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In January 2005, Kermit Young donated 80 acres of land to City of Baldwin.  Jess Hall, chairman of the Baldwin Town Board had gone to see him about purchasing the land for a park for the township.  When asked, Kermit responded, “Well, heck, I’ll give it to you.”  The land is located about a mile east of Highway 169 along County Road 38 and east of County Road 19 across from the Baldwin Cemetery.

Kermit’s parents, Henry and Cora Young, had purchased the property around 1904.  He was born on the farm December 12, 1908 and bought it from his parents in the 1940’s.  His grandfather Isaac Young lived across the road to the north.  He married Margarette Erickson (1911 – 1997) from Princeton in 1935, but had no children.  For many years he and his wife operated a dairy farm but ended up raising sheep and hogs because they found that more profitable.  There used to be a rendering plant down by the Rum River where farmers could bring dead animals.  They would be cut up and cooked then dried and pulverized to make hog feed.

As a kid, Kermit did a lot of hunting and fishing.  He would also go swimming in Sandy Lake and like to climb trees and break crow’s eggs.  The crows ate the other bird’s eggs and were a big pest to the farmers.  He went to the country school District No. 10, which was 3/4ths of a mile north on County Road 15.

He played center field for the baseball team at Princeton High School for a couple years, but the year he graduated, 1926, the school couldn’t afford to field a team or pay for a class picture because of the depression.  During the school year he boarded in town with another student but occasionally he would walk the four miles home and walk back again the next morning.

In 1933 – 35 the lowland on his farm went dry and Kermit planted potatoes in the peat.  The peat grew really good crops but was very prickly and hard to wash off.  He was using horses to farm at that time.  During this same period, Lake Fremont went dry, except for a little pond in the middle and the farmers cut and baled hay in it.  He also raised corn, alfalfa and in later years, soybeans.

Because of the drought conditions and poor conservation practices, when potato farmers planted their fields, the wind would blow out the sand and make ridges across the roads and ditches.  So in the 1940’s the WPA planted trees along Highway 169 to stop the drifting sand from blowing across.

A forest ranger from Cambridge hired Kermit to work with him to keep fire out of the trees.  From the fire tower in Cambridge the ranger would spot smoke, come over and get Kermit.  Then they would take small pressure tanks filled with water and put out the flames.  The fire season started at Easter time so each fall the ranger would say, “We’ll be seeing you Easter weekend.”  For many years, Kermit was the only fire warden in City of Baldwin.

Kermit planted thousands of tree seedlings through the years, including Norway pine, Maple and Butternut.

The University had a tree farm across from his farm for many years.  Brand Mfg. Made the first tree planter for them.

Kermit was on the Baldwin Town Board for 13 years.