Fred Gonnerman
The Northfield Historical Society will feature local author and NHS co-founder Fred Gonnerman November 15 at 6:30 p.m. in the society’s museum. The event is free and open to the public.
Gonnerman will read several passages from his book, The Work with our Hands: The Life and Death of the Small Family Farm, before opening the program to discussion. Autographed copies of his book will be for sale.
Gonnerman began work on his family memoir in order to tell the story of growing up on a farm in northern Illinois. But as he wrote, it soon became apparent that the story of his youth paralleled the life and death of the small family farm in America. The decline began after World War II, when small farms began to be pulled together into thousand-acre enterprises, farmsteads were vacated and left to ruin, fencerows disappeared, and vacated corn cribs and silos became silent testimonies to the past.
The Northfield Historical Society is located in historic downtown Northfield at 408 Division Street. More information can be found at northfieldhistory.org.