The Farm (Before the Polley's)

The 80 acres came into the Polley name in 1964. The 50 acres came into the Polley name in 1971. But families had been farming this land for years. Below shows a history of the soil before we Polleys came to know the land ourselves...

Just after the Civil War, the Polley Farm was not set up exactly as we know it today.  The current 80 acres was in fact as we know it and was owned by H. Joseph (underneath the bold 27 in the map).  However, the 50 acres was actually part of a much larger land tract owned by J. Howser.  He is shown owning 250 attached acres.  It is not until years later that this tract will be subdivided into the tracts we know today.

Of particular interest is the road from Lawndale coming up north over Kickapoo creek.  The road would be dirt in this time, but the four-way stop to the east of the farmstead is actually not a four-way intersection at all!  What we now know as the first little sharp curve to the south of Lazy Row Road was actually originally two 90-degree turns, first to the west, then to the north!  Later maps indicate the curve (still exists), but this map shows a 90-degree turn at the southern end of J.B. Adams' property, resulting in a "T" rather than a four-way stop when it meets Lazy Row road (east of the current farmstead).  The eventual paved road will end up providing the divider between the 80-acre tract and the 77-acre tract (most likely the reason for moving the road).  But because these properties were owned by the same individual in 1873, the road simply cut that property in two, and it mattered not where that cut took place.

Of even more interest is the house located on the north section of H. Joseph's 80 acres.  This is most likely the same farmhouse (aptly called the "old farmhouse" by our family!) puchased nearly 100 years later by Robert Polley in 1964 when he bought those 80 acres.  The History of Logan County (1878) tells us that the man who owned the farm is Joseph Harvy, a republican, from Ohio [page 493].

Also note that no Route 66 exists.  Interstate 55 is 100 years away!  However, unbeknownst to all, the land is already set up to hold these roads, as the Chicago-Alton St. Louis Railroad has already laid its tracks (Alton to Springfield was finished in 1852, then extended to Bloomington in 1854).  As with much of the rest of the United States, the paved roads would eventually come after the automobile and simply parallel these tracks already in place.





1873 Logan County Plat Map

In 1893, much of the land has already changed hands.  Note that the 250 acres from 1873 has been divided up into three tracts (129 acres, 70 acres, and 50 acres). Of course, that's just an acre shy of the 250 acres in 1873 (most likely due to partial acres in each tract).  The 80 acres as we know it is now owned by Maggie Houser (another Houser owns the 70 acres north of the 50 acres as we know it).  W.J. Horrum is shown owning the 50 acres.  The north-south road still does not line up with the four-way-stop yet, and Rose Hill School is shown on the north side of Lazy Row Road.  Also note that the Chicago and Alton Railroad still shows no road alongside it.

In 1887, a business directory is printed for all of Logan County, and we learn a little bit about the owners of the land.  W.J. Horrum works in hardware in Atlanta.  The number 3 next to his name denotes he owns less than $1000 in real estate.  His (most-likely) relative Joseph N. Horrum is a farmer and works the field to the south of the 50 acres (see plat map below).  He owns real estate worth between $1000 and $5000.  We do not see Maggie Houser's name listed, but several Houser's appear in Logan County at this time.

We also see Osa Howser as a farmer with more than $5000 in land value.  Osa is the wife of John A. Howser who died March 26, 1883 (we learn elsewhere that Osa kept the 117 acres in her name).  She is the daughter of John and Mary Chowning...and a brother to Elet Houston Chowning.

1887-1888 Logan County Business Directory (W.J. Horrum, Houser, Howser)

The (future) 50 acres is in great hands.  According to the 1886 Logan County History Book, the caretaker of this piece of land is quite the farmer.  From the history book:  "William J. Horrom, a prominent farmer of Eminence Township, was born December 6, 1848, in Cass County, Illinois.  He is a son of John and Susan Horrom, who were natives of New York State and Pennsylvania, respectively, and among the early settlers of Cass County.  He was reared on a farm in his native county, and there educated in common schools.  November 16, 1870, he was married to Sarah Goodpasture, by whom he had seven children, six of them still living--Leona N., Eugene L., William A., Bessie, Pearl and Gertrude.  In 1877, Mr. Horrom moved with his family to Logan County, Illinois, and settled on the farm where he has since resided.  He is a successful and enterprising farmer and is the owner of 250 acres of good land.  In politics he affiliates with the Republican party.  He is at present serving his second term as road commissioner of Eminence Township." [page 733]  That "250 acres of good land" contains the 50 acres that will soon fall into the Polley's ownership.  (Is it possible that he divided his land in order to buy/begin a hardware store in Atlanta?)

