Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1915-07-09
]. S. KLEMGARD HAS
INTERESTING HISTORY
With Three Cayuses His Sole Prop
erty, Enters Upon Twenty Years
Wheat Farming and Energies
With 100000 to Good

Week Spokesman-Review than that
published last week. which concerns
the farming activities of James S.
Klemgard of Pullman. The success
full farming experiences of Mr.. Klein
gard, as outlined in the Spokane
PAPER, are as follows:
After turning three cayuses into
100000 in 20 years of wheat rails
ing, James S. Klemgard, one of Whit
man countys most successful farm
ers, and heavy stakeholder in the
Pullman State bank, speaks with the
authority born of experience when
he says:
Amy man who wants to pay the
price in hard work, personal sacrifice
and close attention to business, can
make money, and lots of it, raising
wheat in the Palouse country"
Ushered into this world in an i'm
provised cabin of logs and brush at
Soda Springs, Idaho, on February Z,
1865, after his parents had crossed
the plains by OK team following
trip direct from Denmark, James
Solomon Klemgard experienced all
the privations of pioneer days. In
1870 he removed with his parents to
Walla Walla, Wash, before the ad-
vent of the first railroad in the val
ley, and several years later earned
his first dollar hauling wood frora
the mountains to the town, the Rev.
Henry Rasmus, formerly of Spokane.
being one of his customers. The
first railroad Mr.. Klemgard ever saw
was the historic DR.. Baker road, from
Walla Walla to Wallula.
In 1882 Mr.. Klemgard, then II
years old, came with his parents to
Whitman county, and the elder
Klemgard located on homestead
seven miles southwest of Pullman,
the present John M. Klemgard prop
erty. Seven years of farm experience
Getted the younger Klemgard three
cayuses and explicit faith in the Pa
louise country, and with these posses
sions as his sole capital he set about
to secure farm of his own. In 1889
| he turned the horses on a deal for
100 acres adjoining his fathers
land, then held by w. H. Kincaid,
| still a resident of Pullman, assum-
ing a mortgage on the property and
giving second mortgage to Mr.. Kin
caid.
His first crop netted Mr.. KLEIN
gard less than enough to pay for the
barbed wire with which he had
fenced his land, at that time some
what of a luxury, and selling at Is
cents the pound.
With $1,000 in cash and his mort
gage not yet due, and with undaunt-
ed faith in the Palouse country as a
wheat section, Mr.. Klemgard two
years later purchased a relinquish-
ment on 160-acre homestead ad-
joining his original acreage, on a
basis of $40 per acre. Continuous
crops of wheat began to net dollars
to the young farmer and as fast as
one piece of property was clear oil
mortgage he purchased more, his
later acquisitions ranging in prices
from $40 to $31 per acre.
Mr.. Klemgard now owns 1906
acres, all adjoining, valued conserya
lively at $40 per acre, with enough
cash reserve to represent a snug for.
tune to the average man.
AT times Mr.. Klemgard ha.
branched into live stock, and is {
firm believer in the hog as money
maker on the present day Palouse
wheat farm, but every cent of his
100000 he credits to wheat anC
hard work. From the time he made
his first land venture until 1906
Mr.. Klemgard was never out of debt
but six years ago retired from active
farming with every foot of his 1906
acres paid for and owing not a cen
to anybody.
MI. Klemgard now spends his win
tiers in California, with lis wife, t,
whom he gives a great amount O
} credit for his success, and his fiv,
children, but is beginning to agar
} hear the call of the wheat farm
and intimates not reluctantly, tina
? he may again follow a gang pillow.
; Now in the prime of life, only 81
years old, Mr.. Klemgard is as active
ard enthusiastic as the day he traded
horse flesh for his first wheat farm