Des Plaines loses ‘last farmer’
The last link to Des Plaines’ rural past, Irvin Moehling, died Wednesday on the family farm at Rand and Wolf roads, where he was born more than 92 years ago.
Once 200 acres, only 2.5 acres remain of his family’s original farm.
“He was born in this house and he died in this house,” said his wife, Beverly Moehling. “His father was born in this house and died in this house. His great-grandparents bought this house in 1865.”
The farm was originally purchased that year by his great-grandparents, Johann Conrad and Engel Moehling. Later, Irvin became the youngest of four children born to Christ and Martha Moehling.
“He was the last farmer,” Beverly Moehling said.
The family still has farm buildings on the property, including the barn, smokehouse, milk house and the original farm house. The farmland itself was sold in 2007.
Moehling also distinguished himself through his heroism during World War II, when he served in the Army Air Corps Ninth Air Force as first pilot of a B-24 Liberator.
Based outside of Benghazi, Libya, in 1943, he was shot down near Lanciano, Italy, on his fourth bombing mission. He was then captured and held as a prisoner of war in Germany and Poland for 20 months.
Moehling was awarded two Purple Hearts.
After the plane was shot down, “He got everybody out, and he was the last one on the plane,” Beverly said, adding that he broke his leg and was knocked against a tree trunk while parachuting from the plane, leaving her husband paralyzed for 10 days.
“Then they put him in a hospital, and then the Germans took him,” she added.
She said Moehling and the other prisoners were liberated by American forces under Gen. George S. Patton.
After the war, he attended Northwestern University and received a degree in Mechanical engineering in 1948. He was employed briefly by Reynolds Aluminum.
He spent the rest of his career with Mark Controls Corporation of Evanston, where he was a vice president of purchasing, retiring in 1983.
In 1990, Beverly said, he returned to farming because his arrangement with a tenant farmer was no longer profitable.
This was easy for Moehling, a fourth-generation farmer who took great pride in maintaining the land and restoring the vintage equipment, said his wife. He mainly raised soybeans, but also raised some corn, too.
“(Farming) was very important to him,” she said. “In the spring and the fall, he wanted to make sure we were home, so he could plant the seed at the right time and then harvest it at the right time.”
Moehling received a state “Centennial Farm Certificate” in 1983, also, a city “Pioneer Certificate” in 1984.
By the time the farmland was sold in 2007, Beverly said, her husband was ready to retire from farming.
“He was a very realistic person,” she said. “It was time to move on. He really couldn’t make a living on the 16-18 acres that he was farming. That wasn’t enough.”
The original 200-acre farm had shrunk to 100 acres by the time Moehling’s father owned it. Beverly said the land was condemned seven times by school, park and sanitary districts for public purposes.
As an active member of Immanuel Lutheran Church for over 50 years, Moehling served as trustee and volunteered for many activities. He also served on the Des Plaines Plan Commission.
He loved to travel and visited many places around the world. He claimed to have visited 50 national parks and skied slopes in New England, Utah and North Lake Tahoe. Beverly said that when he couldn’t ski, he liked to ride a snow bike down the mountains.
Visitation is Monday from 3 to 8 p.m. at G.L. Hills Funeral Home, 745 Graceland Ave., Des Plaines, IL 60016. A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 855 Lee St., Des Plaines, IL 60016. Interment will be in Ridgewood Cemetery, Des Plaines. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Immanuel Lutheran Church Endowment Fund, 855 Lee St., Des Plaines, IL 600161.