This is the fourth in a five-part series on the history of Elgin leading up to the Elgin Evening at the Museum on Saturday July 3. This week’s article is on how the Elgin community became the ‘Vetch Capital of the World.’
By Jessie Reestman
Staff writer
After just wrapping up the annual Vetch Days Celebration, it only made sense to explore Elgin’s “tangled” history between vetch and corn production.
I began my research by visiting a gentleman I had worked with while serving on the Elgin Q125 committee. As I recalled, Merle Moser was responsible for distributing Vetch seeds in small packets during the celebration. Anyone who knows Merle understands he has either got what you’re looking for, seen it somewhere, or knows where to find it. As expected, Merle was a great help. Not only did he give me a packet of seeds with a little typed history included, but he also led me in the direction to find individuals who may have had experience in raising it.
Focusing first on the information found on the Vetch packet insert, I learned, “Elgin, in one season processed over 10 million pounds of Hairy Vetch. This is half of the annual planting in the United States.” It was obviously for this reason that Elgin became known as the Vetch Capital. Confirmed in the pages of Elgin on Parade, “In 1959, Elgin became known as the Vetch Capital of the World. This came about as a result of the large amount of vetch raised and processed in this community. Vincent Jochum instigated the annual celebration known as “Vetch Days.”
With the knowledge of how Elgin earned its title, as well as where our community’s celebration developed, I realized I now needed to find out more about the process of growing it. Following Merle’s advice, I found myself attending the Thursday morning coffee at Elgin Implement and visiting with Terry Henn and Jim Childers.
Both Terry and Jim had very clear memories of raising vetch, and not all were positive. Jim began, “I am 81 and started farming at ten years old. Everything has changed since then. Elgin west or the lighter sandy ground was the perfect area to grow vetch. We didn’t have fertilizer back in those days, and vetch and rye put fertilizer in your ground. You would rotate crops by planting rye and vetch one year and then planting corn the next. We didn’t even plant beans back then. Vetch was planted around September 1st with a rye drill that went through the corn in forty-inch rows.” Terry added, “Certain tractors were on stilts so you could get through without knocking the corn down.”
Jim further explained, “You lost your religion when you combined vetch because all you had was trouble, but somehow come mid-July, you would be bringing a mixture of rye and vetch to town to Elgin Mills. Elgin Mills was a real big business back then, and everyone and their dog worked for Vanderheidens. They were open 24 hours a day. It was a really slow process, as most of it was wet when it was brought in so it had to go through a dryer. It was just a lot of work. At the mill, they would separate the rye and vetch into 50 lbs. bags and send it across the country in train cars.” For the complete story turn to this weeks editon of the Elgin Review.
