How does your garden grow? With beets, carrots and onions all in a row?
From early in the 1900’s to recently, Kennedy Farms in Clear Lake was Iowa’s largest vegetable grower. Sam Kennedy started the operation after realizing the value of the rich peat soil his land held. He worked hard and grew the business so much that eventually additional rail cars were necessary to ship his bumper harvests. In 1932, 90 train cars of potatoes and 34 cars of onions were shipped by rail to Chicago, St. Louis, and other large midwestern cities.
Sam’s sons Jim and Jack continued the journey well into next decades. If you fed your baby Gerber carrots or enjoyed some Dinty Moore beef stew, you ate Kennedy produce.
The farms had a unique and valuable partnership with migrant laborers. Because they were treated so well, many families returned to Kennedy Farms year after year. Some eventually made Clear Lake their permanent home. The workers benefited from the good working conditions and the farm could not have been as successful without their hard work.
Clear Lake embraced the families. In summer the Clear Lake Public Library offered classes and education for the young visitors. The kids went to school in the fall until the harvest was completed and they returned to their southern homes.
Iowa’s growing season isn’t as long as some, but the harvest is worth the efforts!
Photos of Kennedy Farms warehouse, potato harvest, and the building housing some of the migrant families are from the History collection at the CLPL. The article about the library helping the children is from the Globe Gazette.
