Kuhl Century Farm steeped in 130 years of history (2024)

WORTHINGTON — A rich Nobles County history, laden with a tinge of tragedy but leavened with faith and family, lies at the roots of the Kuhl Century Farm.

Owned today by Burdell and Jolene Kuhl, the original 320 acres of rich farmland located approximately three miles southwest of Reading has been in the Kuhl family for 130 years — but a Century Farm application was completed only this past spring to give it that official “century” distinction.

“Our daughter Kristi nudged us to do it,” said Burdell. “She’d done a lot of (genealogical) research and created a Shutterfly book of all the different ancestors and said, ‘You guys should do this farm thing,’” reported Jolene.

Kristi is the second of Jolene and Burdell’s four children — Amery, Mindy and Kayli round out the younger Kuhl crew, all of whom followed in their parents’ local educational legacy as Worthington High School graduates. They were the fifth generation of Kuhls to live on the family farm, and to dwell in the same 1913-constructed house their parents continue to call home today.

“At the height of my farming years, I had 1,800 acres in corn and soybeans. I dropped back to just under 1,400 acres for the last 20 years — and in 2018 I cut back more due to some health issues,” said Burdell. “We had a farm sale last summer, but I kept some equipment and I still have 350 acres that I rent and farm. I love what I do, and it keeps me active and knowledgeable about the ag world.”

Jolene, who worked as a medical lab tech for 20 years, was nevertheless an integral part of the Kuhl farming operation.

“I was out (in the fields) as much as he was, and we often had the children in the tractors or trucks,” said Jolene, allowing they had several busy years with four young children to tend as well as the farming to do.

“We could have never done what we did without my dad (the late Henry Pfeil) and Bill Weitgenant,” said Jolene. “And I really have to give Bill credit; he’s 80 and still healthy, and whenever both Bill and Henry were around, everything went better. They were both so fun to work with.”

Burdell is a devotee of southwestern Minnesota agriculture.

“I hardly consider that I’ve worked a day in my life because I love what I’ve been able to do,” he said. “I started helping on the farm when I was five years old, and by the time I was a high school senior I had hogs and some land that I rented — so it’s been 52 years and I still love it.”

And though Burdell, at age 70, has lived and farmed the property for over half of its 130-year Kuhl life to date, there are many stories to be mined from its early years.

Burdell’s great-grandfather, Friedrich “Fred” Detlef Kuhl, was the farm’s first owner (the original parcel was 160 acres, purchased for $10.34 per acre), holding the land until 1920 when Fred’s only son Charles “Charlie” Kuhl took the reins.

Fred emigrated from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, after successfully bribing an authority at the dock to let him board a ship bound for America. (His cousin, who attempted a similar act, wasn’t so lucky; he was caught and didn’t make the trip.)

In 1889 Fred came to Nobles County by way of llinois and Iowa, along with his German-born wife, Mary.

Contributed / Jolene Kuhl

“Back in Illinois, they’d had a child die in infancy, and then a set of twins died in Iowa,” said Jolene. “The birth of (healthy) baby Charlie in 1892 brought them extreme joy; he was their only living child,” she added.

The Kuhls possess a late 1890s photo of Fred, Mary and Charlie in front of a shack that was their first residence on the acreage.

From family lore comes the tale of how, when Charlie was about 20 years old, he presciently told his parents, “Someday I’m going to get married and have seven kids so I need to build a house with seven bedrooms.”

Expressing limitless faith in their only child, the Kuhls ordered a kit house (from Sears, Roebuck and Company). When, in 1913, it arrived at Reading by rail, neighboring farmers assisted in hauling the lumber (each piece was numbered for easy assembly) and other building components to the Kuhl site, using old-fashioned horse power.

Contributed / Jolene Kuhl

“The 10 men who helped put the house together signed their names on the attic roof in beautiful calligraphy handwriting,” said Jolene. “And it is a seven-bedroom house that’s survived two tornadoes.”

As Charlie predicted, he and his wife Katie (Brinkhaus) filled the home with seven living children (one daughter died in infancy).

