Jim Pech
Belle Plaine Farmer
​Funk Bros. Historian


​  In 1953 the Pech farm located in the southeast corner of  Belle Plaine was  leased, and for the next 20 plus years served the company as its Research Farm and was used for sales promotions and for their Research Lab. The previous lab was located on the John Pingel farm north of town at the intersection of old Highway 131 and No. 30. The Pech farm also served to raise hogs and cattle to use much of the discard corn from the processed seed.
  In 1959 the land south and west of the Emerson School property was purchased. This was about 14 acres, and upon it was constructed the new main office buildings and 2 large warehouse buildings. One of these warehouses was temperature controlled to insure top quality seed. At this time Funks had 19 district sales managers. Temporary harvest employees were paid $1.00 to $1.25 per hour.
  In 1964 Funks had 120 regular employees and hundreds of temporary employees.
In 1967 the company was purchased by CC International, Inc.  Funk Bros. See Company was then named Funk Seeds International, Inc. Funks “G” seed was now introduced in Europe and other foreign countries. From the small acreage in 1935, the production of seed corn grew to 14,042 acres in 1967.
In 1974 Funk Seeds International, Inc. was purchased by Ciba-Geigy and so came the end of Funk Bros. Seed Company.
I’ve spent a lot of time on the rise and full fo Funk Bros.  Seed Company. Many activities took place out on the acres. Detasseling was one activity not always looked forward to by regular employees. It was a hot, wet, dirty job, but was looked forward to by many kids for spending money and helped pay for school supplies. There were many headaches controlling kids. A lot fo stories can told about detassling.
Two kids from Brooklyn stayed with their Grandma in Belle Plaine. She took them to their field south of Belle Plaine in the morning and picked them up in the evening. The second day the supervisor could not find them and found they had worked a while in the morning, hitchhiked to Des Moines and got back in time for Grandma to pick them up.
It was a sin to pull leaves with the tassels. Research conducted by people in the industry had proof that yield and seed quality was reduced. However, now all seed companies mow off about a third of the tope leaves using a machine. So much for research done in offices.
In a research lab, controlled breeding was done by using bags to cover the silks and bags to collect pollen and transfer the pollen to make the cross.  As many as 30 to 40 thousand pollinations were made.  There was a lab in Belle Plaine and one in Minnesota. These were worked by Belle Plaine employees.
It took a lot of bags, paper clips, staples and tags to produce new strains of corn. Each ear has to be identified before being planted the next year.
Chad McMillin’s invention.
Foundation Seed was produced at Bloomington and Belle Plaine with the early maturities at Belle Plaine and later maturities at Bloomington. This is the seed used to produce the seed for the customers and furnished to all of the Associate Growers to produce Funk’s “G.”
Funs were good for Belle Plaine and Belle Plaine was good for Funks.
The company cooperated with all Belle Plaine activities. They sent trucks and employees on town clean-up days.
Funks employed local area truckers, Dick Overturf, Earl Fisher, Neil Strawhorn, Pansy Sankot, Dean McLeod, Dean Carl, and Fisher to name a few.
We had many employees functions, the annual Christmas party held at the American Legion or the Belle Plaine Country Club. There were field days, and in the summer the grilled chicken potluck supper, the chicken prepared by an Ames concern. The children looked forward to the Easter Egg Hunt.
In the building now occupied by Norgaard, we had entertainment consisting of pool tables, a juke box and dance floor, duck pin bowling alley and monthly family potlucks.
Funks employed people for temporary jobs in the office, in advertising, planting, plant selection, detasseling, harvesting, and in the warehouse.
We had employee benefits, a profit sharing plan and insurance.
Through the years some of the office workers were Louise Conrad, Alice Clemmer, Betty Rabe, Alma Pech, Gladys Hecht, Joan Burrows, Rosie Uchytil, Beverlee Sherwood, Wilma Bevins, Millie Snyder, Marg McMillin and Nancy Wright.
There were marriages within this Funk group—Gladys Sikir and Russ Hecht, Jim and Alma Pech, Betty Mall and Rich Rabe, Jim and Rosie Johnson Uchytil, Chad and Marg Monroe McMillan, and Chuck and Arlene Sindt Rabe.
 
