Christian Swoish and Caroline Nellenbach were married in 1916. They resided on the family farm on Cedar Creek Rd. in North Branch, Michigan. Of that union, there were two boys, Clarence J. (C.J.) and Leo. In 1936, when CJ was 14 and Leo 16 years of age, their father became seriously ill and was no longer able to do the farm work, so the boys worked the land with the horses, and milked the cows before walking two miles to country school each day. Their first tractor was a 1938 hand crank John Deere.
The beginning of the World War II put the price of beans to a high market value, and the boys were fortunate enough to have a good crop. After harvest, they had enough money to pay off the farm debt. In 1951, a nearby farm on Swoish Rd. came up for sale. They bought the farm, and in January of 1952, CJ married Blanche Reynolds. They lived in the newly purchased home and had 3 children – a daughter, Judy, and two sons, Gary and Alan.
CJ and Leo continued to work the two farms together until 1967. At this point, Leo split from the Swoish Rd. farm and went his own way. By the time CJ’s boys were grown, Gary had his heart set on milking cows. They were raising beef cattle at the time, so the barn was remodeled to work dairy. Alan went on to a factory job, and Gary and CJ became dairy farmers.
Gary married Jane Dhooghe in 1976, and they had six children. Gary and Jane had a house built across the road from the farm on Swoish Rd. As the years passed, CJ’s health was failing, and Gary’s boys were not quite old enough for handling dairy cows, so they went back to raising beef cattle. As the family grew, so did the buildings and the number of cattle.
Three of Gary’s sons, Jake, Chris and Matt, had farming in their blood and joined as partners with Gary. The Dhooghe farm on Clear Lake Rd. was purchased from the boys’ grandparents, Charles and Marjorie Dhooghe, bringing the two family farms together.