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 constant in John's family. Nora's grandfather, Alvin Dayton, first settled land in the area in 1836, relying heavily on the help of local American Indians. Her father, James Dayton, a wealthy farmer and businessman, added to the family's holdings by purchasing farms for each of his five children, including Nora, in 1905. &#8220My great-grandfather was a very successful businessman in Sycamore,” John Ward proudly said. &#8220He dealt with sheep, which was the big thing back then, not cattle or hogs.” When Nora's last name changed through her marriage to George Ward, she named her son James Dayton Ward to keep the name in the family. James' son John Ward kept the tradition going, naming his son Stephen Dayton Ward, who in turn named his son Dayton Andrew Ward. Today, Steve Ward lives on the original Dayton farm with his family, while John Ward and his wife, Betsy, live nearby on the Old Elm Farm established in 1905, named for a massive elm tree that stood on the property for centuries. In the mid-1950s, Sycamore's then-local newspaper, The True Republican, touted the tree as the oldest living thing in DeKalb County. &#8220My dad struggled and struggled to keep it alive during the Dutch elm (disease) era of the '60s, and he wasn't able to,” John Ward said. &#8220When they cut it down, they estimated it was 370 years old. That means it was here when the Pilgrims landed.” For years, the fields were planted and harvested by tenant farmers, John Ward said. Though his father, like his grandmother, didn't farm the family land, selling it was never an option. &#8220There was a real strong sense of family,” he said. &#8220I don't think it was just my dad, I think it was that era of farming.” John Ward began farming the Old Elm land in 1972, while the older Dayton land passed to his brother Jim Ward, who chose not to farm it. Steve Ward graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993, bought the Dayton farm's house and outbuildings and began farming his uncle's acres. Today, father and son operate 2,800 acres in Sycamore and DeKalb, 550 of which they own. &#8220Pretty much in junior high, I started telling guidance counselors, ‘I'm just going to work on the family farm,'” Steve Ward recalled. &#8220They all said, ‘Oh, you'd better find something else, too. You'd better not plan on that.' So now I can say, ‘I told you so.'” Steve Ward, who is in his mid-30s, remembers his father first putting him on a lawnmower at age 7, and he was in the fields on a tractor by age 9. His own son, Dayton, 6, already has some chores around the farm, like sweeping out the shop area. The Wards raise hay, wheat, corn, soybeans and hogs on the family land. Advances in technology mean a computer makes sure the hogs are fed on time and kept from being too hot or too cold. A field that Steve Ward would have worked all day as a child takes three to four hours to be worked today. But some things never change. John Ward looks over a rolling field of wheat, listening to the young hogs squealing behind him. &#8220It's gorgeous,” he said contentedly. &#8220We love it. When the wheat turns golden, it's so pretty ... I feel pretty lucky. I think it's fun to be in business with my son.” There is a pride in feeling connected to the land and in raising the crops that &#8220feed the world,” the Wards said. Both said farming is the only occupation that ever interested them. &#8220The most important thing to me was to be my own boss,” John Ward said. &#8220And the pleasure in farming is you see what you've done at the end of the day, whether it's plowing or harvesting or planting. So many people go to work and don't see the results of their efforts at the end of the day.” In the century that's passed since James Dayton bought Old Elm Farm, the family has watched the city creep ever closer as farm after farm succumbed to development. A neighborhood of townhouses now kisses the edge of John Ward's fields, but he said it can come no farther. &#8220They can't get any closer,” he said matter-of-factly. Real estate agents &#8220know my reputation by now,” he added, and they don't bother to stop and offer to buy the land. He looked at his son and shrugged. &#8220But times change. You never know. It's certainly our desire to stay here the rest of our days, and then it will be up to him what he wants to do with it,” he said of his son. &#8220Maybe he'll have to move out to Iowa to find land to farm.” After a pause, Steve Ward shook his head decisively. &#8220No,” he said. &#8220We're not going to Iowa.” Dana Herra can be reached at dherra@daily-chronicle.com.