VIENNA — “A farmer can leave. They stay attached to the land.”

When Americans think about their European ancestors coming to America, they usually think about the Atlantic Ocean crossing and about them coming to this country at the port of New York. It’s where the Statue of Liberty welcomes and gives hope to immigrants who sail into the harbor.

But, not all European immigrants came to America through New York. Victor Stratman of Vienna, said his ancestors on both sides of his family in the 1850s came across the Atlantic Ocean and sailed into the port of New Orleans. They then traveled up the Mississippi River and finally ended up in the Osage and Maries County areas.

They came from Prussia, which was in political upheaval, and likely were seeking new, more peaceful lives in the United States. Many of German/Prussian ancestry who live in this area say their ancestors thought this part of Missouri looked a lot like the rolling hills they loved in their old country. It felt like home so they settled here. Their descendants continue to make up a large portion of the life-long residents of these counties.

The 283-acre farm originally established in 1874 by Franz Richter, formerly the farm owned by Victor and Joan (Falter) Stratman, is currently owned by their son and his wife, Matthew and Sarah (Henderson) Stratman. It is located northwest of Vienna off of Highway AA and is on the Big Maries River, with half of the farm on the east side of Highway AA and the remainder on the west side.

This Missouri Century Farm is the December featured barn on Maries County Collector Jayne Williams Maries County Century Farm Barn 2020 Calendar.

Franz Richter is Vic Stratman’s great-great-grandfather. He had a son who had several children. The youngest, Frank, got the farm. Stratman said the story goes that Frank’s wife died in childbirth in 1915. Stratman’s grandmother was a Richter. The child whose mother died, Vince Richter, was raised by his grandparents along with their own son, Alphonse Stratman. They were raised together as twins. Tragedy struck again as Vince’s father had an attack of appendicitis and died in the hospital. This left Vince an orphan at the young age of five or six, but the farm was his.

Stratman’s grandparents, Henry and Pauline Stratman moved to the farm Vince owned. They raised him, taking care of him and the farm until he was 18 years old. Stratman said Vince didn’t want anything to do with the farm. He wanted to open and operate a local mercantile in Argyle. He was not successful in this venture. After the failure of the store he moved away and Henry and Pauline Stratman bought the farm on the Big Maries River and that’s how it came into the Stratman family, where it has remained all these years.

Stratman said the barn on the farm was built in about 1920 and it was interesting how they did it. There was a portable sawyer, who would bring his sawmill to the farm and saw the wood from the timber on the farm. The trees were cut and drug to where they were worked by horses and mules. Stratman said Joe Buschmann was one of the first to have a steam engine powered sawmill. Al told his son the carpenter would detail the list of the cuts of lumber that were needed to build the barn. They would all be sawed before they started building the barn. Then, neighbors would come and the barn was put up in a day or two. For this particular barn, the story goes that the day the barn was erected it was the carpenter’s 21st birthday.

The barn was made to hold loose hay and later they stored square bales in the barn. Stratman said his father had one of the first square balers in the area and used it to put up hay for other people as well. His older sisters would drive the tractor. Most farmers had a tractor, mower and wagons. Al Stratman had a baler, rake and an elevator. He explains that first they cut the hay, rake it, bale it, stack it on a wagon or several wagons, and use the elevator to put the hay in the barn. He recalls he was six to eight years old when he began to drive the tractor. He didn’t like it much because “I could not do it to suit my dad.” When he was 13 years old he told his dad he would prefer to stack the hay on the wagons rather than drive the tractor.

The old barn now is practically obsolete as round bales are what farmers use now. The barn is used for storage. There is a silo there for silage, built in 1956 when the Stratman family began milking. They did this through the 1960’s. Stratman calls managing a dairy “is a regiment” but a steady income.

In the photo of the barn on the Century Farm Barn calendar, there is a wooden Santa near the silo and there’s a green Christmas wreath with a red ribbon on the barn, above the main door. It’s a beautiful snow scene and the red Santa pops out with the muted gray barn and silo with the ground covered in white snow.

There’s a story about their oldest daughter, Jennifer, drawing the Santa on plywood. It was cut out and painted. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, they would place the Santa in a different place every day. It was a game to find Santa. Joan has babysat many children over the years and this Christmas game with Santa was a delight to the children. They still do this.

When Vic was 23 years old in 1977 he bought this farm from his parents, Alphonse (Al) and Martha (Brunnert) Stratman. He spent his childhood and all of his life working on this Century Farm. They raised beef cattle, primarily Angus and also he and Joan raised five children, Matthew, Jennifer, Erin, Beth, and Anna.

The farm has remained fairly intact since Franz Richter first settled here. Stratman sold 12 acres of ground to Matt and Sarah for them to build their house. MoDOT took some when a section of Highway AA was straightened out and improved. He added 179 acres in 2019 when he purchased an adjoining tract of land at the Koerber auction for a total of 450 acres. Also in 2019, a portion of the farm was sold to Matt and Sarah. They both farm their separate parts, but also work together and share machinery. Stratman said, “I thought it was his turn,” about selling land to his son. “A farmer can leave. They stay attached to the land.”

The new generation is coming up and Stratman says he’s happy about how things turned out. “I’m delighted the farm can stay in the family,” Stratman said. “It’s a dream to me that it can go on.”