This 1941 Metzger map shows the area in eastern Marion County, noted as Switzerland due to the large number of Swiss immigrants located there. [Photo: SHM] March 19 & April 2, 2020 Episodes.
The story of the Steffen family begins long before we talked with Stanley Steffen, and he wanted to be sure we were aware of that. The story starts in the area around Berne, Switzerland where his family were Mennonite dairy farmers. Religious persecution caused mass immigration of Swiss and German Mennonites to France, South America, Canada and the midwest states of the U.S. The Nickolas Steffen family immigrated in 1850 and joined other families in the Sonneburg/Kidron area of Ohio who had arrived in the first immigration wave of the 1820s, like the Abraham Lehmann family.
Stan's great-grandfather Nicholas Steffen married Barbara Lehman in 1854, they then moved to Berne Indiana. Three children were born to this union and then they divorced in 1863. Barbara Lehman Steffen and her children returned to the father's home in Sonnenburg, Ohio. In 1877 she relocated with her two youngest children, Abraham, aged 11, and Peter, 9, to Oregon to help her daughter, Elizabeth, who had married John LIchty and moved to the Switzerland-Howell's Prairie area southwest of Silverton in 1876.
John Lichty, a woodsman and builder, had settled there on a portion of the T.C. Shaw donation land claim--a pioneer from Tennessee who played a vital role in the settling of the Willamette Valley. They soon started a sawmill business on the Pudding River near Silverton, the exact location of which the family is still trying to determine.
The story of the Steffen family begins long before we talked with Stanley Steffen, and he wanted to be sure we were aware of that. The story starts in the area around Berne, Switzerland where his family were Mennonite dairy farmers. Religious persecution caused mass immigration of Swiss and German Mennonites to France, South America, Canada and the midwest states of the U.S. The Nickolas Steffen family immigrated in 1850 and joined other families in the Sonneburg/Kidron area of Ohio who had arrived in the first immigration wave of the 1820s, like the Abraham Lehmann family.
Stan's great-grandfather Nicholas Steffen married Barbara Lehman in 1854, they then moved to Berne Indiana. Three children were born to this union and then they divorced in 1863. Barbara Lehman Steffen and her children returned to the father's home in Sonnenburg, Ohio. In 1877 she relocated with her two youngest children, Abraham, aged 11, and Peter, 9, to Oregon to help her daughter, Elizabeth, who had married John LIchty and moved to the Switzerland-Howell's Prairie area southwest of Silverton in 1876.
John Lichty, a woodsman and builder, had settled there on a portion of the T.C. Shaw donation land claim--a pioneer from Tennessee who played a vital role in the settling of the Willamette Valley. They soon started a sawmill business on the Pudding River near Silverton, the exact location of which the family is still trying to determine.
 Emil Abraham Leisy & Magdalena Krebill Leisy, c1880 [Photo: Steffen Family] |  Daniel Abraham Steffen & Linda Leisy Steffen, c1921 [Photo: Steffen Family] |
Peter Steffen, our guest's paternal grandfather, married Rosina Liechty, from another Swiss immigrant family, in 1887 in Silverton. Peter built several barns in the area and owned several pieces of specialized barn-building equipment, now fondly remembered by grandson Stan. In 1917, one of their five children, Daniel Abraham, married Linda Leisy, daughter of Emil Abraham & Magdalena Krebill Leisy, whose families were German Mennonites.
 The Emil A. Leisy house in Pratum c1914, [Photo: Steffen Family] |  The Steffen Family house in Howell Prairie, c1950 (before 1952 remodel) ]Photo: Steffen Family] |
 The Daniel Steffen family c1942. Stan is the baby on Linda's lap, Wanye is seen at far right. [Photo: Steffen Family]  Stan, age 8 or 9, tinkering with his wagon [Photo: Steffen Family] | Daniel and Linda Leisy Steffen were blessed with three daughters and four sons, the youngest of whom was Stanley Steffen, Pratum hay farmer and inventor. On the family farm, Stan was always tinkering with things and became responsible for repairing the hay baler each time it broke down, which could be several times a week. He devised several other pieces of equipment to make the repetitive work of harvest a bit easier for himself and others working on the farm. |
Stan married Ruth deVries, whose grandparents were Peter and Rosina Gerig of Pratum, in 1963. Also in 1963, Stan and his older brother Wayne (who was married to Ruth's sister Doryce) took over the family farm when their father Daniel retired. A few years later a farming accident would leave Wayne paralyzed from the waist down. Stan realized how much he relied on his brother in the operation of their farm and their hay business.
Stanley Steffen at KMUZ Studio, March 2020 [Photo: SHM] During Wayne's recovery time, Stan devised a way he could adapt their hay loader to use hand controls so Wayne could continue picking up hay bales and loading them onto trucks to be delivered to their customers all over the valley. Stan relates that Wayne, no mechanical novice himself, wasn't home very long before he figured out how to also fit their large grain-hauling rig with hand controls. He then began hauling 22 tons of grain to Portland every day.
The Steffen boys continued devising more efficient machines over the years. In 1970, Stan opened up a shop where they worked together with other family members, friends, and neighbors--each bringing their own expertise--to build these machines. They learned to work well together, taking time to make each piece good to look at and good to last. Some years later, the enterprise would become Steffen Systems, run today by Stan's son David, selling their machinery all over the globe. Most of Stan and Ruth's seven children have worked in one of the family businesses in some capacity.
The Steffen boys continued devising more efficient machines over the years. In 1970, Stan opened up a shop where they worked together with other family members, friends, and neighbors--each bringing their own expertise--to build these machines. They learned to work well together, taking time to make each piece good to look at and good to last. Some years later, the enterprise would become Steffen Systems, run today by Stan's son David, selling their machinery all over the globe. Most of Stan and Ruth's seven children have worked in one of the family businesses in some capacity.
Stan would not tell you this, but he has been awarded several significant honors over the years for his contributions to the industry that supports many farming families like the Steffens. Following a hip replacement resulting from being hit by a falling bale in 2007, Stan and Ruth decided it was time to retire. With their accountant acting as the mediator, they presented their plan to their seven "kids" who unanimously voted to keep the farm together and run it as one business.
This 1941 Metger map shows the many farming properties of the Pratum area. Note the many names that are now memorialized in the names of current streets and parks {Photo: SHM]
Stan has seen many changes to farming over the years. He says he would love to see a return to smaller, family farms with owners active in their community rather than the large corporate farms often owned by absentee landowners. He would also love to see a return to the four-crop-rotation farming system that made the Mennonites--the original organic farmers--so well-known in Europe. One-crop specialty farming, which he himself adopted as being modern practice, relies on various soil amendments to return and retain soil fertility, as well as focusing all one's resources on a single crop that could prove to be a profit loss through external pressures.
Although "retired," today you'll find Stan still farming hay on some 120 acres. Four of his children still work the larger farm, two work in the separate manufacturing business, and one raises hazelnut trees--all still involved in the "family business," ensuring that the Steffen name will continue in the Pratum area (and beyond) for several generations to come.
If you'd like to listen to our full interview with Stan about this humble, hard-working family who, along with others seeking religious freedom, helped settle the Howell Prairie and Pratum areas, please click here: Part One and Part Two
If you'd like to listen to our full interview with Stan about this humble, hard-working family who, along with others seeking religious freedom, helped settle the Howell Prairie and Pratum areas, please click here: Part One and Part Two
~~Posted by Deb Meaghers
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