John Board Century Farm Honored at Callaway Heritage Day
The 2022 Callaway Heritage Day Century Farm honored a farm, a man, a family and a great heritage. Century Farm recognition began in 1976, and the John Board farm has reached two centuries in the same family, spanning five generations in the family.
John Board first came to Missouri in 1819 when granted land from the government, then found his way to Callaway County and 160 acres of land in 1825. The trip was made on one horse, carrying the entire husband, wife and child family with household goods, etc. The land was in the northeast corner of Callaway County, about one mile southwest of Shamrock, MO. Mr. Board was a stone mason by trade and built nearly all the old-fashioned mammoth stone chimneys in his neighborhood.
John Board and his family built their brick home on a high knoll, taking over five years to complete. All of the brick, lumber and other materials used in the construction of the house came from the farm itself. Two doors lead from the porch into the front rooms, each nearly twenty feet square. The original kitchen was at the back of the main house and connected by a wide passageway. In 1905, a dining room was added between the kitchen and living room. Enclosed stairways, built without nails, lead up to each of the bedrooms. Like the two rooms below and the original kitchen, the bedrooms contained fireplaces nine feet wide. The walls were all solid brick, 19-inches thick, which provided ample space for deep seats at every window. The excellence of the work was attested by the fact that in the first one hundred years, only one crack developed in the walls, which is thought to have been caused by the heat from the two large fireplaces.
The house was beautifully placed on a knoll not far from the banks of Bachelor Creek, the contour of the spot affording drainage in three directions from the building. The foundation was made of yellow limestone quarried on the farm. The brick used was made of clay from the farm. The mortar which held the brick in place was said to be of exceptional hardness and strength and made from lime produced in the same place. All the lumber used was sawed by hand with a whipsaw from timber that grew nearby, all of the finishing lumber in the house was black walnut, and the floors were of white ash. The original roof was of shaved oak shingles, which is said to have lasted 35 years before needing replacement.
Mr. John Board lived to be 84 years old. He married five times and had 12 children in all. The original large farm has been divided and subdivided. The official Century Farm is now about 116 acres and is owned by great-great-granddaughter Kathleen Books Rudeen, daughter of Mary Maupin Books, granddaughter of John Board.
What is a Century Farm?
In 1976, the Centennial Farm project was initiated in Missouri to award certificates to people owning farms that had been in the same family for 100 years or more. Interest in the program continued, so the University of Missouri-Columbia College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and the University of Missouri Extension coordinated a 10-year update in 1986 called the Century Farm Program. The Missouri Farm Bureau joined as a program co-sponsor in 2008. This program has been sustained as an annual event with over 100 farms recognized each year.
John Board
The Board family home, circa 1905. Shown are Martha Board Maupin, daughter of John, and her grandchildren, Francis Maupin and James Drury Maupin.