(La Porte County, IN) - The state has recognized a La Porte County farm that has been in the same family for well over a century.
Nate Mrozinski said his great great-grandfather, after coming from Poland, started the farm near Rolling Prairie in 1881 with 20 acres at 600 East and 700 North. Now, over 2,000 are farmed by the family.
The 38-year-old Mrozinski said he didn’t know exactly when the farm was started until he began doing some research in recent months.
“The last few years I was curious about how long our farm had been around. We have an old barn that was built in 1930. I started tracing it back and I had some family members that had a little bit of paperwork for me,” he said.
The builder of the barn, Fred White of Galien, Michigan, wrote his name and where he was from inside the barn.
Mrozinski says his late father and late grandfather shared some of the farm’s history with him over the years, but he wanted to fill in the gaps.
“My grandfather had told me some. They used to farm back with horses and we still have some of the original equipment like the horse drawn plow and stuff like we keep up in this barn just as memorabilia,” he said.
The state has declared the property a Hoosier Homestead Farm because of its age. The Hoosier Homestead program recognizes farms that have been in the same family for 100 to 200 years to help celebrate the heritage of agriculture in the state.
One of Mrozinski's favorite childhood memories on the farm was when his grandfather allowed him to operate a tractor by himself to plow a field when he was probably “six or seven years old.”
“He finally asked me if I was ready and I’ll never forget that,” he said.
Corn, soybeans, hay, and cattle are among the things raised at the Mrozinski farm spread over Kankakee, Galena, Hudson and Wills townships along with St. Joseph County outside New Carlisle.
Mrozinski was a custom applicator of fertilizer and pesticides for the Starke County Coop when he returned to the farm in 2010 because of his grandfather and father passing away from cancer.
The property used to primarily be a dairy farm, until his family decided in the 1990’s to get out of the business and focus more on row crops.
The image of the barn from years ago was once on the menu at what's now called Heston Supper Club.
Nate and his brother, Erik, do all of the farming now while their sister, Morgan, a full time nurse, helps with the bookkeeping. Mrozinski, who also remembers his great grandfather as a young child, said it’s a great feeling to know more about the history of the family farm.
“It gives you a sense of pride and it makes you happy to be able to continue on with a family legacy. It makes you want to keep going,” he said.
