Two families honored for a century of farming

Karl Hereth learned to drive a hay truck before he learned multiplication tables.

His father, Mark Hereth, needed help on the family’s Snohomish dairy farm, so instead of playing video games or watching cartoons after school, Karl worked.

“It instills a work ethic in you,” Karl Hereth said. “I just like to work. It’s part of my upraising, I guess. I can’t just sit around and do nothing all day.”

Karl Hereth turns 26 next week.

His family’s farm turned 100 last year, and, along with the Hillis family of Arlington, is being honored for spending more than a century working Snohomish County land.

Five years ago, the county began recognizing farms that have remained in constant production under the same family ownership for a century or more.

The Hereth and Hillis families join 23 others that have been honored so far.

Each year, Louise Lindgren of Planning and Development Services creates a historic display for Century Farm families at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe. A traveling version of the exhibit is made available for community groups.

Charles Hillis, who came from Kansas and moved in alongside his brother John’s farm, started the Hillis farm on 176 acres just outside Arlington in 1898.

He owned several lumber and shingle mills, and in the early years of the farm, he raised beef and grain and had a small dairy herd mainly to feed the loggers that worked for him.

Charles had a son, John Hillis, who with his brother expanded the farm by leaps and bounds until it reached nearly 400 acres. It’s now about 600 acres, said John Hillis Jr., who has taken over for his father and mother, Madonna.

He has diversified to survive. The farm has 50 head of beef cattle and raises hay to feed them. They also have a gravel pit, and they log now and then to make ends meet.

“Somehow I manage to make money come in every week,” John Hillis Jr. said.

He feels lucky that the farm survived all those years, and that it stayed in the family.

“But now, there is no farming,” he said. “You’ve got to come up with another form of income. Farming is just a hobby, anymore, on this side of the mountains. There are a few farms that make it, but what’s the price?”

Mark Hereth and his son Karl contemplate that price.

Karl Hereth is thinking of taking over the family’s 45-acre farm, which was started in 1904 by his great-grandfather Phillip Rohsnagel.

Both he and his father have mixed feelings about this.

“It’s hard to encourage someone into the business, because it’s a tough job. Tough work,” Mark Hereth said. “I don’t mean to brag for those who remain, but you definitely have to be very dedicated.”

Karl Hereth is dedicated to farming, but wonders what the future holds.

“With encroaching civilization around us, each year the rules and regulations that we have to abide by get stricter,” he said.

The family recently stopped its dairy operation. Mark Hereth moved the milking cows to his daughter and son-in-law’s dairy in Sultan. Now, they raise heifers and hay.

Karl Hereth splits time between his family’s farm, his sister’s farm in Sultan and helping out at neighbors’ farms.

“I guess there’s a little bit of family history there that causes you to want to hang on to it, too,” he said. “It’s been in the family for 100 years now. It’s hard to just give it up and move away and say you’re going to do something else.”

But still, the work is hard.

The pay is little.

Something keeps them tied to the land their family has toiled on for more than 100 years.

That something is tradition, Mark Hereth said.

“Tradition. I was just thinking about ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ ” he said. “It’s love of the farm, love of the land and being proud of what we do.”

He added: “I guess that is tradition, isn’t it.”

Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@ heraldnet.com.

Snohomish County farms by the numbers

1,600: Number of farms in Snohomish County

1,105: Number of family or individually owned farms

1,010: Number of farms with yearly sales of less than $25,000

597: Number of farms between 10 and 49 acres in size