Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 18, 1991 TAG: 9104180587
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: ELLEN KNICKMEYER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WATONGA, OKLA. LENGTH: Medium
The 42-year-old farmer expected to be evicted as early as today from the half-mile square of earth where he brought his bride and raised three children. On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Conference of Churches sponsored a chili supper for the family in a show of support that's become routine in a state that by some estimates loses a farmer a week.
The formality of the "farm wake" showed in the women's church dresses and the tucked-in, buttoned-up dress shirts worn by every man in the church basement.
After dinner, the testimonials began.
"Young Gid had a granddad, Gideon Cowan," one white-haired man said. "I just pray that young Gid will keep his faith and be as good a Christian as his granddad was. He was a good man, and I'm for you."
"But for the grace of God there go I, Gid," another man said. "How many of us have been close to total financial failure?"
The Cowans' mailman congratulated them on the beauty of their children - sons ages 14 and 18 and a 12-year-old daughter - and the tidiness of their farm. A teen-age boy stood up to talk to the Cowan boys.
"Adam and Eric . . . losing the land and all is hard on their parents, but these two guys have done the work of any full-grown man, spent as many hours out there on a tractor as their parents," the teen-ager said, as tears streamed down the stiff faces of the Cowan sons. "May God be with you. All of them. Your whole family."
The gathering is "kind of like a funeral, in a way," said Glen Wallace of Oklahoma Farm Ag-Link, who has been organizing "farm wakes" since 1985.
Wallace plans to buy another $62.50 worth of chili later this week for a Tipton farmer whose goods are to be auctioned. He is also planning a dinner for a 62-year-old farmer, one afraid to tell his family he has mortgaged and lost the farm and everything else, including his siblings' financial trust.
Cowan began working the land in 1966. At its peak, he raised wheat, alfalfa and cattle on 1,280 acres - 320 of which he owned, the rest leased. Five years ago, he gave much of his hay to drought-stricken farmers in the Southeast.
The family's six-year legal battle with First National Bank of Geary, Okla., documented in a foot-thick stack of folders at the county courthouse, ended with the bank owning the land.
The farm went into receivership after Cowan failed to repay loans on schedule. Later the bank claimed Cowan and his wife, Barbara, spent money without the approval of the court-ordered receiver. First National seized Cowan's farm equipment in January.
Barbara Cowan has packed a few dishes but was waiting for her husband to say where they will move.
Cowan said he might sell seeds to make a living. Many farmers wind up as truck drivers, others as hired hands for the people who take over their land.
As of Dec. 31, 1990, the nation's total farm debt, not counting bills owed by households, was $133.9 billion, according to a federal report.
As of that date, the Farmers Home Administration, the farm lender of last resort, had 204,959 farm borrowers - 26,452 whose payments were overdue.
Cowan said he would challenge the eviction in court if he had any money left - or man-to-man if it would do any good.
"But it won't," he said. "All I'm going to do is sit in my chair and if they want to get on either side of me and sit me in the middle of the road, they can do that."
Most of the 30 people at Tuesday's supper had tears in their eyes as Barbara Cowan described how her faith in God helped her through the ordeal. Cowan later said he didn't speak for fear he would break down.
by CNB