The Kohler Farm

Seek No Further Farm--Leaving a Legacy

Casper Kohler's reasons for keeping his 100-acre farm intact ran deeper than money. "Money you spend it and it's gone", he said, "I guess you call it leaving a legacy."

Cap farmed the land for many years, as a dairy, and later, a hay and grain farm. It has 70 tillable acres, 15 acres of woodland and a home site, pond and agricultural buildings. The land is gently rolling, and traversing the property is a small stream which is one of the headwaters for Manada Creek. It is in West Hanover Township, and his vision is all the more special, as the area is zoned for high-density residential development, is traversed by a sewer line, and borders on US Route 22. Since the farm was protected, it has become an oasis of agricultural land surrounded by increasing suburban sprawl.

Cap purchased the farm in 1940 when he was 20 years old and lived there, with his wife until she passed, the rest of his long life. Cap loved his farm and spent his last years improving it by selectively cutting and thinning the woodlands; planting 2000 trees and bushes to provide a riparian buffer along the stream, and building a new fence around the property. He was determined to "leave a speck on this earth better than I found it." He died in 2003 at the age of 83, and did, indeed, leave a legacy. His son and daughter have retained and are operating the farm.

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