Looking back: Goodyear Farms grew more than crops

By Kelly O’Sullivan
Twitter: @AzNewsmedia

It’s no secret the Southwest Valley is fertile farmland, thanks to the Agua Fria, Gila and Salt rivers that flow through its environs.

Many may not know, however, about a robust Depression-era program that operated in Litchfield Park to teach aspiring farmers everything they needed to know — and there was a lot they needed to know — to become masters of their craft.

When Litchfield Park founder Paul W. Litchfield was tapped to judge a Future Farmers of America competition in 1936, he was touched by competitors’ dreams of owning their own farms and the difficulties of fulfilling those dreams.

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The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. board chairman, who had come to the desert some 20 years earlier as a young executive to establish the Southwest Cotton Co. farming operation the Ohio-based company needed to manufacture tires for America’s war effort during World War I, knew a little about success, and he was willing to share what he knew with those willing to work hard to achieve their dreams.

Thus, the Apprentice Farmers Program was born.

In her 2013 Arcadia Publishing book, “Images of America: Litchfield Park,” author Celeste S. Crouch notes the program ran from 1937 to 1951 on 2,800 acres of developed irrigation land in the northwest corner of Southwest Cotton Co./Goodyear Farms. It stretched from Indian School Road north to Northern Avenue and from west of Sarival Avenue to east of Alsup Road.

Patterned after Goodyear Tire & Rubber’s Flying Squadron, a program that educated groups of young men on everything they needed to know about the tire company’s manufacturing operation, the Apprentice Farmers Program furnished everything its participants needed — land, housing, training and capital.

The apprentices furnished the elbow grease, learning the ins and outs of farming under the tutelage of Mr. Litchfield’s cousin, Kenneth B. McMicken, vice president and general manager of Goodyear Farms, and other agricultural experts.

“Many farmers got their start that way,” Litchfield Park Historical Society historian and board member Judy Cook said.

The program wasn’t easy, and it took time for apprentices to become farm owners.

According to Ms. Crouch’s book, the first group of 35 arrived in 1937 from around the West and as far away as Illinois and Montana. They set to work learning what they needed to know for success and sustainability.

During their apprenticeships, “they farmed, then they had to come the Goodyear Farms office to study,” Ms. Cook said, pointing to a series of 24 Alexander Hamilton Institute Modern Business books on display as part of the Litchfield Park Historical Society Museum’s Goodyear Farms exhibit.

The instructional books covered everything from economics, accounting, stocks, financial statements and corporation finance to advertising principles and campaigns, office administration, banking, transportation, foreign trade and commercial law.

In addition to learning farming techniques, how to drive heavy equipment and brand livestock, apprentices learned to make yearly budgets, crop plans and manage their machinery, livestock, seed and household needs.

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Once they had a solid farming and business foundation, according to an article in the Three Rivers Historical Society Journal, apprentices were assigned 80 acres they leased for $800 a year and farmed on a crop-share basis to earn the 25% down payment needed to purchase the land.

Apprentices chose the crops they wanted to grow and the livestock they wanted to raise.

They shared hay, grain storage, shop buildings, machine sheds, scales and corrals through their Adaman Farms Co-operation, according to Ms. Crouch’s book.

Once they had their down payments, they became farm owners.

In 1943, according to Ms. Crouch’s book, seven of the original 35 apprentices entered into 15-year contracts to buy their 80-acre farms.

A photo in the book from Litchfield Park Historical Society archives, shows the seven — Armon Curtis, John Edge, Charles Kimsey, George Reismann, Ralph Hunt, Chester Hunt and Hallam Hestand — smiling as they stand with Mr. Litchfield in cowboy hats, jeans and boots.

It was a good day for new farmer owners, for Mr. Litchfield, Mr. McMicken and everyone involved with the program.

Today, the sprawling farm operation that provided thousands of jobs and launched the career of many a farmer is no longer, and the land is a mix of farmland, housing and business/industrial developments like Alsup 303. Both Mr. Litchfield and Mr. McMicken died in 1959, and Goodyear sold the last of its holdings in the Southwest Valley in 1986.

Kelly O’Sullivan can be reached at kosullivan@newszap.com or 760-963-1697.