Marland Burckhardt was born on March 22, 1941, the first of three sons of Katie (Wixon) Burckhardt and Edward Burckhardt. He was born in his Grandma Wixon’s residence in Florence. Marland commented on his birth.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if my Grandma Wixon assisted in my birth as she had a lot of experience with babies. The doctor came by the next day to check out me and my mother and sign the birth certificate.”

Marland explained his Grandma Wixon was a strong woman with an interesting background.

“My grandma’s parents divorced and she was adopted by a Smith. Her biological mother worked as a housekeeper for Miles Wixon and later married him, becoming stepmother for four children. Grandma later married one of Miles Wixon’s sons. That’s right, she married one of her step-brothers.”

Marland’s parents came from farm families.

“My mother was born on a farm east of Russell. Her family was on a farm between Balaton and Florence when the Depression got them and they had to sell out. Grandpa Wixon got a job at the Florence elevator and they moved there. My father grew up on farms in the Russell/Balaton area as the son of a tenant farmer.”

Marland’s father served in the Navy during World War II even as the family grew.

“My younger brother is David Dale Burckhardt. He was born in December 1944. I remember mother going to the hospital in Marshall for his birth. My dad was in the Navy and we lived with my paternal grandparents, August and Rachel Burckhardt, on their farm east of Russell.”

The war ended and Marland’s dad returned to his family, to farming, and to other work.

“My dad came out of the Navy without a pot to piss in, so he not only farmed, but was a painter and worked on “the highlines” for the REA as they brought electricity to the area. He started farming in 1947 on a small rental. Then we moved to a farm just north of Russell. It was a half-section with an old building site. When Dad rented it there was no electricity or indoor plumbing. Dad and a friend wired the house. The place used to have a barn, but all that remained was the foundation into the hillside. Dad built a straw shed on that foundation. The walls and roof were of flax straw bales (Marland laughed) held in place with wire and used railroad ties as corner posts. Dad’s brother, Alvin, a railroad man, was the source of the railroad ties. We had a milk cow and beef feeder cattle with a pasture for them. There was a chicken house, a hog house, and a granary.”

Painting was a source of support that sometimes compensated Marland’s father with other-than-cash payment.

“Dad was also painting at that time, using one of the first paint sprayers in the area. He painted barns, out-buildings, and homes. Sometimes dad took a calf instead of cash payment. So, his initial cattle operation was a herd of many colors. (Marland chuckled) He eventually got into Black Angus.”

The cattle were not the only livestock the Burckhardts raised

“We also raised hogs. We had a hog pasture, but had to stake down the wire fence so the hogs couldn’t root under it and get out. We also had chickens, sheep, ducks, and turkeys. That was all typical for the time. We butchered our own meat.”

Marland described the crops they raised.

“Corn was the big crop and the small grains were barley, rye, oats, and flax. The corn and flax were the money crops. Flax blooms blue and a good field of flax was a carpet of blue — pretty. We had one field in rye the entire time we were there. The soil there wasn’t very good, so rye was about the only thing that would grow.”

Like all farm kids, chores came early for Marland.

“The first chore I remember was throwing grain to the chickens as a toddler on my grandfather’s farm. I asked grandma what the chickens were thinking, but she didn’t have a good answer. (Marland chuckled) Some of the chores were of my own making as I had rabbits and ducks and took care of them. The chickens had to be fed and their eggs gathered. One of my hardest chores later was feeding the beef cattle. I carried silage in metal baskets from a below-grade silo that Dad dug out by the straw shed. He covered it with plastic sheeting so the silage fermented and warmed.”

Marland began field work at an early age.

“When only a toddler, my grandfather perched me on an idling tractor to help with spreading manure. We didn’t have a spreader so my grandfather and Uncle Gerald pitched it onto a flatbed trailer. Grandpa drove the load to the field and left me on the tractor while they pitched the manure off the flatbed. They’d tell me when to move forward; I’d engage the lowest gear; and we crept forward. I started driving a Minneapolis-Moline with a hand clutch, so I started working with a tractor when I was pretty young. As I grew up, from 11 or 12 on, I’d spend days on a tractor for field work: plowing and cultivating; cutting, raking, and baling hay; combining oats; and picking corn. We farm kids were driving long before we were legally able to, taking our dads out to the field in the pickup.”

Marland’s parents both came from large families, so he always had lots of family in the area.

©2025 William D. Palmer.