Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-24
QUEER PENNSYLVANIA FARM
Where Crops We're Raised Never to B.
Sold or Even Used.
From Farm and Field.

From Farm and Field
The death noticing ago of Isaac Sweigert.
an aged resident of Lancaster county, Pa,
brought to light one of the most remark
able cases of unnecessary thrift and saving
on record.
Isaac Sweigert. with his two sisters had
for half a century or more been engaged in
raising large and profitable crops from the
fertile sixty acres which they jointly pos
sessed. but, strange to say, none, very
few, of the farms products was ever sold
1t cost the family but little to live and after
disposing of as much of a seasons crop as
would bring them in the necessary money
to buy their provisions and clothing the rest
of the harvest w3uli be laid aside as care
fully as miser puts by his hoard of gold.
The family is descended from thrifty Ger
man stock Isaac S1egert's parents were
among the first who turned virgin forests
of that section of Pennsylvania into produc-
tive farm land. TIE industry and the saw
lnSS OF the parents were apparently trans
mltted by heredity to the sen and daugh teTs
who toled for years carly and late in the
sowing. cultivation and reapiDC of their
crops, but who failed through neglect or in
difference to realize the commercial value
of their labor
No outside help was ever hired at the
farm, the arduous work of sowing and reap
ing being performed by the odd trio. for the
two sisters joined with their brother and
turned to every form of labor in the fields.
The brother and sisters allowed but little
sunshine to brighten their lives. They rarely
visited any of their neighbors and were SCI
dom seen at any public gatherings. The
only change in the even tenor of their sim
pie lives was when the brother brought a
wife to the old homestead and the prattle
of child later lent new and strange at
mosphere to their cherries home.
The family lived almost exclusively on the
products of the farm and were seldom
making any purchases a the country stores
AS years passed the brothers and sisters
were reputed to have accumulated conSid-
cradle wealth, but continued their hard toll
of dispoSing of their crops as formerly they
began stacking their grain at different
points on the farm, where it was allowed to
rot by years of exposure to the elements
Visitors to the premises will find about
seventy-five of these stacks scattered all
over the farm between fifteen and twenty
being located near the house. The loss from
this source aggregates thouSa nds of dollars
OF late the brother and sisters were con-
tent with thraShing and cleaning only
enough of their crops for immediate wants
storing the surplus of grain each year in
different rooms of their house. The house
now contains great quantities of grain espe-
pecially the lower story, where its great
weight has caused sagging of tlS floor and
the valuable product finds its way through
cracks to the cellar beneath. The storing
of this grain has proved a rich treat to
countless hordeS of rats and mice which
thrive and grow fat on it.
An examina ton of the numerous stacks of
grain showed that the once valuable prod
uct is worthless either as food or bedding
for the stock. The loss represented in
these rotted stacks, including the immense
Quantities of grain stored in the house, and
which is stated to have also become unfit
for use would, it is said, be sufficient for
the purchase of one of the largest farms in
Lancaster county.