Note the more than 1000 acres owned by S.A. Foley. (I guess that comes with being elected judge of Logan County in 1877, being elected President of the Lincoln Savings, Loan, and Trust in the same year, being owner of the Lincoln gas plant from 1878-1884, being a major stockholder of the Citizen's Coal Shaft, being President of Lincoln Gas and Electric in 1884, and being founder-owner of Lincoln Rollings Mills in 1885. The famous Foley House in Lincoln, Illinois [also known as Harts Hall] still resides on Tremont Street).

1893 Logan County Plat Map

In 1910, the land has changed hands yet again.  As for the future Polley Farm, Maggie Houser still owns the 80 acres, and J.H. Parker (later identified as a Mrs.) now owns the 50 acres.  The residence is no longer shown, though this could be a cartographist's oversight (the house is not shown in some later maps, either).  Or quite simply the house is gone.



1910 Logan County Plat Map

In 1922, the Polley Farm is still very much a future endeavor, as owner Robert Polley would not be born for another two years!  However, the land is already affecting Little Robert before he could even know it.  His future boss Fred Zollers has already acquired his 200 acres where Robert would be working on in just another several years (see Robert Polley's life story).  As for the farm as we know it, Maggie Houser still owns the 80 acres, and Mrs. J.H. Parker still owns the 50 acres.  Also note the school house across from Fred Zollers' property.



1922 Logan County Plat Map

The farmland doesn't change hands in the next eight years.  Maggie Houser is still shown as owning the 80 acres, and Mrs. J.H. Parker still owns the 50.  The automobile has taken the country by storm, however, and the huge Route 66 project has begun.  This map sometime in the 1930's shows the new 66 to the east.

1930's Logan County Plat Map

In 1940, the Polley's are still another 24 years before purchasing the land.  However, with the excitement of the Route 66 having been built to the east, the government commissions a fly-over of the land from 20,000 feet.  The (eventual) Polley farm is included in the aerial photos.  Here is the land as seen in 1940:

The farm as seen in 1940.  (Note:  This map angle differs from the plat map angles).

The farm in 1940.  Notice the various uses of the land.

 

The 50 acres as seen in 1940.  Notice the trees on the western portion!

Here in 1965, the land has come under the Polley name.  Sort of.  In 1964, Robert Polley took out a $50,000 loan from A.J. Engelbrecht in order to purchase the 80 acres.  So although the farm was now under the Polley activity, the deed was under the name of A.J. & Edna Engelbrecht (see plat map).  It is also fun to note that Eleeta Kindred is shown owning the 50 acres...several years before it would even cross Robert Polley's mind.  [For reference, the 80 acres is just underneath the 27 in this map].

The Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio Railroad also now owns the railroad (they bought the Alton R.R. in 1947).  Notice, too, that the 90-degree turns are now gone, replaced by a little sharp curve so that the intersection now comes to a four-way-intersection (and Fred Laur's 80-acre and 77-acre fields are now separated by a road acting as the boundary line).  And Route 66 now exists!  From the 1965 Logan County Plat Map:



1965 Plat Map

The following shows our neighbors and the house locations in 1970.  The farm house is shown, but the name is not.  This is because Robert Polley rented out the old farm house.  Maps of the day did not show the owner's name unless he actually lived in that house.  Our old farm house is the black square just to the east of our neighbor Galen Lessen (under the number 27 in the map).  From 1970:

Our Neighbors in 1970

In 1971, Robert Polley took out a loan from the Atlanta Federal Bank and purchased 50 acres for $25,000.  For the first time, the Polley name is shown in the Logan County plat book.  The Polley's now officially own land!!!  Robert & Betty Polley are shown owning 50 acres.  The railroad tracks are now owned by the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad (merged with the above Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio R.R. in 1972).