“Burdell’s dad, Ray, was the fifth of their eight kids, and he’s the one who stayed to farm,” said Jolene.

A touch of tragedyBurdell and his brothers never had the chance to personally know their colorful grandfather Charlie.

In addition to raising oats, corn and seven children, Charlie Kuhl became part of Nobles County’s distinctive agricultural heritage when he followed Jack Boote’s lead and invested in turkeys; he had as many as 40,000 turkeys at a time.

Contributed / Jolene Kuhl

“That’s why Worthington was called the Turkey Capital of the World,” said Jolene, mentioning the numerous portable huts that sheltered the turkeys and that were moved when the sections of flax and sorghum on which they were placed had been exhausted by the hungry gobblers.

“Charlie Kuhl and Jack Boote started the turkey tradition.”

So deep into turkey-raising was Charlie that he rented buildings at the fairgrounds (where Worthington High School now stands) to house some of the turkeys — and Charlie “farmed out” two of his sons, Don and Ray, to live at the site in a camper to tend those turkeys. Ray was about 12 years old at the start of the venture.

“They walked to Meyer’s Pool Hall — possibly where the Long Branch is now — to take their meals, and Charlie came to town once a month to pay their bill,” said Jolene. “They did this for about five or six years, until Don went into the Navy at age 18.”

Besides loving turkeys, kids and billiards, Charlie Kuhl loved hunting and made a habit of going deer hunting with sons and friends each fall.

Contributed / Jolene Kuhl

Ray Kuhl was only 19 on Nov. 8, 1946. That day, his father had moved ahead of the other hunters and was out of their sight when an unknown man came running up to their entourage yelling, “A man’s been shot, he needs help.”

They scrambled on and found that someone had, indeed, been shot. It was Charlie, and he was dead. They never again saw the mysterious man who’d alerted them; had he been the shooter?

With Don in the Navy, Ray was the man of the house, left to help his mother Katie and two younger siblings on the farm.

“The youngest child was just six years old when Charlie was killed,” said Burdell.

Katie, herself an enterprising match to her late husband, decided the family needed another source of income and settled on a somewhat unlikely proposition.

“She flew to California and learned how to take care of chinchillas,” said Jolene. “Then she built the house that still stands just northeast of Avalon School of Cosmetology, and when Don returned from the Navy he lived there for some time to tend the chinchillas.”

Burdell’s mom (born Vernice Kopplow in Adrian) began working as a hired girl at age eight, in the heart of the 1930s Depression.

“She had to stand on washtubs to hang clothes on the line,” said Jolene.

Vernice, eventually a faithful hired girl to Katie Kuhl, was Katie’s choice for her equally hard-working son Ray.

Tim Middagh / The Globe

“Why don’t you marry Vernice?” Katie reportedly suggested to Ray. “She knows how to cook and clean and she’s a good woman.”

Ray agreed, and the two married on Jan. 31, 1949. Ray and Vernice had five sons, born in rapid succession (all within six years): Wendell, Marlin, Steven, Burdell and LeRoy.

“We had ball games in the orchard every evening,” recalled Burdell fondly of his childhood. “And dad played with us too; he played in softball leagues in Rushmore.”

Burdell’s older brother Wendell farmed just a mile up the road and the two worked together on farming tasks earlier in their lives. The other Kuhl brothers ultimately pursued careers that took them away from agricultural livelihoods.

Tim Middagh / The Globe

“Burdell has never lived in a different house than this one,” said Jolene.

She and Burdell will celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary in December. Together, the fourth-generation owners of the Kuhl Century Farm are enjoying the six grandchildren — three girls and three boys — who have been born to date.

With the passing of Vernice in 2015 and Ray in 2017, Burdell and Jolene aren’t sure if other Kuhls will carry on the family farming legacy — but they’re ever hopeful.

“It could be the end of our farming era,” said Burdell. “But the kids may maintain ownership here in the Kuhl name.”

Added Jolene, “Our history and legacy are very important to us and our children. Maybe a grandchild could make a living using the heated shop here. I’m banking on a grandchild.”

Either way, she says, “The Kuhls have been blessed by God for generations on this farm.”