he has tried to preserve as much as possible. The remaining buildings have been lovingly protected with new roofs, ventilation, and constant — and expensive — upkeep. 

Jerry and Kathy treasure the history of the place and welcome visitors. They say it has been a pleasure and an honor to move into the historic Farm Beautiful house and live on the site. Jerry, with is brother Bob, continue to farm the land. They do not have plans to leave.

History

Farm Beautiful was a project of the Great Depression. The name came about because many people on Sunday afternoon drives would pass by the farm and exclaim, “What a beautiful farm.”

The plan for Farm Beautiful was originally undertaken in the spring of 1933 as a practical way of utilizing idle labor in St. Cloud. It was the third of 11 projects designed and financed by Schilplin and the St. Cloud Times Publishing Co. to provide jobs on farms for relief and unemployed workers. This St. Cloud-area workforce became known as the Army of Work.

At the end of the 11 projects, it had employed 556 people for 6,428 days. Workers were brought from town to the job site by a Times truck or they came on foot. Workers were paid in redeemable coupons that could be exchanged under contractual agreements with the Times for subscriptions and/or farm products such as potatoes, cabbage, and other produce grown on the farm. It was equivalent to 25 to 35 cents per hour for common laborers and 65 to 85 cents per hour for skilled laborers.

The contractor in charge of construction for the project was well-known local barn-builder Joseph Schellinger. As overseer, carpenter and woodworker, he supervised expanding the house, erecting the barn and silo, and plowing and planting 276 acres.

In 1934, Schilplin leased adjoining land for a total of 1,160 acres. Joseph Henkemeyer, Jr. oversaw the cement work. Ferdinand Storekamp managed the farm operation. Schilplin was the absentee owner.

By the end of the entire project, 14 buildings were built, including a three-story barn, a 25-by-100-foot machine shed, poultry house, blacksmith shop, two concrete silos, bull and stallion house, milk and pump house, wood shed, a circular wishing well, doghouse and playhouse, and yard landscaping done in stone. The prevalent building material was field stone from neighboring farms.

The handsome three-story, 2,600-square-foot, 34-stall dairy barn stood 40 feet tall. Each level had a concrete floor, and rafters were reinforced with recycled streetcar tracks from St. Cloud.

The barn had steel ventilation shafts and modern drinking cups for the cattle. In the glory-days of Farm Beautiful, the barn’s first floor, along with cattle, housed horses in box stalls. The second floor was for grain storage and the third level held hay. A cement chute ran from top to bottom of the barn. Steps to each level were made of concrete. A 560-square-foot stone wall 14 inches thick surrounded the cattle yard.

Jump ahead 10 years

In 1942, Ed Steman replaced farm manager Storekamp. Steman continued Storekamp’s excellent management until 1961, when he died suddenly from cancer at age 47.

In recent interviews with Pat (Steman) Fitzharris, Ed’s daughter, and Bob Steman, Ed’s nephew, many details about the operation of the farm itself were revealed.  

Pat said she lived on the farm from her birth in 1946 until 1961. “I have many fond memories of time spent on the farm," she said. "When dad started managing it, he and my mother, Margaret (Gregory) Steman, had two young daughters. They gave birth to six additional daughters in the next 10 years. My sister Renee died when she was two and I was just a month old.

“We lived on the farm in the four-bedroom house with one bathroom. The house is still on the farm, but, of course, has been significantly remodeled. 

“We had four to five hired men who lived in a bunk house on the farm. Meal time was always pretty busy. My mother [like Mrs. Storekamp before her], prepared three meals per day for up to 14 people. (Nine in our family and the hired hands.)” 

Pat elaborated on certain details. “The buildings were so beautiful all with rock foundations, surrounded by rock fences. The yard was large and had many rock gardens, flower beds, a wishing well, and special buildings like our play house that we spent many hours playing in — which even had an upstairs. Hide and seek was great fun because there were so many places to hide. We always had playmates with so many siblings. In the winter we enjoyed sledding and tobogganing down the large hill from the house to the barn.”

Neighborhood kids loved to come over and play on the farm and a lot of cousins visited on Sundays, Pat added. Her dad had a pony-and-cart that he loved giving rides on. “Life was very simple but so much fun. 

“We all had to help with chores such as meal prep, clean up, weeding the large gardens, gathering the eggs from the chickens, cleaning the house and bunk house, and mowing lawn," she said. "We didn’t help with the farm work since the hired men did that, except on Sundays. The hired men had off on Sundays so us girls would have to take turns helping my dad with milking the cows. Of course, all that meant was we carried the milk in pails to the bulk tank." 

Most of their time was spent outdoors. “I liked being able to go to the orchard and take my pick of apples or grapes. We went to a one-room school house about a mile from the farm. Our telephone was an eight-party line shared with all the neighbors.”