1971 Logan County Plat Map

In 1973, Robert Polley is the only name listed on the 50 acres with A.J. & Edna Engelbrecht still listed on the 80 acres.  Robert Polley and family are hard at work on the farm, paying off the loans, watching Ricky graduate from high school, and most likely curious about the "Proposed Interstate 55" being pursued just a few miles to the east.  The Illinois Central Gulf Railroad now runs the tracks.

1973 Logan County Plat Map

In 1977, the Polley name is finally listed on the 80 acres for the first time.  The loan is still in existence with the Engelbrecht's, however, as that name is listed first.  However, A.J. has been taken off the map, and Edna is the only remaining (possibly due to A.J.'s death?) .  Also note Interstate 55!



1977 Logan County Plat Map

It's interesting to note the occupant of the farmhouse in 1979:  Robert Polley II.  Before the building of the current farmhouse in 1980, Bob lived in the old farmhouse.  Our neighbors in 1979:

1979 Logan County Residences

No more loan!!!  Sometime between 1979 and 1980, the 80 acres was paid off!!!  The Engelbrecht's are forever removed, and the 80 acres now shows sole ownership by Robert and Betty Polley.  The 50 acres still shows ownership by Robert Polley.

1980 Logan County Plat Map

Our neighbors in 1988:

The Polley Farm has now officially been in existence for 48 years.  The abbreviation "etux" behind Robert Polley's name simply means "and wife."  Note the very important addition, as well.  The farm is now a Trust.  Here is the farm as shown in 2007:



2007 Logan County Plat Map

And our neighbors in 2007:



2007 Logan County Neighbors

The land has been worked for years and years providing sustenance for an untold number of families.  Memories are made, families are raised, bills are incurred and paid.  Here's a before and after shot of the farm from 1940 and 2012.

 

The Polley Farm continues to this day.


The Farm

In 1964, I found 80 acres for sale on Lazy Row Road in Atlanta, Illinois.  On a drive home to Hartsburg from Atlanta, I stopped at the house on the property and asked what they were asking.  Stanley Wickoff lived in the house at that time.  After learning the price, I took out a $40,000 loan from A.J. Engelbrecht, our neighbor in Beason that had watched me grow up, and mortgaged my house in Hartsburg for the other $10,000...and I bought those 80 acres for $625 an acre, quite a price in that day.  A.J. charged me 5% interest.  (A.J. would actually pass away before I paid him off completely, so I paid his wife Edna the remaining payments).  I would pay A.J. just once a year payments of $2000 plus interest.

The property itself was quite a sight.  There were nine buildings in all, none of which were in great condition.  The buildings consisted of the old farmhouse, the garage, a washhouse, the outhouse, a machine shed, two wire corn cribs, an old barn, and a shed on the east side of the property.  An old underground fuel tank was located near the corn cribs, and an orchard was just behind the house.


The farm as seen in 1955 prior to Robert Polley's purchase (owned by Maggie Houser)

 

I would say words which are still talked about today:  "Every building goes."  And sure enough, I wasted no time in honoring those words.  The first to go were the corn cribs and underground fuel tank.

Because I had no machinery to work the land myself, I had the neighbor of the property (Galen Lessen) continue to farm the land as he had been doing prior to my purchase.  However, after just two years, that would all change.  In 1966, I purchased a 1967 John Deere 3020 tractor, a John Deere disc, a John Deere four-bottom plow, and a John Deere 495A four-row planter from Carl Lauer's John Deere Implement Company in Lincoln, Illinois.  I bought these right after the Logan County Fair in August.  I would hire Virgil Lessen from Emden to do the harvest.

