The Shirley Heinze Land Trust property that is now known as Meadowbrook Nature Preserve has had a storied past. Many remember it as the old Camp Meadowbrook, a Girl Scout campsite until the property was acquired by Shirley Heinze Land Trust in 2012. But before that, it was a family farm. What follows are excerpts from memories recounted in 2004 by Patricia (Weiss) Schifferer about her life growing up on what was then-known as Boot Jack Farm. Patricia passed away in 2022 at the age of 89 and her daughter, Heidi Schock, has graciously allowed us to share her mother’s story.
It was 1934, toward the end of the Great Depression. Our dad walked into his local bank. His banker knew him well and how his life was going…moving from one farm to another. He told Dad about the Boot Jack Farm, located 7 miles northwest of Valpo. The banker told Dad to buy it! Dad laughed and said, “How could he possibly buy it…all he had to his name was 9 kids, $500 and a manure spreader!” The banker said, “Carl, I’ll help you buy that farm.”
…I was one year old when we moved to the Boot Jack Farm. It got its name during the Prohibition Days when it was illegal to make and sell liquor. This farm was an ideal place to smuggle and cover up their illegal operation due to the farm’s natural resources…plenty of water (two winding creeks running through woodland). The woodland made it easy to camouflage. The gravel road was lightly traveled. A lovely place to raise a family once the bootleggers were gone.
…It was a happy day when several years later Dad came home from the bank with a paid-up deed! It didn’t come easy. The older siblings all had to work like grown-ups. In the fall and spring seasons, Cal and Oliver got out of school to plant and harvest crops. They carried good grades so there was no problem with the school issue.
…Indians must have been prevalent. The boys would come home from the fields with pockets full of various sized and shaped arrows. Wish now we would have saved some of them. With the older boys able to handle the milking and multitude of chores along with haying, planting, harvesting, and filling silos, Ted, Paul and Bob were able to do their share of the many jobs under Mom’s keen eye and brother Cal’s fatherly discipline. Most of the time the daily routine ran smoothly. Dad by this time had taken a job at the Gary Steel Mills. The extra money helped a lot but life was not easy. A few times Mom had to call Dad at Gary for advice…such as when the combine broke down crossing one of our creeks. Another time a bridge over the creek collapsed carrying a piece of heavy equipment.
…One day while Oliver was walking down our West lane towards the back of the farm, coming towards a rise in the dirt land a huge black snake was coming over the top of the hill. It was the biggest snake he had ever seen. He stopped and it kept coming towards him. It must have been 5 or 6 inches in diameter…it was huge! He didn’t wait to see how long it was, instead turned around and ran home. Of course, we all thought he might be exaggerating a bit but shortly after another brother spotted the same huge black snake in the woods near one of our creeks. It was decided to have been a harmless Timber Snake. At another time we saw it, or one similar, in our favorite swimming hole. And to think I chased my sister, Gladys, around the kitchen table with a small garden snake!
…In our barnyard we had two big cottonwood trees. The one by the chicken house had a swing hanging from a huge branch. It was fun to see if we could get high enough to be even with the high branch holding the rope. The downside of the cottonwood trees was they shed huge leaves which was my job to rake up every Saturday.
…Mom’s garden drew people from town to see all her colorful flowers in their clean sculptured beds. She drew up a plan of which flowers went where. I was privileged to be her outdoor helper. She taught me many things while we worked together. She gave me my own little garden with flowers and a few vegetables.
…It would be interesting to know how many acres contained our three large gardens and a truck path down below the barn. Our summers were very busy with gardening and canning every conceivable fruit and vegetable. We had about all the fruit trees: pear, apple, plum, peach, cherry and apricot. A large strawberry patch. But the raspberry season took up about three weeks of every summer. There were 24 long rows of raspberries in one patch and 16 longer rows in another. Mom had a list of repeat customers she called each year. She sold a crate of 24 pints of heaping berries for $2.50 per crate or 16 quart crates also for $2.50. The money earned from the raspberry sales bought our school supplies and clothes each fall.
…As years go by, I love going back to my roots on the old Boot Jack Farm. It is a Girl Scout camp now. The only reminder of it being a farm is one of the original silos still standing with “Meadowbrook” written in huge letters.
