Smith/Mary Myrtle Smith Foster Farm

My farm had two owners during the century.  First, John G. Smith and Sarah E. Goin Smith.  Second, Conway L. Foster and Mary Myrtle Smith Foster.
Since I will not attend the County Recognition activity, my daughter will accept the certificates and farm sign for me.  Dorothy Foster Carpenter and her husband, Chester Carpenter, will attend.
This is a brief history of our 100 year old farm.  My father, John G. Smith, was 10 years old when his family moved to Missouri from Ohio in a covered wagon in 1857.  He met my mother, Sarah Goin, who lived on a farm that joins this one, and they married in 1875.  Later, they purchased the farm in 1886.  To this union, ten children were born ...seven sons ... and three daughters.  I was the youngest child.  In this period, the farm had a large orchard, bluegrass pasture, grain crops, hogs, sows, several horses, chickens and geese.  Horses were used to cultivate the crops.  My father was a carpenter and did the building of barns, etc.  Mother passed away in 1911 when I was 15 years old.  This was a very hard period for all the family.
Father encouraged six of his sons to homestead in the west in Colorado and Idaho.  This was a good move for them.
I married Conway Foster in 1918.  Father welcomed him as a share helper.  He didn't want to lose me as his homemaker!  HA!  The first year Conway started, he plowed the land with a walking plow, being a strong man and loving the life of a farmer so much.  This continued until father's death.  He was 87 years old when he died in 1934.  We thought his long life was from working and his diet, being very thin.
When the estate was final, the second generation, Conway and I , Mary Myrtle, were the owners.  We bought the other heirs' shares, making us in debt.  The debt was a worry for Conway, working harder than ever to pay it off.  The tractor age arrived.  It was easier, but cost much more.  He did custom work for other farmers to pay for his equipment.  Later his interest turned to conservation of the soil. He dug ponds and started new grass with his bluegrass.  He was one of the first to use Lespedeza ... then Fescue - Bromegrass, Sweet and Red Clover, etc.  Conway Foster served as a committeeman for the Farm Bureau on several of their programs.
The farm is in pasture now.  Before retirement, he had a beautiful herd of Hereford cattle and was so happy to be a farmer.  His lifespan was 1897-1982.
Being a housewife, I did as much as anyone.  It was hard work, but good work.  The garden was tilled by a hand hoe; I had chickens and turkeys.  Conway and I have two daughters, Dorothy Carpenter, Warrensburg, and Connie Fletcher, Whittier, California, and two fine sons-in-law, Chester Carpenter and Frank Fletcher.  We celebrated our 64th wedding anniversary.  I now reside at the Warrensburg Manor Care Center and am looking forward to my 90th birthday  in December.