It’s May 8th 1865, along the banks of Stewart Creek sits a small farmhouse in territory that had just recently been designated as Umatilla County. Elizabeth Hemphill sits on her porch looking over Stewart Creek, and opens her leather bound journal, “We had a good farm on the creek and raised grain principally. We had a fine garden, everything in the way of vegetables and a little later fruit. We raised grain, and the packers and teamsters going into Granite would winter their teams on the creek, and we sold them for feed. The very first horse we ever owned I bought with my chicken money. For a long time, we didn’t even have a cow. We took enough wheat to be ground into flour for our use at the government mill in Cayuse. It was a two-day trip, one over and one back.” This journal entry written by my Great Great Great Grandmother recalling her story of settling on our sesquicentennial farm in Eastern Oregon is a remarkable story of the early days of the wheat industry in Oregon.

One hundred fifty-seven years ago, farming looked a lot different. Life was simple. Almost all the food you produced your family consumed; what you had left, you sold to buy other products you needed for your farm. All these years later, life and farming are entirely different. Back when my family started farming along the banks of Stewart Creek, a single farmer could feed 3-5 people. Now a single farmer produces enough food to feed around 166 people. Today, farmers grow more food on less land, using less energy, less water, and fewer emissions. The challenge for the future of agriculture is to continue to increase the agricultural output for future generations while continuing to manage resources, reduce emissions, and protect the environment.

There are less than forty-seven farms in Oregon that are sesquicentennial. My family’s farm is one of those who has continued to meet the challenges of the past all the while adapting to the changing times and working with an eye towards the future.. The wheat industry has truly made an impact on my family. Providing us with a livelihood, income, as well as a community of farmers who support us.

2023 Wheat Scholarship Essay: Rylee Demianew