The Arnold farm: A 200-year-old Indiana legacy

Every farm has a history, but the story of Arnold farm in Rushville, Indiana, is preserved better than most. From letters, diaries, and photos to a saddlebag medicine kit and furniture, the Arnolds believed in saving every slice of their history. For nearly 75 years, Eleanor Arnold has been discovering and documenting the family's story that spans seven generations.

"My late father-in-law, Harvey "Pop" Arnold, was an avid historian who loved telling stories about the history of his family. I was blown away by those stories. Pop was thrilled that someone was interested in hearing them," Eleanor says, adding that her father-in-law also treasured the family heirlooms and went to great lengths to protect them.

"Before my husband, Clarence, and I moved to the farm in 1976, we had the house rewired. The electrician found a piece of Haviland china under a loose floorboard," she recalls. "It sits on my sideboard today, but I sometimes wonder what else may be undiscovered somewhere."

The 93-year-old listened well through the years and has become a walking encyclopedia of knowledge for the family. While age may be slowing her down physically, it hasn't hampered her storytelling abilities. Her daughter, Barbara Arnold Harcourt, is assisting in recording those stories and more, transcribing letters dating to the early 1800s, digitizing decades of photos, and preserving glass plate negatives.

Coming to America

The legacy of Arnold farm begins in 1820, when John Arnold homesteaded 160 acres in the new state of Indiana. Like many pioneers before him, the promise of a new start convinced the Englishman to move his young family from the Isle of Wight.

"Taxes were high in England, and the Arnolds had heard of cheap land opening up in America," Eleanor says.

John along with his brother and a hired man made their way to Pennsylvania, bought a boat, and floated down the Ohio River to Cincinnati. The original intent was to settle in Illinois, but a physician they met while docked in Cincinnati informed them that it was not a healthy place.

Taking the physician's advice, the trio sold their boat, bought horses, and headed to central Indiana to explore new territory opening for sale. With its rolling hills, position along a stream, good drainage, and never-failing spring, John found an ideal spot nestled about 50 miles southeast of what is now Indianapolis.

Located in Rush County, the land had been home to a tribe of Delaware Indians led by Chief Ben Davis until they were forced west of the Mississippi. Although they had no legal claim to the land, squatters had moved in and built a cabin on the property. John offered the occupants $500 for the improvements they had made, a large sum of money then.

The third person at the Brookville, Indiana, land office to buy property, John paid the government $1.25 an acre. After building a new cabin for his family along the Ben Davis Creek, John's wife, Mary Ann, and their 6-year-old son, also John, joined him in October 1821.

The Arnold cabin was a gathering place. It served as the first post office in Rush County. It was also a general store, and the first meetings of what later became Ben Davis Creek Christian Church were held there. Volunteer militia even drilled on the plain by the creek.

As the years passed and John readied for retirement, he decided to sell the original 160 acres. Because his son, who had become a physician, could not bear to see his childhood home pass into other hands, he bought the Arnold farm. Across the creek from the cabin, Dr. John built the present Arnold home, a Gothic Revival cottage, in 1853.

The woodwork is made from walnut, and the floors are from poplar, which were harvested from the farm. At the time, the house cost around $3,000 to build.

"Dr. John is well-remembered both as a good physician and as an historian of early times in Rush County," Eleanor says. "He wrote a column titled 'Reminiscence of an Old Settler' for the local newspaper for several years."

Succeeding generations filled with John Arnolds have farmed the property. The third John Arnold inherited the farm from his physician father. His son, Richard, became the fourth owner. When Richard passed away, his brother Harvey "Pop" Arnold inherited the farm. Harvey's son Clarence became the fifth generation to take over the homestead in 1976.

"I married Clarence on December 26, 1948. We moved to Rush County in 1950 after I graduated from Indiana University," Eleanor recalls. "We rented a farm from Josephine Arnold Mauzy until 1976."

