Family Struggles

Unlike flooding and wildlife pressures, family deaths and other personal loss create painful and unpredicted hardships for farmers. For many women, the loss of their husband meant that they needed to solely manage the farming operation while raising a family.

Selling the Farm

2011 Oral History Project: Elizabeth Thalman, who lived with her husband in Richfield, talks about the challenges her family faced after her husband suffered an injury. Unable to manage the farm, Elizabeth's family sold the property for the Richfield Coliseum development.

Credit / Author:

Elizabeth Thalman

Audio Transcript

“My husband, he got hurt on the turnpike. He worked on the turnpike after we couldn’t make a go of it anymore. He got a job there, and he got hurt there. They had these great big Trojan wheels on a tractor, and he was holding the tire and two men were holding the rim, and they dropped it on his foot and crushed his foot. And after that he didn’t—he couldn’t work no more. I mean, he was disabled, so we had to quit farming then. And when Mileti came along and wanted to buy it, so we just sold it to him. ”