Famous Farmers Of Minnesota: Volume II
Author: Ronald Eustice
Historical antecedents and popular magazines may have inspired well-off Minnesotans to retreat to the country, but many who did so were not far removed from the farm in the first place. Colonel William King, for instance, worked as a farmhand and wagon driver before getting into politics and the press, and James J. Hill grew up on a Canadian farm. And had a deep interest in farming.
While the gentleman farmer rarely ran the agricultural operations, he often involved himself co some degree. Such men were, in fact, seen as leaders in agricultural development. Country estates generally employed more progressive agricultural techniques or equipment than did a typical farm, mainly because the estate owner, who did not make his living from the farm, could afford to experiment.
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Historical antecedents and popular magazines may have inspired well-off Minnesotans to retreat to the country, but many who did so were not far removed from the farm in the first place. Colonel William King, for instance, worked as a farmhand and wagon driver before getting into politics and the press, and James J. Hill grew up on a Canadian farm. And had a deep interest in farming.
While the gentleman farmer rarely ran the agricultural operations, he often involved himself co some degree. Such men were, in fact, seen as leaders in agricultural development. Country estates generally employed more progressive agricultural techniques or equipment than did a typical farm, mainly because the estate owner, who did not make his living from the farm, could afford to experiment.
In her study of James J. Hill’s North Oaks Farm, Garneth Peterson has noted that “leadership by such ‘gentleman farmers’ was highly significant. In the late 19th century, a period before scientific agriculture when the average farmer was often suspicious of university professors.
Some famous Gentleman Farmers:
Fourteen US presidents had involvement in farming and depending on circumstances could be considered “gentlemen farmers.” These included George Washington, who farmed at Mount Vernon; John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, who was born on a farm although not wealthy; Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt who raised cattle, learned to ride western style, rope, and hunt on the banks of the Little Missouri near Medora, North Dakota during the 1880s; Harry Truman, who actually worked the family farm at Independence, Missouri; Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose father was a butter maker in Abilene, Kansas, retired to a farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and raised purebred Angus cattle after leaving the White House; Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer; Ronald Reagan, Lyndon B. Johnson owned the LBJ Ranch where he was born, lived, died, and was buried. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also had farming and ranching interests..