This 130 Year Old Farm Spans Just Three Generations

By: Bill Spiegel

Strolling through the mature tree row of Bill and Louise Walter’s farm is a walk down memory lane for old machinery buffs. Tools from the farm’s founding, in 1892, remain, although Jeri and Jeff Bates — Bill and Louise’s daughter and son-in-law — are working to clean it up.

The Bateses are the third generation to farm this place in Mitchell County near Beloit, Kansas, and they are relative newcomers to the operation. They moved to Beloit in 1998 to raise their family, and Jeff and Jeri began helping her parents on the operation. They never missed a chance to learn from Bill and Louise, who were just one generation from the hardships and toil of first-generation farmers.