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The Gaby farm:
Family-owned and celebrating over 150
years
By NATALIE HESS
The News-Sun
WAWAKA - When Jack Gaby goes
to bed tonight, he will be sleeping in the same bed he was born
in.
Gaby, 63, has grown up on the Wawaka farm that his great-grandfather
purchased in 1844. The Gaby farm is one of two family-owned farms
left in Noble County that register as over 150 years old.
Family legend says that Gaby's great-grandfather, Timothy, came
alone to America from England as a banished convict. Rumor is
that he insulted the queen, and no records exist that Timothy's
parents accompanied him to America. 
Great-grandfather Timothy bought 40 acres of land for $40. In
1844 the government sold land at the rate of $1 per acre. Timothy
bought the land second-hand but still got it at the government
price. He eventually owned about 400 acres in the area. The house
Timothy built for the Gaby farm has since been moved up the road.
In its place stands a house built by Timothy's son George in
1901.
"This house was considered a very modern home in 1901. It
had running water, gas lights and central heat," said Gaby.
The house still has the original wood-burning stove in the kitchen.
Gaby has a theory why no more than one family ever occupied the
Gaby farm, though its large rooms and dividing doors were built
to accommodate multiple families.
"There isn't a house big enough for two women to live in,"
he said with a smile.
When Gaby eats supper tonight, he may eat at the kitchen table
bought second-hand by his grandparents in 1901. The wooden table,
capable of expanding, has fit 22 people around it before.
Although many things at the Gaby farm have remained, many aspects
of the farm and farming have changed over the past century and
a half.
Gaby himself does not remember the days of working fields with
team horses, though many neighbors did. The Gabys have operated
tractors ever since Jack can recall.
The biggest change for Gaby has been the reliance on chemicals
and fertilizers for weed control. Gaby's son, Timothy, thinks
another big change has been the confinement taking place in farming.
"It used to be that everybody had cows, chickens and hogs,"
said Timothy Gaby.
Now people stick to a certain product or animal. The Gabys themselves
have beef cows, sheep and percheron horses.
"We brought the percheron horses back into farming, more
for fun than for work," said Gaby. "My excuse is that
we use them in the woods when we (extract) maple syrup."
"(The horses) are more environmentally friendly (than tractors)
for the woods," said Timothy Gaby, who recalls incidences
of getting the tractor stuck in the muddy woods with nothing
to pull the tractor out or get it around the trees.
Gaby has noticed neighbors do not help each other farm as much
as they used to, and neighbors just do not know each other as
well.
Timothy Gaby added that this change is probably because farming
has become a lot easier physically. People rely more on their
machines than each other.
With easier maintenance many farmers now farm as a hobby and
work full-time for a living. Because of modern machinery, crops
can be maintained much easier.
"You just plant them and spray them. You don't even need
machinery; you could have the fields custom-done," said
Gaby.
Gaby farms because he does not want to depart from that way of
life. He thinks many farmers farm more for the joy than the need
nowadays. Even fellow farmers who worked second shift found ways
to rearrange their schedules and farm at odd hours over the years.
These men would milk their cows before and after work, though
not the customary dawn and dusk milking.
"It doesn't make a difference to a cow what time she's milked,"
Gaby joked. "The cow doesn't know whether it's noon or midnight."
Timothy Gaby is Gaby's only son who lives in Indiana. Timothy
Gaby, 37, plans to keep the farm in the family although he has
no children of his own, and does not plan on retiring from his
full-time job before age 55.
Timothy Gaby is a hobby farmer. He works full-time and many overtimes
at Parker Fluids Connection on the north side of Albion. He farms
on evenings and weekends.
As for Jack Gaby, he is proud that his family has owned the farm
for so many years and endured the financial pressures that came
along.
"I look at the heritage, and I don't feel I have the right
to sell this farm outside of the family," said Gaby.
When hard times came and finances were tight, Gaby joked, "I
just took more blood pressure medicine."
In all seriousness Gaby knows farming takes a lot of capital
and earns a lot of debts. But Gaby loves setting his pace, controlling
his decisions and living an independent lifestyle. The only authority
he must adhere to is the weather.
Between Jack and Timothy, the Gabys own 214 acres of land. Twenty-eight
acres belong to the classified forest program. The program encourages
the harvesting of lumber by disallowing the clearing of this
land for farming or pasteuring purposes. Another Gaby-owned acre
was turned into a wildlife pond by the state.
"With houses going up, towns growing out and woods being
cleared, I figured I should turn the useless area into something
usable for Mother Nature," Timothy said. "Plus the
state was paying for it."
Jack and Timothy Gaby recreationally joke, tease and farm together.
Jack prides himself on the family farm, and Timothy hopes to
keep it family-owned. Timothy's outlook remains realistic when
he said, "Who knows what life will bring?"
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