The Family Farm

SYCAMORE - It was the Great Depression, and Nora Dayton Ward was a widow with a family to feed. Her job as a country schoolteacher paid the bills, but there wasn't enough money left to pay the taxes on the family farm. At some point, she was probably told by someone with good intentions to sell the land. She didn't listen. Nora took a second job scrubbing floors just to pay the taxes, according to her grandson, John Ward, who lives on that same Sycamore farm today. &#8220It was that important to her,” he said. &#8220I know it was always important to hang on to the farm. I remember my dad saying that. It was always something to fall back on. If things ever got tough, it was at least a place to live.” Through six generations, land has been a