DeMoss farm has been a part of the family for generations

Luther DeMoss and his wife Ethel pur­chased the land at 3784 Red River-West Grove Road out­side of Arcanum in 1906, when Ethel was just 16 years old. Before that it belonged to gen­er­a­tions of Ethel’s fam­ily, and has been part of the DeMoss fam­ily ever since. Luther DeMoss is pic­tured here, plow­ing his fields before he switched over to trac­tors in 1942.

By Heather Meade
hmeade@dailyadvocate.com

ARCANUM — The DeMoss fam­ily farm has been in Don­ald DeMoss’ fam­ily for more than six gen­er­a­tions, he said. His grand­par­ents, Luther and Ethel DeMoss pur­chased the farm in 1906, but it had been in his grandmother’s fam­ily for at least two gen­er­a­tions before that.
Donald’s father, Earl DeMoss, inher­ited the farm, and when he passed, Don­ald was able to buy his broth­ers out of their por­tion, he said. But Don­ald doesn’t live on the farm, and his fam­ily hasn’t farmed it for three gen­er­a­tions.
The Baker fam­ily has farmed the DeMoss land for three gen­er­a­tions, they said, and have been good friends of the fam­ily for many years, David com­mented.
And while Don­ald said that his son, David, doesn’t show much inter­est in the farm, he’d still like to inherit it, to keep it in the DeMoss fam­ily, he said.
“I’m hop­ing my son and fam­ily will view it like I do, too,” said David. “It’s been bred into me that the farm is impor­tant.”
Don­ald said that the house was built around 1888, fin­ished within two weeks of his grandmother’s birth, he said. The fam­ily moved from a log house into their new house, where there were horse and cow sta­bles, Don­ald said. His grand­fa­ther, Luther, was the first farmer in Darke County to own a pickup baler, he said. His grand­mother, Ethel, was a poet, known as the “Ohio Farm Lady.” Luther DeMoss sold most of the horses and cat­tle in 1942, when Don­ald said he switched to trac­tors.
DeMoss recalled sum­mers spent on the farm, bal­ing hay with his grand­fa­ther, plant­ing corn, and his grandfather’s horses. Hay hasn’t been grown on the farm in nearly 50 years now, Don­ald said.
“My grand­fa­ther was the great­est guy I ever knew — he was really a won­der­ful man,” Don­ald com­mented. “He’d always stick up for me…He told me sto­ries my broth­ers didn’t ever hear…I was the one who always absorbed the sto­ries, I was always lis­ten­ing.”
Don­ald also used to go mush­room hunt­ing, he said, and one year he found nearly 1,100 mush­rooms. Mush­room hunt­ing is one of his son David’s fond­est mem­o­ries as well.
“I remem­ber hunt­ing mushrooms…there were just pans full of mush­rooms,” he said. The wooded area hasn’t given up a good mush­room crop in years, though, David com­mented.
The farm, located out­side of Arcanum, was also the site of many fam­ily reunions, David com­mented, both for his grandmother’s side, the Trost’s, and his grandfather’s DeMoss fam­ily. He recalls play­ing base­ball, and just hav­ing a really great time.
David was the one who went to the Darke County Cour­t­house to do the research nec­es­sary to have the farm become a Cen­tury Farm, or a farm that has been in the same fam­ily for at least 100 years. He plans to fur­ther his research to extend the date back to the first of his fam­ily to own the land, he said, which Don­ald com­mented could be as far back as 150–200 years ago.

Posted by Ashley Fritz on Feb 3 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.