E. M. Young: Prairie Pioneer

E. M. Young, born in 1893, grew up on a farm in central North Dakota which had only mediocre horses. However, in 1911 his father wisely decided that to keep his sons interested in farming, he had to buy a tractor. Even though it did not work perfectly, the sons preferred the tractor and rarely used horses after that. He was the eldest son, was mechanically minded and was totally convinced that tractors were the wave of the future. By 1922 he called his business The New Era Grain and Stock Farm.

After some very successful years he caught the euphoria of the agricultural boom of World War I and purchased land at the peak of prices. The sudden drop in commodity prices together with drought wiped out all he had accumulated. Fortunately, he was an eternal optimist, but he also understood economy of scale and operated as extensively as his finances allowed. When farm programs were written in the 1930s he grasped that the more acres he farmed the more he would receive in payments. In 1938 the dry spell ended, and by 1941 wartime activity caused prices to rise. E.M. Young’s fortunes recovered as quickly as they had dropped in the 1920s. No matter how difficult times were, he continued to charge ahead. This is the story of a farm boy who broke sod on three frontiers and never gave up.