Flinspach family is latest to be featured in Century Farm exhibit

FAIRFIELD — The Carnegie Historical Museum has an exhibit that for more than a year has featured some of the oldest farms in Jefferson County.

Each month, the museum profiles a new farm in the county with photographs and mementos relating to that farm that appear behind a glass case on the building’s third floor. Not only that, but members of the family are interviewed during a public presentation on the first Friday of the month, when they get a chance to talk about their family lineage and all the changes their farm has seen.

The museum started out featuring the county’s Heritage Farms, those in the same family for at least 150 years. For Jefferson County, that is an exclusive group of just 14 families. The museum is now featuring Century Farms, those that have been in the same family for 100 years. The exhibit has turned up some interesting stories, like the Flinspach family, which owns a 131-year-old farm covering 80 acres in Buchanan Township.

Jim Flinspach, the sixth generation of Flinspachs to farm the land, said his talk about the family farm on Aug. 4, 2023 focused on the family’s early history, its voyage from Europe and how the family adjusted to life in America.

Though the Flinspach family purchased the farm in 1892, the first generation of Flinspachs came to Jefferson County decades earlier. The first Flinspach in Iowa was Lorenz Flinspach, Jim’s great-great-grandfather. Lorenz was from Germany, and he came to America looking for farm ground. He went to Ohio and Louisiana, and being unsatisfied with what he found, decided to return to Germany. Later, he made another trip across the Atlantic Ocean and this time ended up in Fairfield in 1856.

“I don’t know what attracted him to Jefferson County specifically, but he came here and bought a farm,” Jim said. “Then he sent for Caroline.”

Lorenz’s future-wife, Caroline, came to Iowa a year after him. She was a maid in his household, and though she had a relationship with Lorenz, his parents did not approve.

“They thought she was below his station,” Jim said.

When Caroline reached North America, she worked her way across the continent starting in Quebec and then New York. She knew Lorenz’s farm was northeast of Fairfield, and as she was getting closer, she came upon the Stoner farmstead, and luckily they spoke German. She was able to get more detailed instructions from them, and was able to find Lorenz’s home at last.

“The next morning, they took a horse and buggy to town and got married,” Jim said.

During the program the museum hosted about the Flinspach farm on Aug. 4, a recording was played of Edith Flinspach Larson, the granddaughter of Lorenz and Caroline. Edith recounted that both Lorenz and Caroline came to America on a sailboat, and that Caroline’s journey lasted 63 days, “sometimes making slow headway, and sometimes drifting back, depending on the direction of the wind.”

While Caroline was working her way across the continent, Lorenz was worried sick about her since he had no way to communicate with her, and had been waiting a year for her arrival. Edith said that he feared Caroline had been lost to sea.

Jim Flinspach said his family was able to piece together so much information from hundreds of years ago because the churches in Europe keep genealogical records a long time, some dating back to the 1500s.

“The churches, when they were doing baptisms, would write down the family genealogy,” Jim said.

After Lorenz and Caroline had their first child, they sent word back to the old country.

“The parents sent back a $10 gold coin, to signify that everything was OK with the family,” Jim said. “Marvin Larson still has that gold coin today, and Sharon Larson Schafer has the trunks they brought over to travel with.”

Lorenz, who Anglicized his name to Lawrence after moving to America, was a great vintner (winemaker), a skill he honed in his native Germany and which he put to good use in Jefferson County.

“He made wine every year,” Jim said. “Edith told the story that every fall, he’d get a new pair of rubber boots, and that’s what he’d use to crush the grapes to make the wine.”

Jim said that Lorenz traded his wine for land, and that just before he died of cancer, Lorenz told his family not to sell this tract of land in Nebraska, perhaps thinking its value would grow over time. Unfortunately, it was too much for Caroline and the children to manage, so they had to sell it.

“It’s now downtown Omaha,” Jim said.

Lorenz and Caroline had 14 children, and one of them, Fritz, is responsible for purchasing the land that has now become the Century Farm. Fritz purchased the land, 40 acres at first before adding another 40 acres, as pasture. It was good pasture since Brush Creek runs through it, but by the 1950s it had been converted into row crops. No buildings have ever been erected on the land. The farmhouse where the family lived has been sold out of the family, so that property is not part of the Century Farm.

Despite Lorenz and Caroline having 14 children, including nine males, Jim Flinspach is the last male blood relative remaining who is carrying the Flinspach name. Jim and his wife Sharon have three daughters, Jaclyn, Sarah and Jennie.

The Carnegie Historical Museum’s exhibit on Heritage and Century Farms will continue at least into 2024, with a new family featured every month. Fairfield Media Center maintains a collection of all the interviews with the Heritage and Century Farm families, which is available on its YouTube channel.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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