                        

Jim Pech
Belle Plaine Farmer
Funk Bros. Historian


                 On February 16th, 2004, Jim Pech presented a story Funk Bros. Seed Company in Belle Plaine, Iowa.
  He told of a one acre field of seed produced in 1935 growing to a high of 14,042 acres of seed produced in 1967. The first office was in the old canning factory building of 11th Street.  In 1939 the Palmer Foundry building at the corner of 7th Ave. and 11th Street was purchased, developed and expanded to become the main office and processing plan until 1955 when a site was purchased  at 8th Street and 4th  Ave. where a new office and processing buildings were constructed. Together with the growth of facilities, the number of employees also grew to an average of 120 regular and hundreds of temporary employees.  In 1974 the company was purchased by Ciba Geigy, was gradually phased of out of Belle Plaine and became extinct in 1994, having officially started in May 1938.
 
  FUNK BROS. SEED COMPANY was a family owned and operated seed company located near Bloomington, Illinois. The Funk family owned 22,000 acres of land. The company was incorporated in 1901, sold the 1st hybrid corn in 1916. As time went by, many seed companies joined by producing Funk’s “G” hybrids and selling them under their company names. 
  In 1935 Mr. Gene Funk contacted his friend, Fred McCulloch, who lived south of Belle Plaine to produce a small acreage of seed near Belle Plaine.  Fred McCulloch asked Lewis Falck, who taught agriculture in the Belle Plaine High School, to help him take care of the production.  Falck was pushing the local farmers to start growing hybrid corn. He had started an evening class for farmers in the area. The first night 4 farmers showed up, John Schild, Louie Koep, Ed Swatosh and George Raabe. By the end of the year, as many as 84 had attended.  At harvest, the seed was hauled to Bloomington. 
  In 1936 and 1937 Falck and McCulloch became associate growers of Funk’s “G.” McCulloch converted an old country schoolhouse into a seed dryer consisting of 4 rooms. The heat for drying was furnished from a coal stoker. I don’t have any figures as to the acreage they planted in 1936 and 1937. At harvest the seed was hand harvested in wagons and brought to the dryer where it was hand scooped into mesh bags and placed in a drying bin. The bagging was done by a few of us high school kids. Falck had a Model A pickup that he used to haul us out to the McCulloch farm right after school and we would work until the day’s harvest was safely in a dryer bin. This routine was repeated day after day. When a bin was dry, we would empty the dry corn into holding bins in a long hog shed. During the late fall and the winter months the corn was sorted, shelled, and put into cloth bags that had to be hand sewn. 
  In May 1938, Lewis Falck resigned from his teaching job and was hired as manager of Funk Bros. Seed Co. known as Funk’s Iowa, Minnesota operations. In 1938, 250 acres of seed was grown in the Belle Plaine are by Schild, Koep, Lahn, Schroeder and others.
  In 1939, the company leased the local canning factory (more recently the Palco building) south of the railroad tracks on 11th St. and across from Franklin Park, for storage and the first office was established in the NW corner of the building on the 2nd floor. Some of the first employees were Louise Conrad as Falck’s secretary, Cecil Franklin, Jim Pech, Jim Uchytil, Betty Hall Rabe, and Charles McMillin. Seed ready for sale was shipped from Bloomington by rail and was stored in the east portion of the canning factory.
  In 1940 the company purchased the Palmer Foundry Building just south of the railroad tracks on the west side of 7th Ave. While an office was being constructed in the southeast corner, a temporary office was set up in a room above the Cut Rate Grocery on the north side of Main Street.  I remember that Tom Palmer and his wife lived on the east side of 7th Avenue, across from the foundry. Some time during the war years, the Tom Palmer home was torn down and a dryer was constructed on that location.
  From 1941 thru 1946, the foundry was remodeled and the elevator for processing was built along with 2 dryer buildings and 2 large quonset storage buildings. During this time some of us were in the service, so some new employees helped take over including several of our dads as well as farmers such as Bill Grummer, Ed Wehrman, Glenn Case, and a local, John Lahn. The offices were remodeled and this became the main office and headquarters.
  In 1948 Funks purchased the hemp plan at Traer, Iowa and it was remodeled and was made int a fulltime seed corn plant and was manned by employees from the Clutier area.​
  In 1949 the old Emerson School property in the southwest part of town was purchased from the American Legion. This consisted of a couple acres of land upon which were built 2 seed corn dryers and 3 large quonset buildings. The schoolhouse was the home of the Research and Foundation seed offices.

