For Josie and Garrett Beoshanz, growing up on the Kerr Plainfield Farm on County Road 29 will be the continuation of history. Their grandmother Carol Kerr Beoshanz spent the first eight years of her life on Kerr Plainfield Farm, as did Carol’s mother Lorraine Rothe Kerr and Carol’s grandfather, Herman Rothe. In fact, the homesite was established in 1908.
Herman and Albert Rothe, sons of Capay Valley (Hungry Hollow) pioneers Gottlieb and Elizabeth Rothe, purchased the Plainfield Farm on October 26, 1897. At that time, the Plainfield Community situated at the four corners of Roads 98 and 29 consisted of a harness shop, general store, stable yard, hotel, dry goods store and some houses. Herman and Albert added additional parcels over time and farmed the ground until Herman’s health failed in 1919. The farmland was then leased out to other farmers for production. In 1929 Herman passed away and left the Plainfield Farm to his daughters Margaret Rothe Koontz and Lorraine Rothe Kerr. Since that time the farm has been managed by the Kerr-Koontz families.
The Kerr family contacted Yolo Land Trust in 2002 to help them realize their dream of preserving the Kerr Plainfield Farm as farmland forever. Working with the City of Davis, Yolo County, and Yolo County Natural Heritage Program, funding was secured for the Yolo Land Trust to purchase a conservation easement on the Kerr Plainfield Farm. A conservation easement agreement was recorded in the county records which details the family’s agreement to protect the agricultural values of the Farm, as well as the Swainson’s hawk habitat along the riparian corridor that bisects the Farm. This enabled the next generation to move onto the land.
“We wanted to preserve our family farm,” says Carol Beoshanz. “My husband Ed and I are delighted our son Marc and his wife Sasha will now be taking care of the land. It is important to us that farming continues on the land that has been in our family for over 100 years.”
Marc and Sasha Beoshanz met at Fresno State and shared a dream to own their own farm in Yolo County to raise their two children and sell produce raised on their land at the farmer’s market. After Marc’s mother, Carol Beoshanz, inherited the Kerr Plainfield Farm, Marc and Sasha began to restore the original home located there. Although they wanted to keep some part of the original home in tact, the amount of deterioration was greater than anticipated and the house had to be completely removed. But every door, floorboard, ceiling beam and fixture which could be salvaged was removed and stored. “Sasha was tireless when it came to saving every object she could,” said Marc Beoshanz. “We found many relics of days gone by. All of it was reused or displayed in the home.”
When the new home was completed in 2013, the 4th and 5th generation of Rothe descendants moved in. The cycle of history is continued, and Josie and Garrett now raise farm animals on the same land as their forebearers.
Yolo Land Trust is proud to have had a small part in the on-going history of an amazing Yolo County farm family.