John Deere 3020, still on farm today

John Deere 495A






John Deere four-bottom-plow



In 1971, another opportunity presented itself.  While driving just a mile north of the 80 acres, I saw a For Sale sign next to another piece of farmland.  After inquiring about this land, I learned that 50 acres were for sale, split into 20 acres and 30 acres divided by a little creek.  The current owners had just inherited the land and did not want it.  And those fields were quite a sight...overgrown with weeds for as far as the eye could see.  Not wanting to make a foolish purchase, I asked Mike Klokkenga from Emden if he would take a look at the land for me.  After looking at it, he said, "Bob, all that land needs is a shave and a haircut."  Heeding his words, I took out a loan yet again, this time from the Federal Land Bank, and purchased this land for $500/acre, for a total of $25,000.  Also taking his advice, I purchased an orange Woods shredder, as that land really did need some attention.

I also had a Morton machine shed built in 1971 just south of the old farmhouse.  I erected one grain bin just east of the machine shed in the same year.



The farm as seen in 1973 (property already cleaned up considerably, new machine shed already shown in top right)

The farm was not strictly a grain operation, however.  As a matter of fact, we ended up dabbling in just about everything!  With Bobby in high school and Ricky in grade school, we purchased shorthorn heiffers off of Jim Klockenga (Mike's son) for $400 apiece.  Jim was an Ag student/FFA member of mine. We also tried raising feeder calves at one time. I bought several weaned calves and raised them to market weight. This venture wasn’t too profitable, I found out. We had to buy the feed from B&B Milling Company in Emden—they bulk loaded the feed into the back of my pickup. We would then place a tarp over it and drive to the farm. Then Bobby, Ricky and I would unload the feed by hand using 5-gallon buckets and carry it and dump it into a granary. Then we would carry feed with 5-gallon buckets to the feed troughs. That was tremendous amount of work.



1955 ad for The B&B Milling Company, Emden, Illinois

Years later, I purchased an auger wagon that B&B dumped the feed in and I towed it behind my truck to the farm. We would then hook up the 3020 tractor and connect the PTO shaft and auger the grain out. That saved a lot of labor. Eventually, I got to the point where I bought my own feed grinder—and we would grind our own feed here on the farm and auger it out into the feed hoppers or granary.

We also tried our hand with hogs—and found out they were a better investment for us than those cows ever were. We started out by using a single-sow orange-colored farrowing house. One could lift the “roof” lid and look in on the sow and her litter. We had to open a door behind the sow in order to allow her to back out into an open stall where she could eat and get water. A few years later, we ended up buying a second single-sow farrowing house. We even set up farrowing stalls on the east side of the barn and had a kerosene heater in their to keep the piglets warm. However, in the early 1970’s, I purchased a 12-sow farrowing house—and we started farrowing pigs four times a year—we did this for about 10 years.

As a matter of fact, Rick's very first loan was not to buy a car...but pigs! He opened up a checking account and loan in Hartsburg with his first loan being $220 to buy a sow and eight or nine piglets! The pigs were Chester-Whites. When it came time to sell the hogs, we would put stock racks on the back of my pickup—stock racks that Bobby built as an FFA project in high school---and loaded the hogs and took them to the stockyards in Peoria. We could usually haul about (10) 220-pound hogs at a time. When those stock racks wore out, I purchased a metal set that one could slide in and out of the pickup bed.

The farm was work.  There was always something to be done in those days.  When we raised cattle, we had to feed them every day after school.  I would go home from Hartsburg school where I taught, pick up Bobby and Ricky, and we would drive the eight miles out to the farm to feed the cows.  We had to do this every single day.

At one point, Bobby ended up winning a dairy cow from the Rotary Club, and after she freshened, this meant we had to milk her every morning and night!  This meant more driving!  Ricky never did learn how to milk her, though, so this was left to Bobby and me.

With the cattle, too, we would often move them over to pasture from the 80 acres.  The pasture was located a few miles away, so rather than load them up in the truck and make several trips, we would actually do a cattle drive down Lazy Row Road!  At our peak, we had around 25-30 head of cattle.  The pasture was located about four miles to the west, just across Kickapoo Creek.