Claire Winkie
Belle Plaine Graduate
Army Reservist


                                                                                            Military Life

   “Wow! Didn’t moving all the time bother you growing up?”
   “When you’re born into it, you learn to like it.” This is a typical conversation I would have with someone when they ask about all the moving I did as a kid.   
  In 1997, I was born in to a military life. My father was a successful officer in the U.S Army. From the minute I was brought in this world, my life would be nothing but out of the ordinary. By the time I was two, I had moved to three different states. It didn’t take me long to figure out that this would be a reoccurring thing. I knew when the days started to get hotter, this meant summer was coming. Most kids look forward to summer. To them, summer meant no school, going to the park, and swimming in the pool. For me, summer meant it was time to pack up our belongings and move onto another state. When I was younger, I had a hard time leaving behind my friends. By the time I was eight, I knew I would have to make other friends.
   By the time I was 14, I had moved 10 times. I had moved from Montana to Alabama; Alabama to Texas; Texas to Kansas; Kansas to Kentucky; Kentucky to Texas; Texas to Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania to Germany; Germany to Kentucky; Kentucky to Iowa. Each state had a different climate, different restaurants, and even different languages. I would have a new bedroom, living room, kitchen, and porch that I was each so different from the ones before.
   Most people don’t understand how we can do it. The military required a lot of my father’s time. He missed multiple birthdays, holidays, and important milestones in his children’s life. His wife and the mother of his children had to do it all alone for months at a time. Deployments are a confusing time for children. They wonder why their father is gone for so long and why their mommy is crying. Their mother doesn’t have the heart to tell them what really happens at war, so she replies with “nothing sweetie. I just miss your father, that’s all.” Thankfully, we get the return of our loved one that not everyone was fortunate enough to get.
   As you can see, there’s a lot to be a child of a soldier. Here we are with the famous question, “How do you do it?”. I will say, it takes a special kind of love to be a member of a military family. With it, there is a lot of sacrifice. These hardships have only allowed us to grow into the individual I am today. It was hard to have my father miss important parts of my life. Knowing he did it to protect the lives of our family and others makes it okay. It makes you appreciate the little things in life, like having the opportunity to run to the grocery store with your father. Growing through what you go through is one of the most important life lessons the military could’ve taught me. 

Cindy Ehlen
Mason City Graduate
​Belle Plaine Resident

   I graduated in 1958.  The 50’s music was what we heard and what we danced to.  Now 60 years later I still love rock and roll.
I lived at Clear Lake from the middle of May until the middle of September.  My sister and I would ride back and forth during the school year, with my dad.  He worked in Mason City.                         
   The rest of the year I lived in Mason City.  I graduated from Mason City High School in 1958.  Rock and Roll was what we danced to.  The Surf ballroom had teen night every Wednesday night and my friends and I rarely missed a teen dance.  My best  friend  and I donned our, more than one crinolines, hoop skirts, and rode over to the Surf in our boyfriend’s Chris Craft speed boat.  We would tie up at the City Dock and walk to the Surf to enjoy whatever band that was playing that night.  Slow and smooth was Glen Miller and fast and furious was Buddy Holly.  The Mason City Class of 58 has a reunion every month where they go out and eat always play 50’s music.  I try to at least make this once a year.  These old souls love reminiscing.    Memories take me back to sock hops every Friday night at the WMCA, Wednesday’s teen night in the summers at the Surf Ballroom,  KGLO TV (Like Dick Clark)  dancing in Mason City  and now our class reunions and always visits  about the good old times at Surf . Our reunions always have the music of The Buddy Holly and all the other popular tunes of the 50’s 

​On our way to the Surf for teen night

Cindy Ehlen
Mason City Graduate
​Belle Plaine Resident


                                                                              Buddy Holly

Charles Martin author once wrote that Music “goes in the ear and comes out emotions”.  I love this as
We  tap our toes or keep time with our finger or move our bodies in time with the music. This month the Buddy Holly music was once again celebrated at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.  It is a celebration for fans, artists and musicians. . . . Celebrating Rock and Roll.  On 2/4/1959 Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper Richardson, and Richie Valens died shortly after takeoff from the Mason City-Clear Lake airport.  This had an impact on me and my classmates.  Buddy Holly music takes you back in time
and  was our music to dance to.
 
Winter Dance Fest Memories 2019  (Written by a friend that attended the 2019 Festival)

