The Old Home Place

Aerial view of our farm 

Photo courtesy of

  
Margaret Walls  

Written by 
LeRoy Walls 
CEO 

Both Mom, Margaret Douglas, and Dad, Lloyd Walls grew up working hard on rough Ozark farms. During the depression people referred to these rough farms, which had only a few cows, pigs and chickens, as hardscrabble farms.

They also called them subsistence farms because it took such hard physical work just to survive that there wasn’t much chance of getting ahead enough to gain an easier or more secure life.

After Dad and Mom were married they bought a 120-acre farm in what was referred to as the Mt. Pisgah community which is east of Cabool Missouri. For their $625 they bought what should have been nothing more than a rough subsistence farm. This farm where I was born was indeed a rocky hardscrabble farm but through the hard work and resourcefulness of my parents, it became a wonderful home and a foundation for an easier life.

The easier life in a more modern world came rather late for Mom and Dad but they made an easier life possible for my sisters, brothers and for me.

When first purchased, our farm had an old log barn, cow barn, smokehouse and outhouse. Dad led in building a house, new cow barn, chicken house and car shed. Besides the buildings there were rocks to pick, posts to split, fences to build, land to clear and cows to milk. With help from Mom and kids it was all done with a will to not only survive but also to make progress. And despite seasons of too much or too little rain the old home place did see plenty of progress.

Our farm was a quarter-mile from Grandpa and Grandma Walls’ house. Uncle Warren’s house was just a few hundred yards past Grandpa’s. Uncle Floyd’s place was just another half-mile up the valley, towards Mt. Pisgah church. This physical closeness assured that much of our lives be shared with our Walls cousins, uncles and aunts. It was a great life which included sharing in such things as putting up hay, cutting up wood, butchering hogs or just being together. Dad’s sisters also lived close and it was normal and great for all to go to Grandpa’s for Sunday dinner right after church.

After the droughts of the early 1950’s we continued to live on and operate the farm but Dad began working full-time off the farm in construction. Most of this was in Cabool where he helped build the shoe factory, Mid-America Dairymen additions, Sunny Hill poultry plant and the Methodist Church.

I always thought of my Mom as the heart of our family and Dad the backbone. I’m grateful for the love and stability they gave me and my brothers and sisters as we grew up.

12/31/1999