In addition to their daughter Barbara, the couple had two other children – Mary Arnold Roller and John Arnold.

Through the years, wheat, hay, corn, and soybeans were grown on Arnold farm.

"At one point, the family owned a threshing machine and steam engine. They went from farm-to-farm separating wheat from the straw. The grain was sacked and stored in a granary, like the one still standing on the farm today," Eleanor says.

Along with cows and chickens, pigs have also been raised.

Dr. John kept a journal that in 1860 called Rush County the leading hog-producing county in the United States. "Hogs are Rush County's claim to fame, and justly so," he wrote.

More than 100 years later, the sixth-generation John would have a farrow-to-finish operation. He was killed in a farm accident in August 1990 at the age of 36.

After two years, their daughter-in-law realized she couldn't manage the farm any longer, and the equipment was sold.

"When our son died, we skipped a generation of family farming the land. It was so quiet around here," Eleanor says. "The ground was rented to a family we've known for years, so it was mostly them coming and going. While they're good friends, it just wasn't the same."

Clarence passed away in August 2008, just a few months shy of the couple's 60th wedding anniversary. Upon his death, the homestead was placed in the Clarence Arnold Trust, with Barbara, Mary, and Eleanor as trustees.

The Seventh Generation Returns

In 2017, life circumstances brought the seventh generation back to the farm.

"My husband, Oak, and I were living in Vermont. Because we lived so far away, it was difficult to get back to see my family, and we had talked about moving closer," says Emma Hawk, the daughter of Mary Roller. "We had also always been interested in agriculture."

Emma and Oak had both grown up around agriculture, and Oak had earned a master's degree in sustainable ag and local food systems. Before their move to Indiana, she and Oak had worked on a mushroom farm, learning how to grow the crop.

"When we came back, we took over a small area on my mom's property and built a high tunnel thinking that was where the main growing would take place for the vegetables," Emma says.

As their business grew, so did the couple's need for more land. In 2018, they were able to take charge of a 16-acre field across from the farmstead Eleanor had been renting. Emma and Oak grow a mix of produce including tomatoes, garlic, kale, peppers, squash, and herbs there.

From May through October, you'll find the couple at the local farmers market selling produce. Their most popular items are tomatoes and garlic. "We grow a lot of garlic and sell it at all stages," she says, adding that one of their future goals is to set up a farm stand.

The Hawks' farm management style is a mix of past practices combined with modern innovations to improve soil health. For example, a section of the field planted to produce one year will be planted to cover crops the next. To keep weeds at bay, they cultivate using a 1954 Allis-Chalmers tractor converted from gas to electric. They also plant buckwheat cover crops because their abundant blossoms attract beneficial insects and pollinators.

The couple has also added a grain mill, purchasing equipment from Carthage Mill, a local miller closing its business. Small grains are sourced from other Indiana growers, and the flour is sold at farmers markets as well as to Leviathan Bakehouse in Indianapolis.

As the Hawks work their sixth season on the farm, Eleanor couldn't be more delighted to see the seventh generation carry on the family's legacy.

"We are good country people appreciating the advantages of farming as a lifestyle," she says. "It is wonderful to have another generation running around the house and working the farm, continuing what John Arnold began more than 200 years ago."

"We so appreciate everything the generations before us have built, and now we get to be a part of that legacy," Emma says. "We couldn't have done it without Granny's benevolence in letting us farm here."

A Fine Walnut

Standing by the front gate of the Arnold Farm is a walnut tree that stands more than 100 feet tall. It stretches at least 10 feet before branches appear, which, if cut and sold, would make a wide, seamless amount of wood.

"Several years ago, the State of Indiana had a project to breed superior walnut trees for commercial planting," says Eleanor Arnold. "They picked up nuts and shot off small branches for cloning."

A few years ago, Eleanor was offered $10,000 for the tree. "If you offered me a million dollars, I wouldn't sell that tree," she says.