Brandon and Jane Bitting of Albion are flanked by state officials during the presentation of their Hoosier Homestead award in Indianapolis. On the left is Lt. Governor Becky Skillman, and on the right is Joe Kelsay, Indiana Agriculture Director.
When the state of
Indiana recently asked Hoosier farmers to step forward if their farms had been in their family for at least 100 years, more than two dozen families answered the call.
For Brandon and Jane Bitting of rural Albion, the call from the state was an easy one to answer. And they had the documents to back up their farm's history.
The Bitting family farm, all 60 acres of it on S.R. 9, was one of farms recognized with the Hoosier Homestead Award last month.
Indiana Lt. Governor Becky Skillman and Indiana Agriculture Director Joe Kelsay presented the honor to the Bitting family in recognition of more than 100 years of commitment to Indiana agriculture.
The Bitting farm was first formed in 1865, and Brandon Bitting is the seventh generation of his family to occupy the land.
Bitting and his wife still have the original abstract from that 1865 purchase from the government for 300 acres of Noble County land. All of the various deeds and other official documents that trace the farm's history are still attached to the document that has been safely preserved for 145 years.
"We were able to show the state each change of ownership through the family going back to its original founding," Bitting said after she and her husband returned from the Hoosier Homestead ceremony at the state capitol building.
"Originally, it was a 300-acre farm," she noted. "And over the years, it was divided up among the siblings."
Brandon's father, Cliff Bitting, farmed the land after he took the farm over from his dad, the late Ford Bitting. Ford's widow, Emmaline, is 93-years-young and lives in Columbia City.
The Bittings raise Hereford cattle on the farm, and that tradition goes back at least four generations. They also make a lot of hay on the farm to help feed their 40-head herd.
Brandon and Jane Bitting still live on the farm. They built a new house on the property in 2008 to replace a house that was built in 1906.
"These families have sustained their farms through wars, the Great Depression, numerous recessions and countless seasons of challenging weather," said Skillman. "We are so proud them and all they have accomplished. These are the people who care for the land and provide us all with the high-quality foods that we enjoy every day."
"I know what the Hoosier Homestead ceremony meant to my family," said Kelsay. "It was a privilege to be a part of this special day with all of these families."
The Bitting family joins more than 4,500 Hoosier Homestead farms that have been recognized through the years. To be named a Hoosier Homestead, farms must be owned by the same family for more than 100 consecutive years and consist of more than 20 acres or produce more than $1,000 of agricultural products per year.