   What a great weekend of music and activities in Clear Lake Iowa for the 60th anniversary of the loss of music greats Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper.
   We traveled to Clear Lake January 29  in blowing snow and record -23 degrees temperatures along with 2100 other rock and rollers as well as all the very fine musicians to enjoy 3 days of rock and roll from the 1950s.  As it was our first time going to the Winter Dance fest we were unaware of all the other activities that occur each day during the fest.  We were treated to free entrance to movies at the movie theatre which was showing Bohemian Rhapsody.    There were art exhibits, luncheon with Richie Valens family, tour to the crash site, and many other activities that the great team of Surf Ballroom folks, who are mostly volunteers,  put together. 
   Highlights of the evenings were getting to see great performer such as Little Anthony and Chubby Checker as well as younger family members such as Frank Avalon filling their father’s shoes so that the current generation can continue to enjoy live music of past greats.  All the women singers were absolutely fantastic not only as a group but front singers for the bands. 
Now for the Surf itself.  She has been reconditioned and truly brings home what a ballroom was like in the era of big bands.  The floor is huge and the original tables are meant for 1930’s size folks, even though most of us can still squeeze in to the hard wood seats. 
   The main ballroom tables and booths were sold out by the time we called in (on the second day of ticket sales!) but the true fun was wondering around and sharing conversations with all the other folks who shared open tables off and on when a person felt the need to sit down for a while.  There were TVs in the other rooms so you didn’t miss a thing if you went to the bar for another drink.  The Lions Club sold food and popcorn each night so if one was hungry you didn’t have to wait until midnight to find sustenance. 
   There were lots of folks in great costumes and the dance competition was amazing.  It was even won by some Brits who came over especially for this weekend.
   The only issue with the weekend was a slight problem finding a parking space close to the Surf.  The Surf team did commandeer a shuttle for the various motel locations but not many seemed to use the service which seemed very convenient once you found out it was available.  As we stayed at a bed and breakfast it was not a good option.  Many locals went to eat close by first and parked their cars in the lot so that they had a spot close to the doors.  Food at both the Chinese restaurant and the Half Moon was excellent.  As in so many things these days, security screening was part of getting into the Surf each night, but they made it quite easy since it was so cold those 3 nights.  Waiting in line to get in was another opportunity to visit with people especially when they had stories of going to school with Bob Dylan or finding out more of the real story about the crash of the plane that night from an aviation mechanic who knew much more about what happened that night.  Finally a final hurrah goes to the team who checked our coats each night and seemed to find them all again during the rush at the end of the evening, when over a 1000 folks were still in the building but ready to head out in one lump.

Mary Helen Preston 
Owner, Preston's Station

The Legacy Begins
    Preston’s Station legacy began 95 years ago when our Great Grandfather, George W. Preston purchased the Standard Oil station in 1923 for $100.  The Station was built in 1912, one year before the Lincoln Highway was dedicated.  It was originally located at the corner of 7th Avenue and 19th Street and relocated to its present location sometime in 1921 when the Lincoln Highway was rerouted.  Grandpa, George H. Preston, started working in the family business at age 13 along side his father and brothers. 
    As visitors approach Preston’s Station driving west on the Lincoln Highway through Belle Plaine, they not only come upon Preston’s Station, but in essence they come upon Preston’s Corner; home to Preston’s Station, a three-room motel and a garage.  The Station remains locked in time much as it did when it closed in 1989.  As you walk onto the property, you hear Lincoln Highway lore being told by grandpa and dad, Ronald.  I am almost certain some of the stories are urban legend but only grandpa and dad know the truth.  As grandpa said many times, “if you don’t believe me go ask Blanche.”
    Grandpa started covering the station with a variety of old advertising and road signs as a way to preserve history.  Not only did he cover the station with signs; he filled it with one of a-kind items, while filling the building next to the station as well.  The collected items, which most would throw away but grandpa’s intuition told him otherwise.  Grandpa said he only once threw something out, a radio, but a few years later the same radio made its way back to him, and without a doubt it is someplace on the property.
    After grandpa passed in 1993, dad became the caretaker.  Dad had a keen sense of the importance the property played in history not only with the Lincoln Highway, but also with Belle Plaine.  Dad had the same passion and intuition grandpa did and continued collecting memorabilia until he passed away in 2011.  I honestly don’t know who collect more, grandpa or dad. 
 
Continuing The Legacy
    My husband, Garry and I are fourth generation owners and operators of Preston’s Station and are dedicated to preserving the legacy which began in 1923.  Preston’s Station Historic District will remain in our family and intact. 
   We are working with Ryan Prochaska, Prairie Rivers of Iowa, the Iowa Lincoln Highway Association and Lincoln Highway Association, city of Belle Plaine, Belle Plaine Historical Society and Belle Plaine Community Development Corporation to preserve Preston’s for all generations to appreciate and be inspired by the past. 
    Preston’s Station Historic District is a 501(c)3.  Our mission is to preserve and restore Preston’s Station Historic District while raising awareness and drawing visitors to Preston’s Station, Belle Plaine and the Lincoln Highway becoming a viable economic resource to the City of Belle Plaine. 
    Your support is important to us to be able to continue our work.  We appreciate your interest and support of Preston’s Station Historic District.
 
Mary Helen and Garry
 
Preston’s Station Historic District
402 13th Street
Belle Plaine, IA  52208
Email    [email protected]
Cell       816-868-3336 (Mary Helen’s)