By Mitchell Kirk | Daily Reporter
HANCOCK COUNTY — It wasn’t until Tom Alexander started working on getting his farm recognized for remaining in his family for 100 years that he realized it has qualified for the accolade for nearly two decades.
“When I started looking this up, I had no idea I could’ve done this a long time ago,” he said with a laugh.
But it’s better late than never.
The family, whose ancestors started the farm in northern Hancock County in 1901, received a Hoosier Homestead Centennial Award from the state last week.
Alexander said the farm, located near County Road 900N and Troy Road, grows corn and soybeans on 160 acres. He and his late brother, John Alexander, were the last members of the family to farm it. Alexander now rents the land while selling crop insurance out of McCordsville.
He thought the farm hit the century mark only a few years ago, recalling that his grandparents, Robert and Naomi Troy, moved in in 1915.
“Then I discovered that my great-grandfather (Charles Troy) had bought the place in 1901,” he said.
He should have had a clue, he continued, as he remembered his grandfather telling him about playing on the timbers left from a gristmill in the woods along nearby Sugar Creek as a boy.
“Later on, when he owned the place, he could never find any remnants of it,” Alexander said. “It just disappeared.”
Alexander also remembers his grandmother telling him about the double homicide that occurred in the farmhouse before the family took it on.
“History of Hancock County, Indiana” by J.H. Binford, published in 1882, recounts the 1878 killings there of Sarah Jane Wilson, 43; and her niece, Anaretta Cass, 6.
“By whom and just how this scene was enacted, has never been legally determined,” the text states. “… Time and eternity may develop the facts, but as yet it is shrouded in mystery.”
While Alexander’s grandmother had yet to be born, she often shared her memories of what she had heard about the slayings and the posse that formed to hunt down who was responsible.
“My grandmother would tell this story, and she told it the same way every time,” Alexander said. “But of course, when she was growing up, they didn’t have radio or TV. People… They all got together all the time and told stories.”
His grandparents moved into the house when they got married but only after Naomi got the house moved closer to the road.
“That kind of set a wedge between her and her future father-in-law,” Alexander said with a laugh. “I don’t know whether she didn’t want to live there because of the murder, or because it was so far back off the road. I suspect it was because it was so far back off the road.”
The couple bought the farm from Charles in 1923, Alexander said.
He has fond memories of visiting his grandparents there as a boy, and perhaps not-so-good ones of getting stung by bumblebees while up on a ladder painting a barn.
Alexander put a lot of work in on the farm long before he took it over as an adult.
“Child labor laws will get you today for what we used to do back in the ‘40s and ‘50s,” he said. “It wasn’t just me, it was all kids… It wasn’t anything special, it was just the way it was.”
Alexander’s mother and uncle eventually inherited the farm, and Alexander bought out Frank’s stake in 1997. He operated the farm with his brother for about 20 years along with other ground they had.
After his uncle died, Alexander’s wife, Margie, headed up restoration efforts on the farmhouse.
“She has all the brains about decorating and fixing things up, so she was behind getting the house restored,” Alexander said.
He enjoyed receiving the recognition from the state last week.
“It was very nice,” he said.
They were one of two Hancock County farm families to receive a Centennial Award. William D. Addison and family, whose farm was homesteaded in 1906, was the other.
To receive a Hoosier Homestead Award, a farm has to remain in a family for at least 100 consecutive years and consist of more than 20 acres or produce more than $1,000 in agricultural products a year, according to a news release from the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.
The award has three distinctions: a Centennial Award for at least 100 years; a Sesquicentennial Award for at least 150 years; and a Bicentennial Award for at least 200 years.
The Indiana State Department of Agriculture estimates 86 Centennial Awards and 18 Sesquicentennial Awards have gone out to Hancock County farm families over the years.
The state recognized 96 families last week, setting a new record for the program’s 40-year history, the news release states. Five families received Bicentennial Awards.
Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and Bruce Kettler, director of the state’s department of agriculture, presented the awards at the Indiana State Fair.
“The vast majority of farms in Indiana are family-owned and operated,” Crouch said in the news release. “They are the foundation we rely on as a society, which is something we must never take for granted. It was an honor to recognize these families at the great Indiana State Fair.”
Seeing all of the generational farm families in one place was “humbling,” Kettler said in the release.
“They are the lifeblood of our state, and recognizing their legacy and perseverance today was a tremendous honor,” he said.