Our pick-up truck during that time was a 1966 Chevrolet which was purchased for $2200.  The truck had the "four-on-the-floor" transmission but had no air-conditioning or radio.  It was definitely a work truck.   We carried sideboards on the truck that Bobby had made when he built the stock racks. You don’t see it so much anymore except on business trucks, but those were the days when people put their names on both doors of the cab. Our truck said “Robert O. Polley and Sons/Hartsburg, Illinois"—and I had ‘Bobby and Ricky’ placed up near the top of the door by the window. In winter time, the boys had found a couple of round metal Coca-Cola signs and they tied a rope to the hitch and then to the first sign—and then another rope from the first sign to the smaller back sign. They would then hop on and slide around town on the snow. It wasn’t the safest thing to do, but they sure had fun.

Ricky learned how to drive the shift in this truck by sitting on my lap. I would work the pedals and he would shift. As he got bigger, he would start driving from the farm to home himself and I would sit on the passenger side—then we would stop a couple of miles from town—and then we would swap seats before getting to Hartsburg!

Of course, the land itself needed work, too.  We would constantly have to mow the grass on the 80 and 50 acres.  On the east side of the 80 acres, a fence-post line (no longer there) would get so overgrown with weeds.  We would take the old Bachtold weedmower (sold in 2006) a half-mile down, then a half-mile back to keep our property line clean.  We would also mow the very steep ditch along the roadside over on the 50 with that same mower.  That was work.

Also, over on the 50, we took down a wire corn crib a few years after I bought the place. It was located right at the middle entrance next to the road.  Before the combines became popular, farms used to harvest the entire ears at a time.  Seeing as how we no longer did this, we took down all three of those cribs (two at the house, one at the 50).  But before we took down that one on the 20 acres, we received a phone call from the police.  We were ordered to cut down marijuana plants found next to the crib!  We complied.

We also had to address an issue with the entrance to the back 30 acres.  When I purchased the land, a bridge had already made access, but the bridge was old and constantly being eroded at the base.  This entryway was straight back from the current middle road access.  It was made up of seven old railroad rails that stretched from one side of the ditch to the other side—and very thick wooden planks were placed perpendicularly across the rails. But the water in the ditch would constantly erode the ground away from each side of the bridge making it unsafe. To support the rails, we made support pillars by digging out (by hand) a foundation and erecting pillars made from welding (3) 55-gallon hallowed drums on top of each other. We had 6 sets of these pillars—3 on each side. We then poured concrete into the foundation and the pillars. We placed an I-beam across each set of pillars and put the rails on top of these I-beams and then the wooden planks on top of those. This lasted for a while, but the water eventually eroded the dirt away from the foundations—and this bridge became unsafe again. I ended up having to buy an actual railroad tank car and having to build another bridge on the north side of the property (the one that still exists today).

This farm was work!

The land constantly needed attention, too.  Before I switched to no-till in the early 2000's, we continually worked up the land.  The farm was not tiled until the 1980's, so if I didn't work up the land in the fall after harvest, the dirt would be cloddy and rough when it came time to prepare it in the spring.  In the early days of the farm, our work-horse was the 1967 3020.  We would disc the land, then plow it with the 4-14 plow.  The 3020 would always be the mainstay throughout the years, but we owned a John Deere 4020 with a square cab, a White tractor (very powerful but the engine mounts were cracked so I had to sell), a Farmall tractor used to shred the cornstalks while the 3020 came behind with the plow, a 4430 with the modern round cab, and finally the 4450 (sold in 2011).

The farm was always a work in progress, ever-changing year to year.  After purchasing the 80 acres, I tore down the old machine shed and had a lean-to constructed with an opening to the south.  However, a violent wind storm moved through and pulled those posts out of the ground and bent the lean to building back over on itself. After this storm, I tore that down and had the Morton machine shed built in 1971.  I also had a grain bin built in the early 1970's.  I would later add a second identical bin directly to the east of it.  Both of these still stand today.

 The machinery constantly changed, too. Over the course of the years, I acquired two more cultivators—one front attached and then a rear attached. I also bought a DMI plow that allowed one to plow without shedding the corn stalks first, a soil finisher, a John Deere 7000 Max Emerge six-row planter (with 30-inch rows opposed to the 38-inch rows on the 495A), two DMI grain wagons, a grain auger, and a John Deere chisel plow to use after harvesting soybeans. When we raised our own hay for our cattle, I purchased a John Deere baler, a hay rake, and very handy hay stacker made by New Holland.  Bobby and Rick each built hayrack wagons as FFA projects in high school.

