Farm World would not be in front of you today if a young man off to war had not noticed a beautiful young woman at a train station and offered to take her bag.

After she rebuffed him, he became more determined and found which car she was sitting in, and tried again. The two found they had a mutual acquaintance and talked all the way from Indianapolis to Evansville, Ind. When the train stopped, the young man had the young woman’s contact information.

That’s how Peggy Kreisle met Navy Lt. Commander Tom Mayhill in 1944. They were married later that year.

Journalism was always in Tom’s blood and, after the war, he and Peggy moved to Hoopeston, Ill., where he was the assistant publisher of a newspaper. The Mayhills purchased the Knightstown Banner in 1946 and they started a family.

Knightstown was located on U.S. Highway 40 (also known as the National Road). This made it a popular route for travelers and brought people into the area; however, another ripple in the Farm World story occurred when the Mayhills learned Interstate 70 would be going in just north of Knightstown. The interstate was part of the Federal Highway Act of 1944.

While the first section was not built in Indiana until 1961, the Mayhills realized an interstate would change their lives.

According to the Mayhills’ son-in-law, Gary Thoe, Tom decided he would not be able to raise a family of four with just the Banner, especially if rural areas shrank after the interstate came in. He had looked around and seen another successful farm paper in Illinois, and decided a weekly farm paper would be viable in his area.

Originally called the Eastern Indiana Farmer, the first issue was published on Feb. 15, 1955. It covered Rush, Henry, Hancock, Shelby, Wayne, Fayette and Union counties in Indiana. The price for a one-year subscription was $1.

“No newspaper or publication is launched without misgiving and concern on how it will be accepted. Certainly, the publishers of The Farmer are no exception, but we believe that the day has arrived when farmers travel 30 and 40 miles and cross county lines to buy equipment, to attend sales and to trade, especially when a bargain is to be found,” wrote Tom Mayhill in that first issue.

Most farm publications of the time were monthly and followed a magazine format, versus a newspaper format. While Tom ran the papers and studied postal delivery to ensure subscribers got their papers on time, Peggy taught school and was the Knightstown school librarian from 1963-73. She also served as a voice in what the papers looked like.

Peggy was most active, though, in her love for antiques and her dedication to preservation. She lived across from the Knightstown Academy, once an architectural marvel that was the local school. Next to the school was a gymnasium that could have seen a wrecking ball.

Peggy fought to preserve the Knightstown Academy as a historical landmark, and today the building serves as apartments. She and Tom then purchased the gym to save it from demolition and donated it to Historic Landmarks.

When Peggy read an article in the Indianapolis Star in 1986 about a movie producer looking for a 1950s-era gymnasium, she pitched the Knightstown location. It went on to become the fictional home of the Hickory Huskers in the movie “Hoosiers.” The gym is now a tourist attraction and home to basketball tournaments.

I first met Tom and Peggy in the summer of 1987 at their lake cottage. I was there for an interview after having seen an advertisement for an assistant editor position for their newspaper AntiqueWeek. I joined Mayhill Publications and worked on the antiques side of the newspaper group for 25 years before taking a six-year break and then coming back, which eventually led to me becoming managing editor of Farm World.

The company is now part of MidCountry Media, owned by Merry and Gary Thoe. Merry is the daughter of Tom and Peggy.

All because a man met a woman on a train.

Peggy Mayhill died on Oct. 19 at the age of 98. Until right before her death she had been extremely active, and made her last trip overseas when she was 94. Tom preceded her in death in 2012, after 67 years of marriage.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Heritage Funeral Home in Knightstown, and the funeral will be held at the Knightstown United Methodist Church on Oct. 26 from 10 a.m.-noon. For more information, visit www.heritagefuneralcares.com