The Harpers had a 140-acre spread or so in the next township over from the one Morelville was a part of. They weren’t wealthy, but their land butted up against land owned by the Chappell’s and across from that owned by the Quinn’s, two of the richest families in the area. The Chappell’s made their money in dairy farming and race horses and the Quinn’s in oil. The Harper’s did neither. They scraped by raising corn for the ethanol producers and raising gardens and livestock for their own consumption.
I drove onto their hardscrabble farm in my county SUV. The homestead area was neat and tidy and free of most adornment other than a small patch of flowers already wilting in the morning heat. The place reminded me of an Amish spread, save the big motorized harvesting equipment parked nearby.
M
