The Farm That Held On

In August of 1925, a young couple and their children set out across the Western Kansas prairie in a horse-drawn wagon. They left behind their established home near Brewster, Kan., and headed south to a new farm on the Stanton-Grant County line. Their arrival came just in time to plant a wheat crop and, unknowingly, to begin a legacy that would root their family in the same land for nearly a century. That couple was W.T. and Mary Jones - and five generations later, the farm remains in the family.

The Jones lineage in American stretches back before the Revolutionary War. Early family members settled in North Carolina before moving to Barren County, KY. In the late 1870s, part of the family pushed west to what is now Ford County, Kan. Cadwallader and Nancy Jones later moved to Mitchell County in 1884, where they raised 11 children before continuing west to Brewster in Sherman County.

In Sherman County, the Jones family lived first in a sod house until they completed a two-story farmhouse. They played active roles in the New Hope School - built on their farm - and in the Pleasant Home Church. The Joneses were known as progressive farmers, among the first in Kansas to own an International Harvester tractor and to experiment with internal combustion engines. Still, most of the field work was done with horses.

It was in 1915, that a chance encounter changed the family's story. A young teacher named Mary, traveling by train with plans to move to California, stopped for lunch in Goodland. There she met W.T. Jones, who was in town on farm business. Their meeting quickly turned to marriage, and Mary began her life on the farm.

On the Brewster homestead, Mary learned nursing and midwifery from her mother-in-law while raising daughters Mary Margaret (born 1920) and Wilma Nancy (born 1924). As the family grew, so did their ambitions. In 1925, they decided to move south to Stanton County, traveling by wagon with only their belongings and a single header barge. Mary later remembered the journey as almost an adventure - the family camped along the way, while the prairie grass stood taller than the young daughters.

Their new home, south of Gognuac and near the Walnut Grove Schoolhouse, consisted of a brick house and a few outbuildings. The wheat they planted that first fall produced a strong crop. Soon the farm expanded to include White leghorn chickens and Milking Shorthorn cattle. Mary Margaret became one of the first children to attend school in the new town of Big Bow, while the community's church evolved into the Big Bow Holiness Church. The challenges of farm life tested their resilience, but the Joneses remained steadfast.

Eggs from the family's flock of roughly 1,000 chickens were traded in Big Bow and Ulysses for groceries and other staples. Cream from the milk cows was shipped by train to creameries in Garden City or Trinidad, depending on the route. Mary served the surrounding community as a midwife and nurse, tending to the sick and assisting with births. When neighbors could not afford burials in Liverpool or Golden cemeteries, loved ones were often laid to rest on the Jones place itself.

When the Great Depression arrived, hardship was nothing new. For seven consecutive years, the family lost their crops. Mary and Wilma grew up working in the fields with horses, learning hard work and sacrifice.    At Christmastime, they sometimes received only their old doll, mended and dressed in clothes their mother had sewn on her treadle machine. Yet, despite scarcity, their parents instilled the importance of education. After finishing eighth grade, both girls moved  to Johnson to attend high school, supporting themselves by working as live-in housekeepers and babysitters.

Mary married Victor Dimmitt in 1940, while Wilma wed Dale Winger on Christmas Day of 1941. Wilma graduated as valedictorian and became a young mother soon after. Dale, who had attended Kansas State, returned to the family farm, and together they welcomed daughter Nancy. Mary and VIctor settleed east of Johnson, raising sons Shannon and Bill. Sundays were marked by church in Big Bow and fried chicken dinners at the homeplace.

Wilma and Dale later had son, Kent, and daughter, Margaret. Mary and Victor, after moving north of Johnson, added twins Robert and Barbara. As the family grew, W.T. and Mary relied on relatives to help them with the work. Brother Felix Jones joined them, followed by brother-in-law Robert Kane and his wife, Nellie. But tragedy struck in 1948, when Wilma's husband, Dale, died of cancer at just 26. The extended family stepped in to help Wilma and her children maintain the farm.

The late 1940s and 1950s brought modern conveniences to the prairie. Telephone communication was handled on the barbed wire party line, but electricity finally reached the farm in the mid 1950s. The Joneses' neighbors, the Ruth family, became close partners in farming operations, to the point that it was said  no one could tell where one farm ended and the other began. Gas discoveries on the farm added another twist: in 1951, Western Natural Gas struck a well, followed by another drilled for Sinclair. By the mid-1980s, three producing wells helped offset years of crop failures.

The family also enjoyed rare pleasures. In 1953, W.T. and Mary finally completed Mary's long-delayed trip to California. Soon after, they purchased a house in town. W.T. remained active in community life, serving on the Big Bow Co-op board before its merger with Johnson CO-OP, participating in the Farm Bureau, and acting as treasurer for the Big Bow School.

The following decades brought both triumph and sorrow. Victor Dimitt died in 1962. Mary worked as Stanton County Clerk from 1965 until 1983, and later married Buck Wilkerson, gaining a stepdaughter, Donna Hiebert. In 1968, Mary's son, Robert, was killed while serving in the Quang Tin Province of South Vietnam. Her other sons: Shannon and Bill, remained on the farm, while her daughter, Barbara, moved away after school.

Wilma, meanwhile, continued farm life before working in the ASCS office. Her daughter, Nancy, married Nelson Ricker and moved to Walsh, Colo., raising children: Dale, Michele, and Mark. Son, Kent, raised sons: Travis and Clayton, and daughters: Angie and Brenda. Margaret, inspired by her grandmother, Mary, became a nurse and served her community for more than 40 years. She married Calvin Hook and raised sons: Kevin, Darin, and Deric in Syracuse.

Though the  original homestead changed hands within the family - Robert Kane lived there until 1969 - the land always remained tied to the Jones name. In 1997, Wilma and Mary encouraged Darin to return once more to the farm. By then, a new generation had careers off the farm, but the pull of the homeplace remained strong. Grandchildren grew up close to their grandmother's, sharing in their tight family bonds. Together, the sisters embodied the family's spirit - one serving as the eyes, the other as the ears, both carrying the stories that connected past to present.

Nearly 100 years have passed since W.T. and Mary Jones jolted across the prairie in a horse-drawn wagon. Through droughts, depressions, wars, and untimely losses, the Jones farm has endured. Today, it stands not only as a working farm, but as a monument to resilience, faith, and family - an enduring Kansas story still unfolding.