The Grady Farm

The picture is of the farm I grew up on that is 13 miles north and west of Marquette, Iowa- The present owners took down the barn, chicken house, granary, and corn crib- but curiously left the outhouse that is south of the house. The picture is looking to the west and the farm my mother grew up on is the one in the distant west, just in viewing- you can not see the church and cemetery that is less than on quarter of a mile to the right in the picture- St Pius V Catholic Church, Cherry Mound where my Mom and Dad are buried and where I mowed every summer for about six years- I knew every tombstone in the cemetery and when someone wanted to know where their relative was buried, the priest would contact me and I would show them. I had the documents where our family, the Horans, (Mom’s mother’s maiden name) gave the land for the church and cemetery in 1874 or 5- but gave them to one of my brothers who seemed to want frame it and hang it on his wall somewhere.

We had 375 acres there that Dad virtually gave away when he got senile and no one wanted to make him feel bad by challenging him on it.

They called our church and where we lived Cherry Mound because of the native wild cherry trees that were ubiquitous on that ridge when it was first settled by Europeans in the 1840s and 50s- we did have a small orchard of domestic cherry trees about an eight of a mile south of the house that probably had been planted in the early 20th century believing the soil and weather would be as favorable for them as they were for wild cherries.

The country school I attended was called the “Eagan School” or the “Loydd School” depending on which neighbor you were talking to as it was equal distance between those two neighbors homesteads but was officially called “Linton #1” as it was the first organized school in Linton Township, Allamakee County, Iowa. Although it is not in view in the picture it would be about a mile almost directly southeast of the house.

That is where the Grady Clan grew up from about 1940, when Ed and Margret took over the farm from Uncle Mark Horan until Dad gave it to an Eagan for less than 10% of its value in 1994.

It is now just a memory, but always a good one that sends me to the fields, pastures and woods of my youth- always with both a smile and a tear.