The following article is from the 1970 Lyon County Centennial book on the Lyon County unit of the National Farmers Organization (NFO). On June 1, 1962, a meeting was held in the American Legion Hall in Ghent to charter a Lyon County unit of NFO. Organizational meetings had been held in early 1962 throughout the county. Fifty members were necessary to charter the county organization. The installing director was Clarence Ewert of Mountain Lake, who was the National Director from Minnesota. At the charter meeting, Harry Retzloff from Tracy was elected as the first chairman and Virgil Gregoire of Marshall was elected vice-chairman. Irene Retzloff was elected secretary and Hubert Boerboom was elected as treasurer. The three trustees were Henry McKigney, Jim Wyffels, and Rolland Derynck.

The first meetings of the organization were held at various places throughout the county, in which the place was designated at the preceding meeting. Places included: Tracy Bank basement, Russell Town Hall, Balaton High School, Cottonwood Legion Hall, and Amiret Town Hall. A couple years later, a decision was made to produce a monthly newsletter as a reminder of meetings, and it contained information interesting to members.

Each year, bargaining committees were elected in the three major commodity divisions of meat, milk, and grain, to work for the members in the respective field. Each committee had five members and two alternates. They attended informational meetings to keep the county aware of the advances in each, with a report given by the committee chairman at the county meeting. The first members of the bargaining committees were: Jim Wyffels, Lawrence Tholen, Lawrence Farasyn, Robert Simmons, Gene Thooft, Earl LaVoy, and Vic Welvaert for the division of meat. For the division of dairy: Hubert Boerboom, Virgil Gregoire, Ivo Determan, John Clark, Harold DeSchepper, Rolland Derynck, and George Schumacker. For the division of grain: Melvin Buck, Glen Van Winkle, Melvin Klein, Alphonse Van Overbeke, Myron Schmidt, Richard Debbout, and Wallace Buesing.

The photograph featured this week shows the cover of the publication: “You Can Never Say We Didn’t Try: The National Farmers Organization in Lyon County, Minnesota, 1962-1988” by Donata DeBruyckere. This publication is part of the Historical Essays on Rural Life published by the Department of History at Southwest State University (now Southwest Minnesota State University) in Marshall in 1990. This publication is in the museum’s collection.

The Lyon County Historical Society (LCHS) is a non-profit, member-supported organization. LCHS operates the Lyon County Museum at 301 W Lyon St in Marshall. The Lyon County Museum is open year-round to visitors. To contact us, visit our website: www.lyoncomuseum.org, call: 507-537-6580, email: director@lyoncomuseum.org, or on our Facebook page.