Farm celebrated for 100 years of operation

Ted Swenson knew his farm had passed the 100-year mark, he just didn't know it happened in 2011. A trip to the Carlton County Courthouse led to that discovery last year. Now Swenson's Dairy will be honored as Carlton County's latest Century Farm in a program starting at noon Friday at the Carlton County Fair.

To qualify as a Century Farm, a farm must have been continuously run by a family for a century or more, be at least 50 acres in size and currently involved in farming. Now owned by Ted Swenson, the Swenson family farm began as 160 acres granted under the Homestead Act to his grandfather, Edward, in 1911.

Born in southern Norway, Swenson migrated to the United States in 1900. He settled first in the Dakotas, but didn't like how flat it was and wanted to move closer to Lake Superior. In 1903, he traveled by train to Superior, Wisconsin, where he met Borghild Olson in 1904. They moved to Minnesota in 1907 and officially began farming on the property southwest of Cloquet in Twin Lakes Township - located on Swenson Road not far from Minnesota Highway 210 and University Road - in 1911. They lived in a log cabin on the property until 1917, when Edward built a two-story house big enough to house their seven children. It survived the massive fires in October 1918.

"Edward put the kids and his wife on a train to Superior and he stayed behind," Ted said of the fires. "The fire went north and wiped out Cloquet, but it missed the farm by a few miles."

Known then as Pine Grove farm, Edward cleared pine trees to make land for farming, raising milk cows and other farm animals. They planted and raised potatoes and rutabagas and shipped them out of the train depot across Highway 210. Edward went on to become a Carlton County commissioner. He died in October 1945, when he was working on a well and the sand caved in on him, according to family history.

Friday won't be the first time someone has shined a spotlight on the Swenson farm. The Swenson farm was the subject of a mural painted on the side of the old Friendly Grounds Coffee House in downtown Cloquet, demolished in October 2010 to make way for the new Carlton County Community Services Center. It depicted Edward Swenson's original farm, along with a wedding portrait of Edward and Borghild and other elements of their lives, including the Sons of Norway symbol and a tennis court on the farm.

The next generation

For two years after Edward's death, Borghild remained on the farm and her son, Arne, moved in with her and raised sheep. In 1946, she moved to Cloquet with her daughter, Beatrice. Her son, Ronald, moved to Pine Grove with his cows and his wife, Beatrice.

Ronald had helped his parents on the farm when he was younger, then joined the Army. He was discharged in 1945 when World War II ended. After they moved back to the Swenson land, their son Theodore Ronald Swenson was born, in 1947.

Ronald was a very hard worker, Ted said. He milked cows and grew his own hay, but also got a job at Wood Conversion and also drove a school bus and a senior citizen bus.

He made improvements to the farm, building the big barn in 1958 and other farm buildings from lumber off the land. He added 30 more acres of land.

As Ted got older, he helped his father on the farm. Later he started driving tankers, delivering gas, hauling hot oil and bringing jet fuel to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

In 1982 he formed a partnership with his dad and they renamed the farm Swenson's Dairy.

You have to be all in to run a dairy business, Ted said. "You've gotta love the cattle and the country where you're at."

In 1984, Ted went into the liquid nitrogen and cattle artificial insemination business, delivering to farms and other accounts while still milking cows.

Five years later he met Lynn Love in Superior - the same place his grandfather met his wife - and they married in 1990.

Ted said it's gotten more difficult to operate a dairy farm, unless you have lots of kids old enough to work. Hired help is hard to find, he said.

Lynn's son, Leland Love, worked on the farm and later they raised their grandson, Douglas Love, on the farm. "He milked cows and everything from a young age," Lynn said, chuckling.

Ted said a former girlfriend's three kids also worked the farm from 5 to 6 years old to their teenage years. Lynn's other son, George, and Leland helped put siding on the house.

The beginning of the end of the dairy farm came in 2003, when Ted was out working in the field on a tractor that had been misbehaving earlier in the day. The tractor jolted forward unexpectedly when he was getting down, and the back wheel ran over him.

"It wasn't a small tractor," Ted said.

He broke 14 bones and the tractor took off. A neighbor saw it happen and called an ambulance. He also managed to stop the tractor, which was headed back toward Ted, still lying on the ground, badly hurt.

"My hip was in my pelvis," he said. "But I never lost consciousness. I knew what was happening the whole time."

After a lengthy hospital stay, he came home. He and Lynn milked cows another two years, but eventually decided to call it quits in 2005 due to ongoing health issues caused by the accident and the economics of dairy farming.

"I think there's only four or five dairy farms left in the county where they're actually milking cows," Ted said. "Basically by the time you pay everyone, and with the poor price of milk, there's very little left."

In partnership with a neighbor, they still grow and sell hay to other area farms, mostly for horses.

"We basically crop share - he has the equipment and I have the land," Ted said. The farm is now 230 acres.

They grow and harvest in the summer months. Fall and winter they spend time loading hay for whoever's buying.

"Our hay is excellent for horses, really good and dry," he said.

Now 76 years old, Ted said he and Lynn figure they'll continue in the haying business for the foreseeable future.

And they'll get that new Century Farm commemorative sign put up, and maybe frame that certificate signed by the president of the fair, president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau and the governor of Minnesota.

Aside from county fair recognition, the farm will be noted at the Minnesota State Fair. Since the program began in 1976, more than 11,000 Minnesota farms have been recognized as Century Farms.