Don King feels very fortunate to have lived on his family farm on Township Road 30 for most of his nearly eight decades of life. The rural landscape, farming lifestyle and careful tending to the land and cattle suits his down-to-earth and hard-working personality.
“I love living out here. I wouldn’t want to live in the city,” he said Friday, Nov. 15, while surveying the rolling hills of Clover Meade Farms, 2803 W. T.R. 30, Bellefontaine, purchased by his grandfather Amos Shem King in 1915. It was on this peaceful 118 acres where Don spent his early days doing chores and learning to drive a tractor alongside his father, Paul M. King, and his mother, Ida, and then in his adult years, raising his four children with his wife, Phyllis.
Now Don continues to operate the farm with the help of his youngest son, K.C King, where they grow corn, beans, wheat, oats and hay and raise beef cattle.
Friday, Don was presented with a Century Farm Award through the Ohio Department of Agriculture, as a result of several months of efforts and application with the assistance of Bob Stoll from the Logan County Land Trust and Logan County Recorder Pat Myers.
Clover Meade Farms joins 23 other Ohio Historic Family Farms in Logan County on the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s list of more than 2,000 registered historic family farms in the state, according to agri.ohio.gov. Some of the historic family farms in Logan County even date back to the 1830s under the same family ownership.
Designations for Ohio Historic Family Farms are: Century Farms (100-149 years); Sesquicentennial Farms (150-199 years); and Bicentennial Farms (200 years and more).
Don, a 1963 graduate of West Liberty-Salem High School and a retired Logan County Sheriff’s Office deputy, said he was hired at the LCSO on New Year’s Day 1969. While also maintaining his family’s farm and raising his children, Don spent a longtime career as a deputy and also serving as as D.A.R.E. officer in the area, just recently retiring as a deputy about five years ago.
“By the grace of God, I retired to farm in 2019,” he said.
Earlier this year, Don reached out to the Logan County Land Trust regarding pursuing this historic designation for the farm.
“I’ve seen signs for Century Farms in different places, and a good friend of mine, Tim Yoder, has a Century Farm in Champaign County,” the 79-year-old said.
“We worked with Don to gather the background information and the big thing is gathering all of the titles for the land,” Stoll said. “Pat Myers was a huge help to us, gathering the titles and providing her assistance.”
The Century Farm application was submitted to the Ohio Department of Agriculture Aug. 22, and in late October, the Land Trust was notified about the official recognition for Clover Meade Farms.
Regarding the name of the farm, Don said his grandfather Amos Shem, and grandmother, Nancy, raised “a lot of red clover” and clover seed also was previously sold at the property.
In October of 1935, tragedy struck the family when his grandfather’s life was claimed in a faming accident.
Soon after his grandfather’s death, Don’s father, Paul M., took over Clover Meade Farms, which provided for a rewarding upbringing for Don.
“I’ve farmed all my life, helping my parents from a young age. I worked construction for about five years after high school, and then I decided I wanted to be a police officer. I just missed the test for the Bellefontaine Police Department at that time; I think my mother was glad about that,” the retired deputy said, with a chuckle. “Then I applied to be a deputy at the sheriff’s office.”
In addition to K.C. King, Phyllis and Don’s three other children are Michelle Reed, Donita Hammond and D. Rea King. After 51 years of marriage, Phyllis passed away in December of 2018. Their family has grown to 10 grandchildren, a great-grandchild and a step great-grandchild as well.
The Kings’ agriculture lifestyle has also included being an integral part of the legacy of the Logan County Fair. Don reminisced about showing livestock there when he was young, followed by his children participating in the fair, and now being a proud grandfather who gets to watch his grandchildren in the show arena. Some of the beef cattle on the farm have been raised by his grandchildren for exhibition at the fair.
Also among Don’s fond fair memories are utilizing a horse-drawn carriage to haul the Logan County Fair Queen and her court around the fairgrounds in royal fashion years ago, when the family still had horses.
Don’s machine shed on the property contains antique tractors from the fleet he operated as a young man, including a 1958 Cockshutt 570 and a 1958 John Deere 520. His grandchildren now enjoy driving the tractors in the West Liberty Labor Day Festival’s parade each year.
