PEORIA, Ill. — At the Peoria County Annual Labor Day Picnic; Sept. 12, 1912, a group of farmers discussed forming a sponsoring organization for county extension work that led to the creation of the Peoria County Farm Bureau (PCFB).

Nearly 100 years later, on June 23, PCFB members hailing from each of the 19 townships came together to sponsor a special celebration to recognize a century of service to farmers and the community.

An estimated 2,500 farmers and non-farmers, many with young children in tow, attended the event that was spread over a large portion of the south parking lot of the Shoppes at Grand Prairie, according to PCFB 100th Anniversary Committee Chair Dan Heinz, a Kewanee resident who farms near Brimfield.

Many of those who attended took in a tractor parade and farm toy show, commingled with farm animals under an open-sided tent, chowed down on free pork burgers, Kitchen Cooked potato chips and Prairie Farms ice cream and participated in pedal-tractor races, a lawn tractor obstacle course and other fun events on a beautiful, sunny day in central Illinois.

“We wanted to connect with the community and the consumers because everybody is related to agriculture. If you eat, you are involved in agriculture,” said PCFB Manager Patrick Kirchhofer.

“With only 1 to 2 percent of the population living on farms, we’ve got to educate the 98 or 99 percent of the population that is removed from production agriculture. Especially with young children, people do not know how their food is produced.”

It is up to farmers and farm organizations to explain to consumers how food makes it from the farm to the table, he continued. “If we don’t educate them someone else will, and they might not have their facts straight.”

Kirchhofer praised Heinz and the Anniversary Committee for bringing together farmers throughout the county and coordinating the special events associated with the gala.

“It was like a part-time job. I’d spend about a full day per week working on it,” said Heinz, who spent months organizing the event.

He was quick to share praise of other committee members, including Doug Blunier, and wanted to acknowledge the efforts of Frank Learned, who organized the 40-tractor parade and 50-tractor exhibit, and Dave Copple, who put together a large farm toy show in a space once occupied by Borders in the mall. Kendall Stahl, Susan Vonk and Dean Doty also gave of their time.

Heinz also wished to thank Raber Meats of Peoria, which provided hundreds of pork burgers to the PCFB at wholesale price and grilled them at the celebration, Kitchen Cooked of Bushnell and Farmington and Prairie Farms of Peoria for their contributions.

In addition, hundreds of PCFB member and non-member volunteers donated time, money and equipment to help make the event a reality, including some farmers who used their tractors to pull hayrack-type trailers around the perimeter of the mall to shuttle visitors to and from the celebration.

“We couldn’t have done it without all of our volunteers,” said Heinz, adding the event was considered a great success by PCFB officials and members.

Zealy Moss Holmes was elected the first president of the fledgling PCFB in 1917 and served through 1923. A seed salesman who also served as director and vice president of the Illinois Agricultural Assoc., Holmes defined the PCFB’s original purpose as a forum for the county’s agriculturists to accomplish “greater good” for fellow farmers through “mutual cooperation.”

That credo still defines the PCFB mission a century later, though Holmes certainly couldn’t have imagined most of the other changes that would take place in agriculture over the following century.

“Today you’ve got GPS and combines and tractors that (essentially) drive themselves through the fields, turning on and off the sprayers when they need to,” said Heinz. “It’s hard to imagine the future of farming.

“I imagine we’ll have even higher-yielding hybrids and the genetics will continue to improve on corn and soybeans. I imagine equipment will get bigger and bigger, and there will probably be a day when you don’t have to (physically) sit inside the equipment.”

For more information on the PCFB, or to watch a member-filmed YouTube video highlighting its centennial celebration, visit www.peoriacountyfarmbureau.org