Merle and Merna Knippling
Merle was born in Princeton, September 29, 1913. His parents were Frank and Carrie (House) Knippling. When he was one and a half years old they moved to a farm in Iowa and returned to Princeton when he was 14. He finished his last year of country school near Spencer Brook, MN,
As a teenager, Merle did some hunting and trapping and had a dressed chicken and egg route in St. Paul. He also trucked produce to Iowa and livestock to South St. Paul.
After attending Bethel College for a short time, he decided to join with three other young men in operating a dairy and bottled milk route in Milaca.
In 1936, while in Milaca, he met Merna Mae Smith who would become his wife on July 7, 1937. In 1939 they bought a farm in City of Baldwin. Later on they bought land giving them a total of 320 acres. Merle was a dairy farmer but also raised crops, hogs, and poultry, cut wood and did custom hatching.
He built the farmland up from very poor soil to producing very good crops, planted windbreaks and ditched the lowland.
Before the large farm machinery and balers took over, neighbors used to exchange work for silo filling, threshing grain and haying. This was a very busy time for Merna who had to cook meals for the crews, which sometimes topped 15.
On November 14, 1954 at 4 a.m. our barn burned. We lost 3 cows and all the calves. The rest of the herd (some 50 cows) had been let out the night before and were safe in the woods. The Princeton firemen were able to save the house even though it was near to the barn. A friend, Bernard Wilhelm, let them use his unused dairy barn and house in Long Siding for the rest of the winter.
In 1955 they built one of the first milking parlors in the county and gradually increased their herd to over 100 cows. With the milking parlor system, Merle would “attach the milking machine while the cow stood in its own little “parlor”. A movable feedbox was installed and could be filled by turning the crank. After the cow was milked, the box was shoved aside and the cow was then free to make her way out of the barn. The barn was able to accommodate eight cows at a time while others waited their turn in a special pen at the rear of the milking building.” They system was pressurized and brought the milk directly into the cooler where it was ready for shipping. Back-flushing the equipment with water made cleanup easier. Area farmers heard about the operation and came over to observe Merle, Merna and their daughters do the milking. Many of their neighbors helped build a loafing shed to house the livestock. Over the years, Merle employed several young boys to help with chores.
Their family was active in the Bread and Butter 4-H Club and Merle was active in many community organizations including the Baldwin Town Board, Methodist Church Board, Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA), Grange, Farm Bureau, Princeton Co-op Association, Princeton Credit Union, National Farmer Organization (NFO), and Milk Testing Association to name a few. He was also active in politics and once ran for a state office.
Due to an unwise investment they lost their farm, all the livestock and the machinery in the early 1990’s. In 1995 they moved to the Princeton Apartments.
They had four children: Barbara, Louise, Donna and Carl. And as of September 2004, six grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
(From an article in The Growth of Sherburne County – 1875 – 1975 and an oral interview with Merna Knippling by Corrine Murphy, September, 2003.)