Description

The Maughan Family Field of Wheat

The story was originally told by Lee Maughan, the son of John Lowell and Mary Maughan.

Lee said, “Our small farm, 320 acres put three brothers and one sister on missions and all seven children through college. Not all of them graduated, Lee said, but the means were there for all who wanted to.”

He said, “I am reminded of a field of wheat my father planted. It was about four acres. It had not been used much because it was hard to irrigate and in an irregular shape with many short rows and several ditches from which water had to be drawn. My father decided to plant this otherwise unused field in an effort to earn a little extra since my brother Orlo was on a mission to the Eastern States. My dad called this “his missionary wheat” and that it was. I can remember, Lee said, irrigating that little field many times, it was a pain. Several times, we, as children, were ready to give it up but were reminded by our father that it was our missionary wheat, and we must finish what was started.

I didn’t think too much of that field in fact it looked worse than most of our other fields. Well, harvest time, Lee continues, “My father thrashed this field separate from the others to see what the yield was. I’m sure he was not surprised at the results. This little irregular difficult to irrigate field had yielded much more than what our other fields had averaged as I recall, Lee said.

The average for our other wheat fields totaled about 80 bushels per acre at the time. That was pretty good. A real high average would have been about a hundred bushels per acre and then Lee says, “Do you know what the average for those four acres was?”

140 bushel per acre.

That’s right, 140, almost double what the other fields averaged.

 Lee said, “I believe the profit on that missionary wheat was enough at the time to pay for over a year of my brother’s mission. Lee concludes, “some say it would have happened anyway or your father made a mistake when he calculated the yield. I don’t believe it. The Lord blessed our family because we were trying to do the right thing and my parents showed faith in Him when they dedicated this small field unto the Lord for his work.

Irene, thank you for sharing this story about your uncle. I have hope and faith because of stories like that. Having a son in the mission field ourselves, I hope, and I pray that as we continue to take care of him, the Almighty will take care of us.