The Stemans were obligated to leave Farm Beautiful upon Ed ’s death. Pat said her mother found it difficult losing her husband and having to leave the farm all at one time, with six daughters still at home. She loved sewing so began working at Stearns Manufacturing and later at Fandels Department Store.

“She was a survivor and a strong woman. After all, she had cooked, baked, canned, gardened, and cared for all those workers and her growing family while at Farm Beautiful.”

Ramrod/wheeler-dealer

Bob Steman, 77, Ed Steman’s nephew, recalled Ed was “kind of a jockey,” a “ramrod” and “wheeler-dealer” when he managed Farm Beautiful. “He had full range of the operation, complete control. He did the buying and selling, hiring, and firing. 

"During the busy seasons like threshing, silo filling, or other harvesting and planting times, relatives would come to the farm and help with the work,” Bob said. They included his dad, Neil, and his uncles from Watkins. Usually they were unpaid help, “because in those days, in the 40s and 50s, farmers just helped each other out, but they got meals, lunch and dinner, and they were glad to help.”

Furthermore, at Farm Beautiful, “they would be working with tractors, the latest and newest Olivers and Minneapolis Molines, and other big, modern equipment. At threshing times, the adult men pitched bundles and the young boys got to drive those tractors. They were quite a big deal. It was a big operation. ... It was an impressive place.

“Ed had a big heart," Bob said. "He would hire boys or young men who were ‘kind of rowdy’ so they would have a job and could earn money. He wanted to straighten them out. My brother Archie was missing from our own family farm in Eden Valley one week. They located him working for Ed. Archie loved the race horses and ponies on the farm.”

Bob added that Farm Beautiful was “a positive reflection on the area. People talked about it all the time and would drive past it on Highway 15 — when it was just a double-lane road.”

From award to auction

At the annual National Editorial Association convention in St. Louis in May 1934, the St. Cloud Times was awarded first place for its Farm Beautiful Project Number Three as the most outstanding community service in the nation.

In 1948, Schliplin put Farm Beautiful up for auction: About 4000 people attended. Personal property and livestock sold for over $30,000, but the building site did not sell. Asking $175 per acre, the highest bid was $115 per acre. He kept the farm and remained an absentee landlord. Due to lack of use, after Ed Steman died, with each new renter, the farm suffered the ravages of time and lack of care.

Jerry and Kathy Zabinski

During construction that created Farm Beautiful, the Joseph and Tillie Zabinski family farmed across the road. Most of the field stones used in the construction came from the immediate area, many from their farm.

Son Jerry said there is some granite in the buildings, mainly in the architectural ornamentation — the arches on the machine shed and the circles on the large barn. He doesn’t know where that came from but his dad worked there and actually “delivered a lot of the fieldstones to the farm.”

In 1970, Jerry and his brother Bob, who together took over the Zabinski family farm, began renting the Farm Beautiful house and a portion of the land. That same year Jerry married Kathy Maritsch. They moved into the farmhouse. In 1980, when the farm came up for sale, Jerry and Kathy purchased the property because of its proximity to their farm. They continued to farm in partnership with his brother Bob across the road.

They maintained the buildings that were salvageable but, Jerry said, they were forced to demolish some of the buildings due to rotting wood, leaky roofs, or they no longer served a purpose.

About 200 acres of Farm Beautiful cropland also was lost to road construction in the 1970s when old Highway 52 became Interstate 94 and an overpass was built. Expansion of the simple two-lane Minnesota Highway 15 to four lanes also meant land was taken from Farm Beautiful acreage.

Today, the house — remodeled many times, Kathy said — still serves as the Zabinski family home. Remnants of the blacksmith shop, which still holds the original forge, remainsThe machine-shed, bunkhouse, and a few lesser buildings also remain.

The three-story centerpiece barn, stands straight and sturdy as a proud symbol of the farm in an earlier era, strutting its historical glory.

Due to deterioration of the barn’s wooden window frames, they have been covered over with fiberglass sky light. Some of the ornamentation has deteriorated, but the basic construction remains unchanged. They replaced the original cedar shingles on the barn with an asphalt roof. Later, a steel roof went on to prevent leakage and to preserve the interior.

Jerry and Kathy live in the house, and Jerry and Bob continue farming the land, although the dairy operation has been discontinued. They grow corn and alfalfa and run a few head of livestock. None of the Zabinski’s four sons is interested in continuing to operate the entire farm or live there, but son Lee rents a piece of cropland.

Jerry and Kathy raised their family at Farm Beautiful. In the past, students from area schools would stop to paint or take pictures but less so recently. Jerry said he never met the original owner, Fred Schilplin. They bought the farm from his son, also named Fred.

This column is the opinion of Marilyn Salzl Brinkman. Write to her at Brinkman1943@gmail.com or the St. Cloud Times, P.O. Box 768, St. Cloud, MN 56302.