Back in the 1990s, my Grandpa Adams was interviewed by a local TV station and got to share our family’s story. He told of how Morgan Cockerell entered the deed to the land from the government in 1830, and how Morgan’s granddaughter, Anna, who didn’t have any children, left the original homestead to her great-nephew — my grandpa. 

Always good at telling the stories of history, Grandpa was even better at sharing life advice. The interviewer asked what the Missouri Century Farm program meant to him.

Dressed in his coveralls and a winter cap, he shared his thoughts:

“It shows continuity of people caring about an area and whether they farm the land, or whether they just live here and have a job off the farm. We lack a lot of stability in the world today. And I think it’s just when families have been in the same place for a hundred and fifty years, it shows that they believe in where they’re at and what they’re doing. You’ll find that these people are, you might say, the movers and shakers of communities because they’ve been there. People come and go, but those families are still there doing things in the community.”

This sentiment was echoed by one of the 2025 Angus Heritage Foundation inductees, Tom and Carolyn Perrier of Dalebanks Angus in Eureka, Kan. Carolyn didn’t grow up in a farming community, but when they were raising their family, she decided she would stay home and help out on the ranch. 

“It was a real learning curve, and the means that I had to get acquainted in the community was to join organizations,” she said in an interview for the honor.

Tom added, “You had to be involved because that affected your livelihood … in a small community, and that’s just something you did. You’ve gotta give back.”

This issue of the Angus Journal celebrates longtime Angus breeders along with the ones just beginning to write their own Angus heritage.

As we mark time through the stories of Angus families, we also mark the enduring spirit of those who believe in where they’re at and what they’re doing.