The HOMAN Family

Dennis and Louise Homan

6915 Olding Road, Maria Stein, Ohio

Mercer County, 419-925-4998

The Homan family farm legacy was started by Joseph Homan, who settled in the Mercer County area in 1888. When Joseph’s two older brothers announced they were going to leave Herbern, Germany, for America, Joseph secretly made plans to join them. He literally jumped on the ship as it left port. He was hidden in a barrel, because he didn’t have a passport. Joseph and his brothers entered America in 1855.

Joseph never forgot his roots in Germany. Whenever new German immigrants arrived in the area, Joseph opened his home to them and helped them get settled and find jobs.

Joseph, who helped build St. Rose Church in Mercer County, started the legacy of a long line of farmers. Every one of his 18 descendants born on the farm have either become full-time farmers or married full-time farmers, and they have all remained full-time farmers until they retired or died.

Dennis, Joseph’s great-grandson, was born in 1932 in the house that Joseph had built. He worked on the farm all his life, quitting school at age 16 to become a full-time farmer. He started farming with horses and later with an International F-20. He also remembers when electricity was added to the farm. "I was five years old," Dennis said. "My mother and I, along with my siblings, came home, and my Dad had a radio sitting on the kitchen table playing music and the lights were on throughout the house. I can still picture that scene."

In 1956, he met and married Louise. Two years later they started Homan Equipment and began selling silos and feeding equipment. In 1987, they sold the business to their son, Roger, who manages the company and farms part-time.

The centerpiece of the farmstead is the huge barn built in 1873. It has been honored as an historic landmark and in 1993, the farmstead was honored as a Century Farm by the Mercer County Historical Society.

"I’ve lost track of how many farmers have visited this farm over the years, whether for the farm equipment business or for some other reason, but we’ve tried to be good farmers and good neighbors as best we can," said Dennis.

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