As far as those two DMI wagons...I basically had my hand forced to purchase those!  During harvest one year, I had borrowed these two wagons from Rohlf's Implement.  Rick was hauling the two wagsons full of grain over to the elevator in Hartsburg.  He had just left the farm and was going over the bridge just to the west of the 80 acres.  That bridge even today has a sharp incline followed by a sharp decline.  Well, immediately after going across the bridge, Rick noticed that the two wagons were following him on the side of the tractor!  Sure enough, the hitch pin had bounced out and the two wagons careened off into the ditch, spilling the entire loads of grain.  Of course, with the weight of the load, the wagons were bent up, as well.  We had to hire a farmer with a grain vacuum to clean up our grain from the ditch, and I had to pay to have the wagons repaired.  I hadn't planned on it, but I ended up buying two DMI wagons that day.

 

In 1980, I had the current farmhouse built.  I hired Bob Ford and Kent Young out of Atlanta, Illinois, to build the house.  We moved in the day before Halloween in 1980.  (I had also had my previous house in Hartsburg built, as well.  I paid $8000 for that house and carried a mortgage of $150/month.  We moved in to that house in 1955.  It was built over a swampy area, though, and often had water in the basement until I hired someone to put tiling next to the walls.)

Sometime during the 1980's, I started raising Limousin cattle.  I ended up selling my last one in 1992.  I had my second heart attack, and Betty was left with three cows to take care of (feeding morning and night).  Not wanting to do this work herself, she called Jack Knollenberg and asked if he would help.  He graciously accepted the request, and Betty did not have to take care of the cattle.  But that was the turning point with animals on our farm.  We never owned another.

At one point in the 1980's, we even raised chickens...I think between 1983-1985.  My grandson Andy would love to go out in the machine shed and retrieve the eggs.  Betty was expecting some family company, and she was embarrassed to have chickens running all over the yard, so we rounded up all of the chickens, threw them into a grain sack, and dumped them on one of our neighbors farms who raised chickens!  We never told him that it was us who did that!

I retired from teaching in 1986, a year after Betty retired in 1985.  After years and years of sweat and labor, the house and farm was finally paid off in the early 1996, 32 years after we purchased the land.

I had the 80 acres tiled in the 1994.  Sometime in the 1980's, I also had the current barn constructed.  The old one was finally torn down, nearly twenty years after I uttered those now-true words:

"Every building goes."




"Every building goes..."

The Polley Farm as seen today.  Every building new.

 




The Places I Lived and Worked

I was born August 31, 1924, about 1 ½ miles north of Atlanta, Illinois.  The house no longer exists.

Robert Polley's birthplace.  The house was purposely burned in 2010.



Robert Polley's birthplace as seen from the south.  The house was burned under control.

Robert Polley's birthplace as seen from the north.

From there, my family moved to the Applegate Place over by Niblick Cemetery [this is just west of the current farm, then north up a dirt road about two miles].  The plat maps show this being owned by Albert A. Applegate and Clara A. Applegate (Miller).



From there, we moved to Tom Young’s place when I was two years old. 

Tom Young's Place, north of Eminence Christian Church, being remodeled in 2012

Then from age three to age nine, we lived at the George Quisinberry Place just south of Kickapoo Creek.  I attended Mount Zion school which was a 1.9-mile walk each way.  I usually chose to take the road instead of the (shorter) fields due to the mud and numerous fences I had to cross.  "This was a one-room schoolhouse, and you could actually get pretty smart by listening to the teacher when she taught the other grades.  I remember my teacher catching two boys whispering in class one day.  She went right over there and caught them and slapped one of them right upside the face!  I never whispered in that class."

Mount Zion School, just east of George Quisinberry's farm

"I can remember the flood of 1929.  Boy, that water came all the way up out of the creek right up to the house."  "I can also remember my mother and the others crying on the front porch here when Kenny died.  There used to be a porch on the front of this house here, and that addition on top did not exist."  [Kenny was born June 26, 1926, and died September 24, 1928].  "I can also remember walking out drinks and food to my dad in the field here" [just south of the home].  "I also used to have to walk to school every day."

