Bluegrass Farm
Bluegrass Farm
William and Hannah Swannack.
The Swannack brothers: Bill, Les, Lou, Frank, Joe, and Jervis (not pictured: George and James).
The Swannack brothers harvesting in the the early 1900s.
Jim Tilden harvesting wheat diseased with a fungus that covered them and made them black as tar.
The Swannack family arrived in eastern Washington in 1886.
William and Hannah Swannack emigrated from Australia in 1885, and reached the Lamont area in 1886. They made the long voyage with their 8 children (6 boys and 2 girls). When they arrived, they homesteaded and raised cattle. They grew wheat to help feed the cattle.
In the years after they arrived, they had 5 more children. 11 children survived to adulthood - 8 of which were boys, so they were known around the area as the Swannack brothers. In 1890 they started farming wheat to sell because the price shot up to $1 a bushel! (today it is around $6)
40 years later, William and Hannah’s grandson James Tilden Jr married Judith Webb, from the nearby Webb Farm. The Webb farm was famous for its team of 12 spoiled Belgian horses - great-grandpa Webb was known for being a very gentle horseman and treated his animals very well. The two farms combined under the oversight of James and Judith, and their son Donald farms the land to this day.
Today:
Don and Amy Swannack are the 5th generation to farm the land, which today totals around 3,000 acres. They primarily grow soft white wheat. Amy and Don have two kids, and their teenage son Jacob already has aspirations to continue the legacy and become the 5th generation to run the farm.
Amy doesn’t have a background in farming. She met her husband in a bar and said it was always odd how he could never “drop anything and go on a date” Most people don’t have an idea of how hard farmers work. They can’t “take a day off” - there is always work to be done, and while there are slower months they are always busy.
biggest changes:
Like most farmers, the Swannacks point to all the changes in the technology of farming. A hundred years ago, it would take large groups of people and animals to manage 200 acres. But modern combines have made it possible for a few drivers to manage thousands of acres. Today the Belgian draft horses have been retired, and the Swannacks use modern combines instead.