This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Coming Home." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Johnson County Central High School’s FFA (Nebraska) and Striv students received a grant from Johnson County Nebraska Historical Society for local students to record stories and conduct oral histories in conjunction with the Museum on Main Street exhibition, Crossroads: A Change in Rural America. The exhibition was on view at the Historical Society from October 8 to November 12, 2021. In this interview, John James talks about his family's history on the farm and technological changes that have made farming more productive.

Houston Bailey (00:03): 30 miles west of Missouri River sits a little plot land that would soon grow to be a multi-generation farm. James John's the current owner of that farm.

James John (00:13): We've had at least four generations on John's side that have been farmers. At least three on the Hefner side, which is my mom's side. So basically, we've been farming ever since we got here, I guess, as far as that goes.

Houston Bailey (00:34): His grandpa came to America by himself and started a family. John's would eventually inherit that same land from his father.

James John (00:41): I didn't really start out to be a farmer, but that's kind of where I ended up. My dad was in failing health in the early 60s, and I was running around for a while. I went to college two years and worked around for another year or so. And then he was getting bad, and so I came back to the farm and just kind of took over the operation, I guess you'd say. When I started, I farmed just this 80 acres and I worked up at the Keim Farm Equipment in Syracuse. And I was raising hogs at that time too, and we had cattle. And so it was a busy time.

Houston Bailey (01:27): After his father passed, John's returned home to focus more on the family farm. Eventually, taking care of the land as a full-time job.

James John (01:34): There's just a lot of difference from then to now. And back in 1972, I bought three bags of seed corn and two bags of milo for $96.20. Now a bag of seed corn will probably cost you $250 to $300. Wheat at a local elevator was $1.30 a bushel when you sold it. Corn was $1.36 a bushel. Now it's $5.50. Beans was $3.41 a bushel when you sold it. Now it's $13.50, approximately. So there's quite a difference there. Your fuel, I can remember paying $.25 a gallon for gas. That was back in my high school days, I suppose. Of course, now it's getting up there close to $3 a gallon, which isn't all that bad. I mean, it's been higher than that. But it's still a lot higher than it was then.

Houston Bailey (02:45): Land prices have also dramatically increased since the John's family began farming.

James John (02:49): My folks paid $81 an acre for this land back in '52, '53. Now, well, my neighbor over here sold land just recently. Some of it sold for like $6,500 an acre, some of it for $4,500 an acre. The first ground I bought was $650 an acre. And when I bought this farm, it was $550. I bought a farm over there by the highway that was $1,100 at that time. That was in, well, the first ground I bought was in 1978. And then I bought this place in 1980, and that other place in 1982. So it's gone up a lot since then.

Asset ID: 2022.25.02

Find a complete transcript at www.thepealecenter.org