Gundel’s Receive Recognition
The Gundel family farm in Jacket Township near Seligman was recognized as a century farm by the University of Missouri Extension on Saturday.
A century farm is one that has been in the family 100 years or more.
Sara Gundel said she and her late husband Bill bought the farm in 1970 from his parents, Fred and Ada Gundel. The farm was established in April 1919 by Bill’s grandfather, Fred Gundel, an immigrant from Germany, and his wife Fannie. They purchased the original 120 acres. The farm is now 500 acres, and six generations have lived on it.
Running the family farm now are Sara’s son, Joe Gundel, and grandson, Joey Gundel. Joey and his wife Tessa run the dairy side of the business, raising Holsteins. Joe raises Red Angus. Also on the farm, the family plants rye and cereal rye.
Joe and his wife Sondra are the parents of Joey Gundel and Kristy Tipton. Joey and Tessa have two children, Lila, 7, and William, 9 months. Kristy and her husband Shannon have three children, Haley Hite, Reagan, 18, and Layton, 10. Also, Joe has a sister, Cheryl Williams, who is married to Mark Williams. Everyone in the family lives on the farm except for Cheryl and Mark and Haley and her husband Matthew.
“It was the best kind of raising you could have,” Kristy Tipton said regarding growing up on the farm. “There was always work to be done, and doing it together as a family was the best. Swimming in the creek was fun. Lots of walks and making mud pies along the road.”
She said she milked cows for several years, fed cows, worked in the chicken house and did a lot of housework too.
“Grandpa used to let me drive the tractor when I wasn’t very old,” Joey Gundel said when asked about childhood memories. “I had to get down on the floorboard and hit the clutch and then get back in the seat so I could see where I was going.”
The extension service presented the family with a sign to put on its farm designating it as a century farm.
“I think it’s great,” Sara Gundel said. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a few years.”