Iowa's Oldest Family Farm: Iowa Time Machine March 26, 1996

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On March 26, 1996, Garretson Farm (East Grove Farm) in Salem was officially recognized officially as Iowa’s oldest family farm. In that moment, Iowa’s sesquicentennial celebrations converged with a living farm that could trace its roots to the territorial era, and that still carried stories of abolition, experimentation, and adaptation into the late twentieth century.

The Garretson story begins in the 1830s, when Joel C. Garretson and his wife, Elizabeth, settled east of Salem and made their claim in 1837, nearly a decade before Iowa entered the Union. They brought with them strong antislavery convictions, turning their farmhouse into a stop on the Underground Railroad and helping to anchor a wider Quaker and abolitionist presence in the East Grove neighborhood and the nearby town of Salem.

Their son Owen A. Garretson, who farmed with his father and later inherited the property, became known not only as a local farmer and People’s Party activist but also as a county supervisor, historical society leader, and writer who documented Henry County and southeast Iowa’s past in state historical journals. By the time O. A. and his wife Emma constructed the Victorian farmhouse that still dominates the yard, the place had already layered together stories of early settlement, political reform, and historical preservation.

In 1996, during Iowa’s 150th anniversary of statehood, a statewide search to identify the state’s oldest farm drew nearly 400 entries. It revealed a tie between the Garretsons’ farm near Salem and the Shaff family’s place near Camanche, both dating to 1837. The distinction turned on a subtle detail. The same family had continuously settled the Garretson farm since Joel C. Garretson established his homestead, while the Shaff property held the record for the longest continuous family ownership. As a result, state recognition honored the Salem farm as Iowa’s oldest continuously settled family farm. This title affirmed the Garretsons’ uninterrupted presence on the same land across seven generations. #Iowa #OTD #History #FamilyFarm #Rural