INDIANAPOLIS – When the Dafforn family of Allen County decided to apply for a Hoosier Homestead Award for the family farm, they already had quite a bit of information about how the property was passed from generation to generation. But they still had to complete the puzzle by finding a way to prove how an ancestor ended up with some acreage after his father died in 1887.

Finding the information in a deed abstract was the final piece of that puzzle, Donna Dafforn said. The great-great-great grandfather of her husband, Darren, purchased the land in 1874.

“My kids did genealogy for 4-H so when we did research for that, we found land purchases in the county recorder’s office,” Donna said. “Also, Darren’s grandmother had a lot of the original documents. About a year before she passed away, she gave me a shoebox that was in the hall closet. When I started looking at the contents, I was astounded. Inside the box was the original deed. Can you imagine having original documents that were over 100 years old just in a shoebox on the top shelf of the hall closet? That really energized me to start this.”

The latest Hoosier Homestead Award recipients were honored Aug. 14 during the Indiana State Fair. The 103 farm families were recognized for having their farms in the same family for 100, 150 or 200 years. Nearly 6,200 families have been honored since the program began in 1976.

The application process includes a requirement the families prove the transfer of property to family members – and from one generation to the next – through the use of such documents as deeds, abstracts and wills.

To be named a Hoosier Homestead, farms must be owned by the same family for more than 100 consecutive years, and consist of 20 acres or more, or produce more than $1,000 in agricultural products annually, according to the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.

The Dafforn family received a Sesquicentennial Award for 150 years of continuous ownership. The family received a Centennial Award two years ago.

“I think that the original Dafforn, William, that purchased the ground (in 1874) would be happy that the farm is still being worked by his great-great-great-grandsons,” she noted. “Down the road from the farm, housing additions are growing like weeds. The school district is one of the top three for Allen County – so ground is gold. I think still owning the original 160 acres of tillable ground is crazy, and I think (Darren’s ancestors) would be proud that the family occupation is still growing strong.”

The Hodges family of Morgan County received a Bicentennial Award for land purchased in 1822, and a Sesquicentennial Award for acreage that’s been in the family since 1840.

Jerry F. and Marcia Hodges currently live on the property his great-great-great-grandfather (Thomas Hodges) purchased in 1822.

Two abstracts Jerry acquired from his parents, Robert and Jean Hodges, helped in tracing the lineage of the land, he said.

“I had limited experience with genealogy and zero experience in searching land transfers, so I asked a highly competent, local expert to complete the task for me,” Jerry explained. “Without the abstracts to use as search instruments, even the expert said it would have been nearly impossible to reach the 150-year and the 200-year benchmarks. This was partly due to the fact that my ancestors inherited and then traded land among themselves often.”

While there were no big surprises uncovered in the research, he said, “one of the smaller surprises was a difference of two years. I had always heard the original purchase year was 1820. Documentation proved it to be 1822.”

Jerry said he thinks his ancestors would be pleased the land is still in the Hodges name and is still being farmed.

“It is important to me that farms and farmland should remain in the same family if at all possible,” he explained. “It takes an amazing amount of work and sacrifice of those family members. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of having that history to look back on. We live in a family owned, Civil War-era home with much history and in full view of my grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ homes. My grandmother grew up in the house we live in. Grandfather grew up in the house down the road, and in between the two was the house they built together.”

Cindy Grodrian, whose husband Don’s family has owned the same land in Allen County since 1865, also had to sort through various documents before the family could apply. They received a Sesquicentennial Award in 2015.

“Don has a lot of information about the farm and family,” she said “He has photos of the family back to August Grodrian (Don’s great-grandfather). He has one picture of the original barn and a photo of the second barn being built. He has farm records from Lewis Grodrian (Don’s grandfather) to current. He had his family history for the Groterjahn, Grotrian, Grodrian line. I had done genealogy before and worked on the family lines more.”

The family has August’s naturalization paper, as well as plat maps, photos of farm buildings, wills, deeds, and August’s harvest table, Grodrian said.

She used Ancestry.com to find newspaper articles, gravesites, books, and more on the family’s history. The family learned Allen County actively recruited skilled workers from Germany, and that August’s father, Charles Frederick Grotrian, was a shoemaker by trade. (August changed the spelling of his last name to Grodrian).

“I didn’t look at (compiling the farm’s history) as having challenges,” Cindy said. “I saw it as an adventure. It all fit together.

“I would hope (August) would be happy (the farm is still in the family). At one point, August owned 120 acres to the south of the homestead. He sold 80 acres to his brother, William Grotrian, and the homestead plus 40 acres to his son Lewis Grodrian. The entire 160 acres is still in the family – 80 acres owned by August’s heirs and 80 acres owned by William’s heirs.”

August and his wife Rachel purchased their land from her parents in 1868. While they owned the property, August built a house, barn and other buildings. The original barn burned after being struck by lightning in 1918; another barn was later built.

A full list of this year’s award winners can be found on the Indiana State Department of Agriculture’s website: https://www.in.gov/isda/