Farmer among last to work land the old-fashioned way

Over the last few months, illness kept Leslie E. "Les" Spohr from pursuing the annual fall ritual of harvesting the family farm.

Instead, he sat in the enclosed front porch of his Elgin home and watched his son and son-in-law operate the old 1973 John Deere combine and grain truck while they cleared the fields.

It was the first harvest he had missed since he was a small child, and its significance weighed heavily on family members.

Mr. Spohr passed away Sunday after battling pancreatic cancer. The lifelong Elgin resident was 72.

"He was born and raised on the farm, and never left it," says his son, Craig Spohr of Waterman, who worked the farm with him in recent years. "We did everything the old-fashioned way, including picking the corn by hand and repairing all of the old farm equipment."

Mr. Spohr was the third generation to farm the 80 acres just south of Elgin. His son is the fourth generation to follow in the family tradition, raising corn and soybeans for local distributors.

The family's ancestors arrived in Elgin back in 1898, when Christopher Spohr purchased the farm from homesteaders. The German immigrant had tried farming in Iowa and Minnesota, but he found the conditions in rural Elgin more productive.

Family members say that while Mr. Spohr was growing up, they raised pigs, chickens and cows, and plowed the fields with a horse-drawn tractor.

"He was still milking cows when I met him," recalls his wife of 42 years, Janet Meier Spohr, who had grown up on a farm in Arlington Heights.

The couple met at the old Blue Moon dance hall in Elgin and were married in 1965.

They remained committed to farming the family's acreage, though Mr. Spohr supplemented their income by working off the farm at night, doing truck maintenance for Burren Transfer in Elgin.

One by one, the couple watched surrounding farms sell out to developers, but Mr. Spohr was determined to preserve his.

"We're one of only a couple left in the area," Craig Spohr says. "He had an attachment to it. We have such ties to the place."

In recent years, Craig Spohr worked with his father to repair the farm's buildings, including its old cow barn and horse barn, as well as the tool shed and farmhouse. Their last project together was restoring their combine.

Beyond farming, Mr. Spohr was an avid softball player, serving as pitcher in the men's fastball leagues. He also enjoyed boating and water skiing, which he did until he was 65, his son says.

Mostly, his family remembers his singing voice, and memories handed down of Mr. Spohr singing while riding his tractor.

"His mother always said she could hear his voice above the noise of the tractor," Janet Spohr says.

Besides his wife and son, Mr. Spohr is survived by his daughter, Sherri (Jeffery) Luscher of Sycamore, and his granddaughter, Samantha Luscher. Funeral services will take place at 10 a.m. today at St. Peter Lutheran Church, 43W301 Plank Road in Hampshire.