Importance of agriculture in community featured at museum

Beth Tharp with daughter Kate.

Courtesy photo

The exhibit “It’s Always Been About the Land” -- the Putnam County Museum’s contribution to bicentennial celebration -- is free and opens to the public on Saturday, Sept. 24 at 11 a.m.

Our good land enabled early settlers to feed their families and agriculture remains the backbone the Putnam County’s economic engine. For generations, the county’s fertile soils have allowed citizens to make a living from the land by farming and raising livestock.

Ancillary farm services have employed many others, allowing non-farm families to be fed, too. This tradition carries on today.

Opening-day special guest Beth Legan Tharp will speak of growing up a farm daughter, working on the family farm, studying farming and ultimately becoming a partner in the family farm business.

Tharp will reflect on the advancement of agriculture and evolution of many family farms, including her own. By doing the best to care for the land and animals, her family’s Putnam County farm, Legan Livestock & Grain, not only provides food for themselves, but enables others to feed their families here and elsewhere.

Tharp has the privilege of farming with her family in eastern Putnam County, raising pigs, corn and soybeans. She is a graduate of South Putnam High School and Purdue University.

Tharp has been recognized by the White House as a Champion of Change for the Future of American Agriculture. Locally, she serves on the Putnam County Economic Development Board, is an active member of Bethel Baptist Church and was an Indiana Bicentennial Torchbearer.