CHARLESTOWN, Ind. — A who’s who of Indiana Farm Bureau officers from around the state and various dignitaries, including members of the George Rogers Clark Trust, gathered July 10 on a 200-acre farm near Charlestown. That spread is one of the last operating farms with any size to it in urban Clark County; it is already surrounded by residential and industrial development.
According to research of the auctioneer who sold the property, nearly two centuries ago the farm belonged to the David Lutz family and descendants. Shortly after 1900, George Spriesterbach, who had married a Lutz daughter, obtained ownership when David died.
Then, George’s son Louis Spriesterbach inherited the property when he passed away in 1954. Louis, who never married, held the farm until his death in 2008. However, prior to his death, he wanted to protect the farm from being subdivided and made into residential or commercial lots.
Therefore, he arranged to donate the once grand homestead to Indiana Farm Bureau (IFB) on the stipulation the agency keep it a working farm into perpetuity. Those who came to "the old Spriesterbach farm" for a tour this month were there to celebrate improvements made to the land and the circa early-1800s farm buildings by the new owner Dan Cristiani, a local businessman and farmer.
They were also there to see that all was in accordance with the legal conservation easement added to the deed by the George Rogers Clark Trust before the sale. The tour that afternoon began on the property at a staging location just inside the gate, where short speeches were given by IFB District 10 Director Robert Schickel, IFB attorney Mark Thornburg and an Edward Jones Co. financial advisor overseeing the trust’s investment funds.
Schickel said all of the proceeds IFB received from the sale have been invested and the interest "is being used to educate and promote agriculture for youth and the general public around the state." These exhibitions, he added, take place at county and state fairs, through 4-H clubs and for various county school ag day programs, among other venues.
Cristiani told the crowd about the beef cattle and hay operation he currently runs on the farm, and of the improvements he has made to the land and buildings. Then his wife, Anne, also a business owner and a county 4-H horse club leader, told how Cristiani had fallen in love with the old farm while restoring it.
After the speeches, Cristiani solicited help from the crowd to put hay on a large wagon attached to a shiny green tractor. Then everyone climbed aboard and took a ride to high ground, where the old farmhouse and outbuildings stand.
It should be noted that under terms of the Spriesterbach conservation easement, preservation of the old buildings is not a requirement; however, a big part of the delay in selling the farm came about because local preservation groups had fought to make such restrictions part of the deed.
