Untitled Document

Nonagenarian still working his farm fields

Iowa Press-Citizen,
Thursday, October 30, 1975 By Claren F. Dale

(Large photo of Francis Glaspey in the driver's seat of his combine; caption underneath: Francis Glaspey, "A fella's got to keep what he's got.")

HILLS - Francis Glaspey combined corn this week.

Nothing unusual about that. With near perfect weather for harvest this fall, it has been rare to find a farm where someone wasn't working in a field on any given day. But, Glaspey felt particularly good Tuesday, steering the combine down the rows of corn. Good to be outdoors, working the land.

Saturday, he will be 90.

Stopping to clean the machine, Glaspey commented, "I'm not as fast as I used to be, but I'm glad I can still get out in the field and run a machine. Sometimes when I start up I have to take time to think what to do first, but I just take it easy and I get along all right."

Glaspey farms with his son, Bob, just north of Hills, on Highway 218 - "The first set of farm buildings north of town, east of the highway."

Glaspey, who is known as "Keagons", is taking his birthday Saturday as matter-of-fact, much the same as he takes the wad of chewing tobacco in his cheek - "A dirty habit, but I enjoy it"; his four years of country schooling - "Boys need more education, now"; or the straw hat he wears summer and winter.

He doesn't plan anything special Saturday except to do some work around the farm and keep in mind an expression he uses to sum up life's routine, whether up or down; "A fella's got to keep what he's got."

"Like two years ago, when I went up to Iowa City to get a new driver's license, They said I couldn't see quite good enough but, If I'd come back the next day, the examiner would give me a special test."

"Well, I just never went back. I figured if they didn't think I could see enough to be driving a car, I didn't want to be out there driving."

He's the same about his left eye, sightless for a number of years. "I guess it was a cataract, they call it. Maybe, if I had got to it earlier, or they had the machines and the people they got now, I could see through it. But, a fella's got to keep what he's got."

Glaspey is a native Iowan whose father came to the state from New Jersey after fighting in the Civil War. For years, Glaspey thought he was born in Shenandoah, but later learned from records that his birthplace was Pottawattamie County.

At 18, he filed a homesteading claim in Canada, but he didn't get it. Then he filed a claim in North Dakota and established ownership. He worked the farm for 14 months, then returned to Iowa, and eventually, traded the Dakota land for a farm near Hills.

He traveled and worked widely in the West and Central states. He got his nickname of "Keagons" in Minnesota. He worked for a man of that name. The man failed to pay Glaspey for the work and, around the area, people began to call Glaspey, "Keagons". The name stuck.

The Glaspeys have been raising soybeans for more than 50 years, long before they became corn's competitor as the "golden grain" and when they were used largely for hay.

Bob Glaspey is somewhat amazed and proud of his father. "Dad was always for machines. We got one of the first combines, a used one pulled by a tractor. I thought maybe we should wait and see how they worked out, but he was all for trying one. We got a new one later.

"Dad was always ready to try something new. I was the one who tended to doubt. Usually, it's the other way around."

Glaspey has no recommendations for long life or good health. He began chewing tobacco when he was 40 but he has never smoked cigarettes, although he used to smoke an occasional cigar. Besides "keeping what you got", Glaspey figures his health, like his education, probably came as much from hard work as anything else. Another habit he says, is "never spend a nickel on anything that isn't necessary."

Glaspey has few regrets.

Although he doesn't feel disappointed for lack of more formal education, he believes good education today is necessary. Too, his wife, Carrie, is now living at a nursing home in Kalona.

Neither Bob nor his father admit to being accomplished cooks. Several times a week, Velma Ruegsegger, who lives in Iowa City, stops by to cook and help her father keep house. "But," the elder Glaspey says, "it's not the same."

"It would be nice to have my wife home again. And, I'd like to be able to see better and be able to move a little faster. But, a fella's got to keep what he's got."