Friends respond for beloved West Liberty farmer Brown

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For the first time in 178 years, a 330-acre West Liberty farm will not be tended by members of the Brown family.

On Friday, Oct. 25, more than 100 area farmers met at the last corn and soybean field planted by Tom Brown, to harvest the crops and pay tribute to a community mainstay.

Brown passed away on July 7, 2024, at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics at the age of 63, after a car accident in Tipton that also seriously injured his wife Diana.

A proud graduate of West Liberty High School’s Class of 1979, Tom married Diana Paul of West Liberty on Aug. 18, 1984 and they were set to celebrate 40 wonderful years of marriage this year.

Tom’s greatest passion in life was his farm, according to his obituary. He dedicated over 40 years to farming, from hog farming and drainage tiling to his true love—growing corn and soybeans. Tom’s fields were renowned for their exemplary crops. Tom was a cornerstone of the West Liberty community. Over the years, he served actively in the Muscatine County Pork Producers and Farm Bureau; West Liberty Lions Club, and most recently, on the Board for American Mutual. He was a long-time member of First Church United.

Tom’s life revolved around his family, friends, and community. He cherished his family farm, a Heritage farm established in 1846 with the state of Iowa (one of the oldest in the Hawkeye state) and always worked nonstop to protect it and keep the family legacy alive.

“It was really, really hard. My dad and I were really close, just like I was close to my grandparents,” his daughter, Jessica Schroeder, said recently, before the Oct. 25 event on the neighboring Birkett farm that the family harvested. “Losing my dad felt harder, a loss I had never experienced before. My dad is known in the community for being one of the best farmers.

“We wanted to make him proud and do the best we can to harvest his beautiful crop, I think everyone in the community feels the same way, to make sure we take care of everything the best we can,” Schroeder said. “My dad was a good friend to everybody, and he had the best crop. Everybody knew it too.”

After Tom’s sudden death, the family was really worried about what was going to happen to their farm fields, and how they’d get the crops harvested, she said.

“I’ve learned so much in the past three months,” Schroeder said. “I didn’t even know where most of our fields were. I’ve had to learn where every single field is.”

“Number one, this is to say thank you to all of them — we are so grateful. I want my dad to be remembered,” she said of this past Friday’s celebration. “I want it to be about our history, our family farm.”

In the July accident, where an oncoming car crossed the center line and struck Tom’s vehicle, Diana Brown broke three ribs and had internal bleeding. She had to have surgery right away, and was in the hospital the whole month of July.

The Brown farm became a state Heritage farm in 1996 and Heritage farm again in 2021 for its 175th anniversary. Jessica’s two kids represent the seventh generation of the family involved in the farm.

Tom was one of four siblings – with Steven, Karen, and Kathy. The farm house their ancestor Alfred built burned down in 1906 (when Kathy’s grandfather was 6). After the fire, they rebuilt the house and expanded it. In that house, her father Ronald Brown was born (as well as two sisters). Her parents moved into it, and raised their four kids, including Kathy. Tom and his wife took it over and Jessica was raised in that house. 

“We have a lot of memories. You don’t see that very often. They seem to be tearing down farmhouses,” Gervasi said recently. She and her husband Mark have lived in Oregon since 1979, in Tillamook along the Pacific Ocean. She taught and was a school principal.

“We four siblings, we played together. We were always outside,” Kathy recalled of the Iowa farm. “We had woods on the property. We would always go down to the creek, build a little fire. We were all in 4-H so we all had 4-H projects. In those days, we had cattle, pigs, chickens, we had everything. We were very self-sufficient — huge gardens. My grandparents lived next door and we were only a quarter mile from town.”

Kathy said one of her jobs when she was little was to crawl under the dairy cows and wash the udders. “I hated it, because I thought I was gonna get kicked. I did get kicked one time.”

 “I would have to get the eggs, too, from the chicken. I didn’t like that either because it was scary,” she said. “If I reached under the chicken, they would squawk. And we had a mean rooster that would chase me. Roosters are horrible. My older brother, he taught me a lot.”

Her mother taught her how to sew and cook. She had piano lessons with her great aunt.

Jessica (an only child) had to do farm chores before school in the morning.

“My parents taught me you always have to work hard,” she said, noting her grandparents lived next door.

“You don’t see that a lot in families, when most live far away,” Kathy said.

“I always joke, they were the ones who raised me,” Jessica (now in her 30s) said of her grandparents. “My parents were trying to work and make a living. That means they’re busy, so every day after school when I was little, I’d go over to my grandparents. I’d always go with them to their different events, things that they were doing. They were my favorite people in the world.”

Jess was very active in showing hogs in Muscatine County during her grade school years. She thought about going to school to become a veterinarian.

“I’ve always had an obsession with animals — at one point, I had 30 cats, a dog, a few rabbits and a pig named Wilbur,” she said, noting they got rid of their hog farm in the ‘90s, but she still had shown hogs through 4-H, including ranking obedience.

“My pigs would always go off and do their own thing,” she recalled. “My pig actually laid down in the middle of the ring during showmanship.”

Jess then got into horses and then showed horses at competitions. She majored in dietetics at Iowa State, and now runs her own business, Expedition Wellness, in the Des Moines area. She and her husband Brian have a daughter Zoey (turning 11 in November) and a 14-year-old son Brayden.

“I’ve always loved the history of our family,” Jess said. “Kathy and I have always connected on that.”

“Family traditions and family history, if you don’t have the next generation passing it on, then who’s going to pass it on. It’ll just stop,” she said. “I feel this immense pride and something that I want to do. It’s a lot of information. It’s pretty incredible.”

They will rent the family farm for corn and soybean production.

Gervasi said her father loved to tell stories about their family history.

“It’s my job to keep going with that and my older brother does that too,” she said. “We also have other farms.”

Another family farm (dating from 1848) is just down the road, and that’s the field they harvested on Friday. They don’t own it, but some of the fields Kathy’s brother rents from a cousin.

Tom also farmed some of the Birkett farm which was settled in 1848 by Thomas Birkett (who was from England). His granddaughter Dorothy married Preston Brown in 1923. They’re Gervasi’s grandparents who built the little house next door to the main house in 1953 when Kathy was born so that they could live in the big house (built in 1906 and is still there).

“We had a really great turnout,” Schroeder said of the Friday celebration, noting about 150 in all attended, including farmers organized by the Muscatine County Cattlemen’s Association. J.J. Nichting Co., a West Liberty implement dealer, sponsored lunch.

“It’s a unique event you may never see again in your lifetime,” she added.

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