By Mari Radtke
Christian (C.B.) and Mary Jensen owned and operated the Sutherland Creamery for years. C.B., in partnership with his brother, Harry, worked the creamery. It was located at the corner of Waterman and Highway 10. C.B. and Mary’s plan was to build their dream home on the property for retirement. Family lore says drawings and maybe blueprints were drawn up, but it went no further. In circa 1946 their son, Herluf purchased on a 10-year contract the Mitchell Dairy in Kirksville, MO. Tragedy struck! A terrible accident took the life of Herluf leaving a wife and 3 daughters. C.B. and Mary traveled to Kirksville and soon decided to honor Herluf’s contract and operated the creamery on his behalf. Herluf’s family returned to Sutherland to be nearer her family. C.B. and Mary decided to sell their property in Sutherland. Herluf was one of five children. Anna Jordan was the only one to remain in Sutherland. She married Phillip Jordan.
Anna and Phillip had four daughters. Their youngest, Johanna Homan married and lived much of her adult life in Grand Island, NE. Johanna returned to her hometown just a few years ago after the passing of her husband. She purchased a house with several outbuildings where she and her high school sweetheart, Dennis Fogelman call home. After the purchase of the property Johanna discovered the history of the property on Waterman Street. It had belonged to her grandparents, C.B. and Mary Jensen! The property has come full circle. But that’s not all!
In the old corn crib the corn elevator still worked. One of Johanna’s 4 boys, Joe, is a member of “Camp Creek” history farm near Waverly, NE. Last year Joe found the old corn elevator in the crib. Knowing that the organization was looking for a working corn elevator for their annual threshing show, last week of July, he arranged for it to be removed and relocated. The cups of the corn elevator were removed last year. On Friday March 19 several of the “Camp Creek” board members were in Sutherland for a long weekend to remove the rest of the corn elevator and transport it to Waverly. The corn elevator will be reconstructed in a model sized corn crib and used as part of the entire assembly line of corn processing from threshing to grinding. The board members are very excited about the final acquisition to make their threshing dreams come true.
C.S. Agrow of Calumet was hired to use their crane to lift the elevator head house or grainery equipment loft. Then the corn elevator frame and gearing were lifted by crane from the top of the corn crib. Both the head house and the elevator were secured to trailers and transported to Waverly where they will be erected and used to raise corn to a loft before going to more processes. It is expected to go into use for the 2022 show.
See a video of the removal and more about Camp Creek at www.belltimescourier.com.