Each is more than a century old and has survived and adapted to what many others could not – drought, economic despair and tragedy.
Each Snohomish County farm family has logged more than a century working in the same fields.
During the Evergreen State Fair’s opening ceremony at 2 p.m. today, two such families will be honored for keeping their farms productive and in the family for more than 100 years.
With farmland disappearing, age alone distinguishes these farms. But it’s their keepers who are being celebrated for their resilience and dedication to preserving the county’s agricultural heritage.
County Executive Aaron Reardon will recognize Stanwood resident Violet Robb and her son and daughter-in-law, Dennis and Janice Robb, for their family farm, established in 1872.
He will also honor Arlington resident Marilyn Spoerhase-Hoggarth, her husband, Jack Hoggarth, and their son, Trenton, 6, for maintaining their family farm, started in 1895.
The families also are featured in a Snohomish County Centennial Farms fair exhibit near the dairy barn.
The two families join 23 other century-old family farms that have been spotlighted at the fair since 2000.
Louise Lindgren, a history buff and senior planner for the county, creates the exhibits each year as “a labor of love.” She started the annualcelebration in 2000 as a continuation of the state’s 1989 centennial farms program.
“I like helping people understand that history is not a dead thing,” she said. “It’s a living, breathing thing, and it affects your lives now.”
The more that people understand their past and how they relate to it, she said, the easier it is to cope with the current day.
The Robb Farm
Dennis Robb, his four brothers and his wife and sons are “weekend warriors” when it comes to farming.
Robb, 51, moved onto the farm in the late 1980s when his father, Arnold, died and his mother, Violet, “moved to town.”
He works for the county Public Works Department, but the entire family enjoys life on the farm.
“We all have day jobs to support our farming habit,” Robb joked.
Two of his four sons and a nephew have expressed interest in keeping the farm going for at least another generation.
“One of my dad’s wishes was to keep the farm active and in the family name. He was very proud of that,” Robb said. “It’s quite a heritage, really.”
The Hoggarth Farm
Marilyn Spoerhase-Hoggarth said she bought the family farm from her mother, Margaret Spoerhase, because “the lifestyle is irreplaceable.”
She, her husband and son live quietly in the country, where they can keep animals and there’s no need to visit public parks.
“We would not trade that lifestyle for anything in suburbia,” she said.
She works for Verizon, and her husband for Boeing. They rent portions of the farm to a Canadian company that grows poplar trees and to a neighbor to pasture his horses and mules.
Someday, when the couple retire, they’ll devote themselves full time to the farm. Though it’s not the dairy farm it used to be, it will remain farmland rather than be developed, she said.
“We have to keep holding the line on that,” she said. “It’s a third income source, but a very unique inheritance for our son down the line.”
History’s keeper
Lindgren spends hours collecting information on farm families, making her a steward of the county’s agricultural history. She has become an expert at turning the contents of old shoeboxes and albums into large, glossy displays.
As a gift to each family, she also makes print and digital copies of family photos and clippings “that will allow them to pass on their history more easily to their generations.”
“I can’t even hint that I know what these families have gone through. That would be the height of arrogance,” Lindgren said. “But when I shake a hand and I feel the calluses, I really appreciate what put those calluses there.”
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@ heraldnet.com.
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