MODAFF FARMS AND WHEATLAND PLOWING MATCH

By Erika Modaff, 2001 Graduate of Neuqua Valley High School, Naperville, Illinois

Ever since I was little, I can remember back to the days when the Naperville/Lisle area was nothing but farms. You ask my grandpa, Nick Modaff, Jr., what he can remember and he will tell you about how the roads used to be gravel. Dirt roads were surrounded by cornfields. The Modaff family was one of the founding families in the town of Naperville. In 1924, my great-great grandfather bought a farm and some land for $160.00/acre which totaled out to be $18,000. That area is now 75th and Modaff.

On February 6, 1937, Nick Sr. married Alice Meisinger. They lived on a farm on S. Washington where the Security Bank now stands. They had six children, Nick Jr., Joe, Carole, Mary, Edith and Dave. Their farm that they owned was a dairy farm. Nick Jr. grew up like most farm kids having to help with the chores before and after school. On school days, he usually got up at 5 a.m., milked and fed the 32 cows with his dad and his brother Joe. Then they went up to the house, cleaned up, ate breakfast, then went off to their high school classes at Naperville Community High School (now Naperville Central). They were fortunate that they were the last stop for the school bus which arrived at about 7:40 a.m.

After school, they had some free time to play ball or shoot baskets, but then they had to feed and milk the cows again. Nick Jr. graduated from high school in 1957. During high school he took four years of vocational agricultural classes. After high school, he continued farming with his dad. On Tuesday, August 25, 1959, the dairy herd was sold at an auction on the farm. The auctioneers were Bill Spinner and Ed Patterman of Naperville.

In March of 1960, they moved to the farm located at 111th Street and Naperville/Plainfield Road. At that time it was called the Josh Mather Farm after the original homesteader. At that time 111th Street was a poor gravel road, usually impassable in the springtime. Nick Jr. and his dad started to raise hogs, then gradually expanded from 100 to 1000 per year in the 1970s and the 1980s. They also farmed grains, renting additional land from the Gravers and Wrights. In the early 1960s, Harry Clow invited Nick Jr. to attend a Wheatland Plowing Match meeting at the Wheatland School. After a couple of meetings, Harry asked Nick Jr. to be on the Commercial Exhibit Committee with him. The following year, Harry said it was time to turn the committee over the “new blood.” Nick Jr. and Harvey Mandel were co-chairman until the final match in 1976. 

At the time, all the towns surrounding Wheatland had implement dealers. There was Boyd Clow with Massey Harris by Clow Airport; Beirtweiser Imp. At Barber’s Corners, had Allis Chalmers, so did Grover Imp in Plainfield. Paddock Equipment, also in Plainfield, had International Harvester. 

Oswego Grain Co. had John Deere and Homer Dickson in Yorkville had Case, Oliver, Gehl and New Idea. These companies used to rent space to show off their newest products. In the commercial tent, the exhibitors usually included the various seed companies, the local farm insurance companies, the Aurora-Beacon News, Joliet Herald newspapers, Hometown Appliance and other stores from Plainfield.

In the 1960s, farming started to change in Wheatland Township. At one time almost every farm had 40 to 60 acres of oats planted every year where the Wheatland Plowing Match could be held. It would move to a different farm every year from the Fry Farms, Harry Schoger Farm, Allyn Bronk Farms, and the Patterson Farm.

Well, as the years passed on, it became harder and harder to find a farm where they could have a plowing match. The Wheatland Plowing Match then decided to rent the Lew Tower Farm and farm it themselves. It was decided to plant wheat on the entire farm.

As less and less people and equipment became available to farm the land, it was decided by members of the Wheatland Plowing Match to have the last match in 1976 on their 100th Anniversary.

Nick Modaff Jr. is one of the few remaining Wheatland Township residents to farm in the Wheatland Township. He still has 400 acres, just corn and soybeans, that he farms all by himself. 



11/01