Walking in the Furrow
The Wakarusa Hay Auction every Friday morning will never be the same without the laughter and good-natured ribbing of Jerry Leininger of Lakeville. The day after Thanksgiving, I expected to see his white, flatbed truck parked in the front row, where it is always facing south along C.R. 40 with the rest of us. Jerry usually arrived to the hay auction early and a few minutes ahead of me on most Friday mornings. Once there, he never wasted much time and quickly made his way up to the office with his scaled weight ticket in hand to register his load. Jerry was usually one of many in the group to sample the fresh donuts provided by Jonas for hay buyers and sellers to munch on before and after the auction. Every time I stepped in the office to pick up my check after the auction, Jerry would walk in with me or grab my check and be the first to say: "Well, Geyer, it looks like you're buying lunch today!"
On Nov. 24, I didn't see Jerry at the hay auction, so I assumed he was probably in the fields finishing up harvest. I just talked to him a day or two before Thanksgiving, and at that time he had just a little over 140 acres of corn to go, with plans of finishing his harvest in the next couple weeks if the weather permitted. Later in the day, after the hay auction, I had learned that Jerry had been hospitalized the day before—on Thanksgiving. I was saddened to hear such news, because he is one of the toughest guys I know. There's very little that kept Jerry from his work around the farm, but like most farmers we tend to shy away from doctors and the hospital if at all possible. But when something out of our control takes place, we have no other recourse.
Once the sad news of Jerry's situation had circulated around the community, close friends and neighbors sprung into action to help the family with the daily livestock chores at hand. The weather was not cooperating entirely with the days leading up to the volunteered harvest of the Leininger family's corn crop, but the ball was already in play as local farmers were organizing a harvest crew. Phil Lehman was instrumental in organizing the effort of almost three-dozen farmers from several counties to aid in one of the most heart-warming events for one of their own in need. Some put their own harvest on hold to join others on the remaining 150 acres of corn to be harvested on the morning of Nov. 29. An amazing display of friendship and community outreach of more than six large combines, a dozen or so grain carts and an unbelievable number of grain trucks and semis lined the roads' edge around the perimeter of the fields where harvest took place in three and a half hours.
Extended thoughts and prayers for the family to Jerry Leininger and the blessed hands of the doctors and nurses who did everything they could with the hopes that he would have recovered. Unfortunately, Jerry succumbed to his injuries on the day of his harvest after it was completed.