The site of the old Mt. Zion School, east of George Quisinberry's farm

George Quisinberry's Farm, just south of Kickapoo Creek

George Quisinberry's House, though the top addition did not exist during the Polleys' stay

1930 United States Census showing the Polley family while on the George Quisinberry farm

 
George Quisinberry came to my dad and told him that he would like to farm the land himself, so we had to move yet again. We moved to Ben Wade's place just east of Atlanta, Illinois, a few miles to the north of the Quisinberry farm.  I attended Clear Creek School where I finished fourth grade.  I had to walk two miles to school, through the snow, rain, whatever, uphill both ways [This statement is frighteningly true!  The distance is exactly 2.0 miles, and it is literally uphill both ways!]  I attended Atlanta Elementary School for 5^th and 6^th grade.  I would also walk to the Atlanta school from the Wade place.

The site of the old Clear Creek School, just east of Atlanta, Illinois

One day the Peoples Bank of Atlanta came out to the farm, and we would learn that the bank would soon be taking over the farm.  Ben asked my dad if he would like to buy it, but my dad simply did not have the finances, so he had to pass.  A gentleman named Arthur Begolka bought the farm, and our family was forced to move again.

The Ben Wade place after purchased by Arthur Begolka (1955 picture)

The old Ben Wade farm with the house recently destroyed (it was in existence in 2011)

The Ben Wade Farm prior to home being destroyed, Atlanta, Illinois

 

We then moved to the George Opperman Farm near Beason.  I attended Deercreek for 7^th and 8^th grade.  I then attended Beason High School for 9^th and 10^th grade.  During my sophomore year, George Opperman informed my dad that he wanted to farm the land himself, so we had to move yet again.

The George Opperman Farm, northeast of Lincoln

George told my dad about a farm over by Meredosia, though. My dad bought those 80 acres out in Chambersburg on the Illinois River, so we moved out there in order to farm that piece of land. Henry Bock, our neighbor just south of George Quisinberry, was just the best neighbor you could ask for. He had five sons and also trucks, and his sons used those trucks to move our family out to Chambersburg in 1940. The land was not available when we arrived, so we had to wait until the spring. The owner then decided not to sell, so my dad had to get a lawyer in order to get his money back. We never did get the land, but I stayed until the harvest was done that fall.

The following 1940 census shows Robert Polley (aged 15 years) and family living in Chambersburg Township.  His father Alva is a farmer working the land and paying $10 rent each month for the home.

1940 United States Census of Chambersburg Township, Pike County, Illinois

So I started my junior year at Chambersburg High School, but in November after the corn harvest, we moved back to Atlanta, just north of Eminence Christian Church.  Henry Bock's sons would again help us move back.  We would live with Frank Ferguson (my cousin) on his farm.  I attended Armington Hittle Township High School for 11^th and 12^th grade and graduated in 1942 at the age of 17.  I could ride a bus to school in the morning, but I went out for baseball, and those of us on the sports teams had to walk home.  We were living at the Ferguson place when we learned that Pearl Harbor had been attacked in 1941.

The Ferguson Farm in 1955

The Ferguson Place today, just north of Eminence Christian Church

The Ferguson Place

After I graduated, I spent the summer shucking corn.  I worked for Fred Zollars on his 200 acres.  The work consisted of milking two cows, taking care of horses, cutting weeds, working hay, and other jobs.  Fred had a stationary baler, and a bull rake with two horses.  One day I got my rake caught and reached in to get it.  Fred immediately grabbed my arm and said, "Bob, I can get a new rake, but I can't get a new you."  Without Fred, I may have lost my hand that day!

I would live with Fred Zollars throughout the week, and Mom and Dad would pick me up on the weekends.  We would attend church together on Sunday.

I would also work for Henry Amburst on his farm just down the road from the Zollars' farm, helping work the hay.  [Unbeknownst to Robert Polley, he would later own this farm himself...this is the 80 acres.]

The 80 acres farm owned by Maggie Houser (1955)