At Weeks End
From the time she was very young Sue Scantlin was confident she could do anything as well as boys. Growing up on a farm north of Humboldt, she always pitched in to help Daddy, Chet Moore.
Before she was old enough to go to school Sue was driving a tractor, raking meadow grass into windrows, to cure and then be baled. She also was proficient in cultivating row crops, a task that required close attention.
In 1955, at age 9, she marched into the Piqua bank to ask Mr. Wille for a loan to buy my first dairy cow. Her request was approved. By the time she graduated from Humboldt High in 1964 she had 27 registered Holsteins and Guernseys, also her 4-H focus.
One year she took all 27 cows to the Allen County Fair, milking some by hand. Two won purple ribbons and berths at the state fair.
She became so accomplished at handling and showing her cows, a county fair judge told she should be disqualified. I had worked with them so much theyd walk around the ring and show themselves.
AS A FRESHMAN, Sue wanted to join Future Farmers of America, a national organization established in 1928 in Kansas City to encourage boys to continue with farming when they were losing interest and leaving the farm.
Though OK with Bernard Tinkler, its sponsor, she had to have the school boards approval. With members amenable, Sue became the first girl in Humboldts FFA chapter, and by all accounts the first girl in Kansas to don an FFA jacket even though it came with a catch.
FFA members are known for their distinctive royal blue jackets. Instead, Sue was given a white one, with a conspicuous FFA Sweetheart patch.
Even so, Sue was a full-fledged member.
Sue learned to weld and wasnt shy about grabbing a hammer to help build hay bunks and other paraphernalia. Like riding a bicycle, I can still weld.
She helped castrate hogs and judged land, crops and livestock, winning an FFA award for dairy.
A good student, Sue often set the curve that led some boys to fuss about having to study harder. One of her few perks as being the only female was riding in the cab of the FFA pickup boys under a shell in back en route to field trips.
Sue learned theory and farming techniques, which set well with her: All the time I was growing up, I wanted to be a farmer.
But farm life, working daylight to dark, wasnt to be. She and Dave Scantlin were married in September 1964, four months after she graduated high school and at a time when farmers had to get bigger, or drop by the wayside.
The Scantlins live on the north side of Humboldt Hill, within a stones throw of where she once raked hay and tended her dairy herd. Through the years theyve earned their living elsewhere. She worked at a greenhouse and the county courthouse; he for an international engineering firm that had him travel to 33 countries.
