Growing up near the City of McBain in Missaukee County, Michigan, is not an experience unique to just this part of America.  In many ways this is an American experience of the 1930s and 40s; it can be considered a quite-typical rural family life which could be found in many parts of agrarian America. First published in 1990, Eighty Acres is a very loving documentary of the influences of Northern Michigan family life forming the author’s values and worldview...

As a young boy, the middle child in a family of five children (Gladys, Marvin, Ronald, Nelvin, and Carl), Ronald learned the joys and the trials of living off of the hardscrabble land. This self-proclaimed “documentary” outlines the adventure of a young boy discovering his God-given talents.

The Northern Michigan area which became McBain had been settled in 1877. First called Owens the town grew into an established village with its own post office and railroad station by 1888. A village government was established as McBain by 1893. As lumbering and farming developed side-by-side, in 1907 the community responded by reincorporating as the City of McBain. “’The Smallest City in the Country’ was the boast of its two hundred residents.” [p.95] 

Jager titled this work an “elegy,” a pensive or reflective work that is usually nostalgic or melancholy. It celebrates or mourns something that is gone. The 80-acre family farm is a thing of the past with the advent of agri-business; a farm of this size would now be considered a “hobby farm.” However, the author presents his boyhood memories quite positively, though the author does rue the subsequent decline of some precious values.  He was reared with solid Calvinist values in a farm community that was forming his destiny toward his becoming a tiller of the soil.  Over the years in the farm community Jager and his siblings discovered their talents and passions leading them into quite different directions. The author discovered a love for words on the printed page.  One by one each of the five children made the migration south from the farm to study at Calvin College (each sibling graduated in turn from 1954 to 1967). For example, his older sister, Gladys, became an accomplished artist. His younger brother Nelvin became a Christian school principal. The author himself became a teacher—first in Iowa and then a professor at Yale.  Later, devoting himself full-time to the writing books, Ronald moved to rural New Hampshire living near his brother Marvin.

The primary focus of Eighty Acres allows the reader to share in farm experiences from the mid-1930s until his leaving for college in the “big city” of Grand Rapids during the early 1950s. The reader shares in the family buying their first car (used) in 1936 and retiring the buggy. The horses would continue to assist with plowing as dad thought that this was the best method for farming. We are given a glimpse of how memories of events can take on an enhanced-memory version versus the canonical (or official) family version of what happened many years ago.  Marvin, Ronald, and Nelvin learned how to raise various small animals, some as pets and some to enhance the farm income. Tail-ender Carl was eight years younger than the nearest brother and thus not a part of many of his older brothers activities. The reader shares in their experiences of wartime recycling—much of this is again becoming quite common now under the umbrella of stewardship—or, for some, political correctness. We can see how reusing was accomplished during the war years of the early 1940s and compare how we are once again becoming good stewards of what we have.  The final pages become a bit more editorial in tone as Jager reflects on how the early years shaped his worldview.

So, why would any reader want to read Jager’s autobiography of growing up on a Northern Michigan farm?   For some of us this trek is one of nostalgia, a reflecting on the times and events we might remember.  Others of us might want to better understand what makes some of our farm-reared friends what they are today.   For still other readers this can be a primer on how these religious folks developed their ethics and practices in a farm setting of the middle of the twentieth century. Do you know someone who speaks pensively of growing up in such an idyllic, agrarian setting?   But for most of us Eighty Acres is just a delightful read with insights into a slice of mid-twentieth century Michigan history.  From any of these perspectives this book is fascinating.

--Review by Dan F. Bloem

EIGHTY ACRES: Elegy for a Family Farm published by Beacon Press, Boston, copyright 1990.  A copy is in the church library.